Spore, the game, and how I will abuse It's power!!

[Gamma]

In case you have been hiding under a rock to hide from video gaming news, or another such problematic condition, you might not know about the new game Spore that is going to release this September.
I won't go into many details for those of you who know about it.

The creature editor is slated to be given a free trial and $9.99 purchase release on June 17th.
The editor will allow you to create your very own creature that is supposed to be based on evolutionary reasoning.
Pffft! Since one of the beta testers has made a creature that can boink itself, I think that idea's out the window.

When released I plan on trying at least four things with it.
1. Create my own creature as intended.
2. Try and create a human or being like creature, just for giggles.
3. Create a !
4. Create a Death Night.

The editor is pretty powerful, it seems. Unfortunately I think I will only succeed in numbers 1 and 3. The editor has large sets of stock extremities and sensing organs, but nothing so far appears close to things of this world, except for beaks.
You get to mold and shape the body and basic skeletal structure yourself. Beyond that though you can't create your own eyes, mouth, etc. At least yet. I have a feeling that will change with user addons or something.
As far as Angels, Demons, and Cubi are concerned, the wings are there. I've seen videos with feathered and fleshy wings being looked at, hardly used though. But the same anatomical problems exist with creating them aswell.

I don't even think you could create a cow in Spore, least one that doesn't look like it's from Chernobyl.

It would be fun to find your creations as well. 
Btw, the creature editor includes automatic video uploading to a Youtube account.

[Reese Tora]

probably that will change with the full version...

I downloaded the trial, but it requires a patch to my verison of DirectX, and Microsoft.com wants me to install thier nasty WGA software(nothing doing!) to get the patch from them(I suspect I can get it fixed by isntalling one of my newer games, but meh), so I havn't tried it yet.

I saw a video from someone who has already used it to create a "cerberus" creature, it looked pretty good.  I suspect that anything that requires bits to float free of the main body of a creature will not be doable, but otherwise it'll probably be fairly easy to make whatever you want with the components given.

[Gamma]

Ehh, My initial impressions of the possibilities are pretty limited with the Trial version.
I am trying to get more content via other means. The data folder is simple enough to dump into for more options.

I have created two things, neither look much like a Mow, human, or anything existing on this planet.
Unfortunately that seems to be the whole point. Not to create anything familiar.
While that's really good in and of itself, it just stifles the imagination some.

Still I by this trial alone I am confident the game will rock hard!
Unless there is a massive flaw, like BNW2's dumb ass creatures.

[thegayhare]

In my experiments with it

I've created a number of creatures

two of which had the smallest amounts of spine possible in the body
this gave you a perfect sphere when plumped up.

I then addes a number of segmented legs

I created a johnny quest like walking eye and a big green insect with six legs and hug pincers

I also made a yellow Ape-like creature that looks an awful lot like homer simpson.  and unfortunatly I didn't take any photos of it and forgot to save it.  I'll be trying to re crete it later

I also had fun creating creatures with limbs that have multiple jionts and bifracating limbs

I made a spider thing that had fully formed arms growing from his front knees, and a four legs in the back that sprouted from a single pair of knees.  I took some video of him and he's a great dancer.

I'll be uploading that video to you tube soon

[Gamma]

After eating and taking another crack at it with the new assets; I have made something that could resemble a Mow if you had really bad eyesight and was deaf.

Side View
Nasty little spud; isn't he.

The mouth is the biggest detractor in my mind. There isn't one thats just a simple mouth. They all look odd, this ones for a primate. That's where the deaf part comes in.
Video, If you Dare!

Many limitations, no fur, no specific coloring (that's why the things antenna look weird for a mow, among other parts), designing your own parts.
They built procedural animation technology for this thing, least they could do is give you a more advanced editor to make your own parts or something.
But that's nitpicking. The scope of the game is going to be much larger then this.

[thegayhare]

Here is my spider thingy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBEW0vfN_zI

and here is Homer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLLxnPLjns0

[thegayhare]

Well I wouldn't be me If I hadn't tried this
and I'm sure none of you nice folks will be suprised I'd do something like this so enjoy


Warning these links are rated mature
I've named this creature Willy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg7SWSccS0E

[Gamma]

He he. I created a perverted thing myself but got rid of it immediately.
You might traumatize a kid or something with this kinda thing you know.

The Mowish creation looks more like crap every time i see it.
Human and Beings, something similar but still very alien has come out of it.
Death Knights are almost impossible because everything is to soft and round. No hard corners to work off of.

I did create something I'm pretty proud of out of the DK attempts. At work right now so no sharing.

[Tezkat]

Heh... YouTube is being flooded with animated penis monsters... and worse! (Spore goatse, anyone? )


But the creature editor is hella fun. Can't wait for the full version to come out. That complexity cap is really annoying though. Gotta pick and choose what to leave in for really interesting creature concepts. 

Since we've started on DMFA themed creatures... how about a random cookies and cream coloured inky bus?

[thegayhare]

wait there are other penis monsters out there besides my Willy?
oddly I found out willy also has a spit attack... how apropriate


*pouts*
I guess I'll just leave assy on my machine then

*giggles*

now thats a cool Able there
though the face reminds me a bit of Jar jar
How did you manage to merge the limbs to make the wings

[Tezkat]

wait there are other penis monsters out there besides my Willy?

Thousands.

now thats a cool Able there
though the face reminds me a bit of Jar jar

Yeah... It's really hard to make proper feline or canine faces. The only usable shapes for those sorts of creatures are the repitilian ones. They gave us fish, pigs, birds, lizards, monkeys, and weird insectoid things... but no kitties. (I also ran out of complexity points for detailing like ears, etc.)


