14 DAY TRIAL // As already reported, the first add on pack for Spore will arrive on November 18 and is called The Cute & Creepy Parts Pack. A full expansion, which will bring other activities that you can perform during the Space stage, will arrive sometime in spring 2009. Electronic Arts is all serious about expanding the universe of Spore and the possibilities it offers.
1UP got a chance to speak with Lucy Bradshaw, general manager at Maxis and one of the driving forces behind Spore, and asked about the expansion and future plans regarding the franchise. The big thing revealed during the interview is that, at some point, the developers aim to give fans the power to create their own creature parts.
While saying that the focus is on creating more content for the game, Bradshaw accepted the fact that crowdsourcing the development of new parts to the public could prove more interesting than launching a new add on with creature sections each six months. She said that “We do have ways in which players can ultimately export files into Maya and other things -- these are things that we're working on polishing up and making sure we can release them to our community of players. Right now, because that pipeline is a very complex one, we're focused on adding to it ourselves” but added that there are plans to let players, at least those who have the 3D design skills required, create their own parts which can then be used in the game.
The developer has also acknowledged that the people at Maxis are very much interested in making you pick up an expansion for the game without having to own all the previous ones released. This means that each player can choose which expansions are interesting to him and only pick those up.