14 DAY TRIAL // Finally, after years of development, Electronic Arts and Maxis (the guys behind the Sims series of video games) can finally confirm that Will Wright's latest project, Spore, is due out for Macs on September 7th, this year. The "God game" is one of the few in its genre to arrive on Mac.
"The wait is almost over," said Maxis Chief Designer, Will Wright. "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year."
Spore is a simulation that "ranges from the molecular phase to the galactic phase." It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. Will Wright, the game's designer, also mentioned in an earlier interview that he wanted players to be able to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in each stage - one of the reasons for which development took so long and delayed the game's release. For example, if a person likes a certain stage more in their creature's life, the game will not force the player to move on until he/she is ready.
Spore is a "teleological evolution" game, "God game" genre to be precise, where the player's task is to mold and guide a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex being. Eventually, the species becomes sapient at which point the player sets the rules of that species' society. The goal is to progress the living being (intelligent at this point) towards space-exploration.
Spore's main innovation is the use of procedural generation for many of the components of the game, providing vast scope and open-endedness, something that your powerful MacBook Pro or iMac will handle perfectly. System specs aren't available yet, but as soon as they're disclosed, be sure to hear it from us first.
Fans can visit Spore's official website to sign up for the Spore newsletter and check out a recent batch of screens and a new video of the game in action.