The eyes annoy me, as well. All of them bulge out, which it more difficult to design the less cartoony creatures.

How did you manage to merge the limbs to make the wings

One "feature" of Spore's editor is that placing bodyparts too close to each other makes them "sticky"--when the mesh renders, they'll have a skinfold between them. Most of the time, it's annoying, but you can exploit it to create really cool wings.

Here's a less complex wing design on one of my other critters which demonstrates the effect more clearly:



To make Cubi style wing tendrils, just add extra "fingers" to the wing frame and stick tentacles on the ends.

[thegayhare]

okay I think I fit it.  you place two limbs real close then maybe switch it over to test drive so that locks the skin flap in place so you can move the limb and strech the flap.

How did you do the head wings they certainly don't look like stocl parts.  Is that actualy small limb pieces?

I might use that on my octobush

the bad part of that is that you don't get the benefits of a in game wing

the ingame wings let you glid and add to your jump.

I've been playing with making creatures with more then one head.  It's hard to get the eyes right on a dual head  simply because of the placement  It'll put one eye on each head  so you can't use anything with eye brows

Edit I just realised a name like Octo bush sounds a bit pervy specily since I was just talking bout Willy.  But It's not ment to be It just refures to it's color scheme and muiltiple limbs

[Tezkat]

okay I think I fit it.  you place two limbs real close then maybe switch it over to test drive so that locks the skin flap in place so you can move the limb and strech the flap.

Not quite. You can't move them apart again in the editor if you want to keep the extra skin. The stretching effect results naturally from animating the limb. However, the animations on the wing will be weird unless the joints end in either all mouths or all hands. 

How did you do the head wings they certainly don't look like stocl parts.  Is that actualy small limb pieces?

Nope. You can't make limbs that small. They're the "Megachiraptera" part (the third column wing--75 DNA, Jump +1, Glide +2).  You need to blow $10 on the full version of the CC to get access to that.

the bad part of that is that you don't get the benefits of a in game wing

the ingame wings let you glid and add to your jump.

Not a big deal. The little doggy thing above has nearly max jump just from his advanced feet. You could add wings as decorative features (back fins, headwings, etc.) or hide them inside other bodyparts if you want to buff those attributes. (I did something similar on the doggy--gem-studded collar = super stealth. ) Based on on the sample animations, the real wings don't even flap when you glide anyway.

[thegayhare]

I've made my first realy serous creature

It's based off a monster I imagined for one of my stories...

I call him a Gigant

[Gamma]

Arghh. TF2 cuts into everything. 

This is the Death Knight inspired creation of mine, Tobon.

Side, Back, Vid.
Currently I'm just focusing on the ascetics of the creations. I'll get to strategy when I have the game.

You can see the general build is like a Death Knight but its way too "soft" all the way around. So I just tweaked it some.

I had one named Serro that was a little blob like insect with multiple jaws and quiet as a mouse. I uploaded it to them but its no longer within my creations. I did however include those 75% addons right after its creation. But the Mowish stayed put so I don't know what to think about that.

About the Abel like creature, that's exactly why I destroyed my attempts. I can only look at Mowish because of the thoughts of real Mows it conjures, the babies actually look slightly cuter. Otherwise its a great attempt.
The game is just to limited for our "advanced" needs.

I am really glad they released this so soon. I was worried that when it shipped there would only be a handful of stock creatures to battle. Who knows which ones you'll find now.

[thegayhare]

To harden the soft edges a bit you might try something like I did on my Gigant and Deathchain to simulate armor.

there are 2  bone plates that can be streched and sqaushed into something that might fit your needs

[Tezkat]

Damn, this thing is addictive. Took a shot at modeling some DMFA girls...



Welcome to my shop of magical homes!



Stare and be amazed!

[Shadrok]

Ok I couldn't resist I had to try the game out, and like Robin Williams when he played with the creator, I think I broke it in my first try.



Though I don't think I did as bad as he did, his just refused to add the kids and froze. Mine just maimed and disfigured them.

[thegayhare]

I've found the easiest way to make a humanoid shap is to use very little of the actual body
you can build a very good looking human like body using parts of limbs rather then the body supplied 

[Gamma]

Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that. The spine/body is just limited to spheres and ovals. Very bad and not that close to what evolution could throw at you.

Again haven't played with it much lately. Got home from work yesterday and just slept for three hours then got up and played with the pyro's new stuff on TF2.

I really do like the creature editor but with 75% of all stuff, I think I'll manage till September.
The only thing I haven't heard or looked for is if we can take these creations and use them in the game or are we just building the content of enemy wildlife we go up against in the finished product.
I think it's both so I should get to see how Mowish and Tobon work out in the wild.

[Tezkat]

Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that. The spine/body is just limited to spheres and ovals. Very bad and not that close to what evolution could throw at you.

It's just spheres, I think. It looks like there's a spherical field extending out of each spine joint which interacts with its neighbours to determine the shape of the base mesh.

They're operating under amazing constraints with respect to how complex the creatures can be. All of the creature data is stored steganographically in the 20-30KB PNG files containing their pictures. The actual data for each creature only takes up a few KB. And the game needs to figure out how to animate the whole thing.

I really do like the creature editor but with 75% of all stuff, I think I'll manage till September.
The only thing I haven't heard or looked for is if we can take these creations and use them in the game or are we just building the content of enemy wildlife we go up against in the finished product.
I think it's both so I should get to see how Mowish and Tobon work out in the wild.

Creatures from the CC will be compatible with the release game, both for personal use and for sharing. The sporepedia is already full of user-created beasties we might meet come September.

Of course, you'll need enough DNA points and brain upgrades in order to use the parts.