Creature

From SporeWiki, the knowledge base dedicated to Spore

This article is an overview of how the player interacts with the game during different stages.

The term "creature" in Spore refers to the organism controlled by the player. The term is most of all relevant to the Creature stage, because that is the stage where the player controls a single creature. The creature begins as a micro-organism (microbe), however.

[edit] Microbe

A large Ducky hunts down a user-created cell and a school of Punki.

In the Cell stage, the player interacts with the world with a "cell" (although it is closer in appearance to a piece of zooplankton). The objective here is to consume food until the microbe "lays an egg". The player can then click the egg and then you can give different abilities to the cell in the Cell Editor by adding parts, ranging from stronger weapons to various forms of movement.

As the generations go on, the cell grows larger and the camera pulls out until the microbe becomes a multi-cellular organism, most often referred to as the creature.

[edit] Genetics

Each creature will have its own set of genetics, which is (in practical terms) the procedural code compressed to a small size which generates the 3D creature on a player's machine. It is unclear whether a creature's genetics can be manipulated purely through editing the genetics code, rather than through the Creature editor, which would be comparable to editing the data file of the creature instead of using the editor. Then, the creature dies and is reborn next year! No, sorry, I'm just kidding!

[edit] Creature size

Creature sizes can be adjusted by the player. Will Wright has previously suggested that the largest size will be elephant size and the smallest will be hamster size.

[edit] Types of creatures

[edit] Land

All of the creatures possible in Spore (with the exception of those in the Cell stage) are land-dwelling.

[edit] Amphibious

True amphibious creatures were cut from the final game, but all creatures can swim in water around the world.

[edit] Aquatic

Aquatic creatures are now confirmed as having been cut from the game. However, if a creature swims too far from shore, they are eaten by a sea monster.

[edit] Flying

Although confirmed by Will Wright in a Gaming Steve interview, the mechanics of flight in the game is not yet known. A flying species cannot build flying cities. However, according to various sources, flying creatures make land-based cities.

In the GDC 2005 presentation about Spore you can see a little creature flying away from behind a rock after the Willosaur escaped from the spidery creature and Will Wright says "...on the other hand this guy is kinda fast...", talking about his Willosaur. Also, a more defined bird-creature can be seen in the presentation as the Willosaur emerges from the water and onto land, the bird is seen on top of a tree and flies across to reappear again to fly above another tree and into the distance.

According to Gamespot it was seemingly impossible to create a flying creature during the E³ playable demo of the Create a Creature system.

Flying has been included in the game as seen by those who have played it(evidence on youtube)though it is not posssible to fly forever.

In a demonstration at Gadgetoff 2007, Will Wright created a winged-creature in the creature editor. Despite having large wings relative to its body size which displayed some functionality once in the game world, i.e. they flapped as the creature walked, the creature did not ever take flight. [1]

However an article published on the 13th of February 2008 at bit-tech.net claimed that placing wings on a creature would allow it to take flight.[2]

It is impossible to conclusively test out flight in the stand-alone creature creator, as there is no preview button for flight, such as the ones that exist for Punch or Hippity Hop (dance). The closest it comes is the creature stats panel, that will list flight as an ability beside Sight and Hearing if wings exist, though it cannot be tested. A similar ability to flight, the glide ability, can however be tested by pressing the corresponding button within the Creature Creator build mode. For creatures with a glide stat of 4 or below, this produces the same effect as the jump ability, but for creatures with a glide of 5, the action will actually take the creature off the top of the screen for a moment. How this will correspond to a possible flight mechanic in-game is yet to be determined.

In the final game true flight like amphibious creatures has been cut. Like Amphibious creatures an element of flight is still in the game with the creature creator having five types of wings that allow the players character to 'fly' for different lengths of time. Only the highest level wings allow a creature to achieve anything resembling true flight.

[edit] Subterranean

Subterranean creatures do not feature in the game

[edit] Arboreal

Aboreal creatures do not feature in the game.

[edit] Asymmetrical

Asymmetrical Creatures can be create with certain Modifications, but the only asymmetric creatures that appear with an unmodded game is The Grox.

[edit] Rolling or slithering

In an interview with Jonathan Coulton, Chaim Gingold confirmed that a creature with no "parts" could still survive and move, albeit as a small blob. This implies that slithering snakelike creatures are also possible. Blob creatures have also featured in a number of videos. [3]

[edit] Images

Creature with wings	Creature swimming	CreatureEmergenceFlying.jpg Emerging from the water	Creature hunting
Killing prey	An enemy arrives	Creature dragging while eating	Creature make love
Mating time