There's something to be said for keeping quiet about your game until it's ready to be shown to the public. After all, when Fable – an otherwise excellent game – failed to deliver on the lofty promises Peter Molyneux had been making for years, the backlash was tremendous. Now there's a sort of stigma attached to the brand, where people are immediately skeptical of anything coming out of Lionhead Studios – you have to wonder how Fable would've been received had Peter just shut his trap.
And then there's Spore. When a twinkle-eyed Will Wright first demoed the game at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, he showed the world things that made even Peter Molyneux seem unambitious. Sim Everything, they called it. A veritable genre melting pot, Spore looked to offer something for everyone – and with its user-generated content, everyone had something to offer Spore. The best laid plans of game developers often go awry, and with aspirations like these, this game was most certainly doomed.
It's been three years since we first saw Will Wright's creature crawl out of the primordial muck and evolve into an intergalactic conqueror, and we're finally starting to see those plans come to fruition. Spore's standalone creature editor released earlier this week, and while it remains to be seen whether or not the actual game will be any good, it's safe to say that the suite of tools at the game's core are both staggeringly powerful and intuitive. While there a couple of small annoyances – like forced symmetry and the inability to color individual parts – there's still an unprecedented level of creative freedom here. It's also served as proof that this type of software has the potential to be very, very successful – within a matter of days, the Spore community has generated over 600,000 creatures.
To illustrate the flexibility of this editor, we've compiled a sampling of some of the Spore community's best (and most ridiculous) offerings. One thing's for sure: when the full version of the game drops in September, there'll be no shortage of man-made abominations to populate it.
Thank whichever deity you prefer that things like this Gnawlore are confined to Mighty183's imagination rather than reality.
There is a very special place in my heart for Tiger pig here. Thanks, Bomber989!
This extraordinary beast goes by the rather unremarkable name of Eric Wilson, and was created by mikeal.
Brokkoko looks like more of a boulder than a living thing. I'd ask Boromir about it, but he's German. Go figure.
Deadman128 brings us the aptly named Monkey Riding Hippo.
It's also a little surprising that – despite having the freedom to create anything imaginable at their fingertips – people will very frequently opt to pay tribute to other people's creations. At this point, it seems likely that 30% of the planets in Spore's universe will be inhabited by Pokemon.
Every game with user-generated content needs a Bowser. This one is provided by boggy.
And a Bowser without an army of Goombas is, well, still pretty awesome. This wide-eyed Goomba is courtesy of KracKiwi.
Anonymous3rdpty brings us his interpretation of Futurama's Dr. Zoidburg. Hide the anchovies.
“That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange æons even death may die.” Edman's take on Cthulhu is somewhat less horrifying than the lore would suggest.
Threesideddie's Yellow Pikmin looks like he could use a nap, or at the very least, some Visine.
Remember that terrible Star Wars prequel with the podracing scene? Lgoodman does.
Almost everyone's drawn one of these at some point in their life, but MaxisKate's 2nd Grade Thanksgiving Turkey is decidedly jacked up in the flesh.
Then there are the people who've stretched these tools to their absolute limit, forging things that are well outside the software's intended purpose. The vehicular creatures in particular are especially puzzling, considering how they tend to actually move slower than anything with legs – and that the full game is supposed to have a separate vehicle editor included.
He may not be as cuddly as the ones in the Pixar flick, but rybolton's Caracreature gets the job done.
You probably live in something a lot like what ShampooRobot has made here. If your home starts to breathe like Houseur, call your local exorcist.
Antiklaus loves Lamp.
Hedanito's Locomotief actually moves a lot like cartoon trains. Nifty.
You couldn't pay me enough money to go channel surfing with this fleshy remote. Nice try, ZorbatheHutt318.
Blinkett appears to have a thing for coffee. I'm more of a Mountain Dew man, myself.
This urinal monster by TehTpyoKing lords over the mens room with its unsettling, toothy drain.
Lastly, here's my recreation of the disembodied head of the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren.
Comments
No Comments
Please login to post a comment. Not a member? Please register.
There is a very special place in my heart for Tiger pig here. Thanks, Bomber989!
