Despite the hype, I haven't really been able to see what all the fuss is about with the upcoming game Spore. But after sitting down to play with the recently released Creature Creator the other night, I'm beginning to change my mind.
The Creature Creator is the part of Spore that lets you design a creature and see it come to life. There's nothing more to it than that, and I was a bit cynical about EA's decision to release it as a $10 download (although some stores will then give you $10 off the full game when it's released in September). However they've also released a free version (which has fewer bits to build your creature from than the $10 version), and it's that that I was playing with.
I only expected it to occupy me for half an hour or so, but in the end I spent a couple of hours with it, and will probably go back to it again. It was surprisingly fun and addictive playing around with different creature designs, and it's amazing how the game can then animate your creation.
Most cunning of all is how the designs are actually saved in the image of the creature itself. This means you can just save the thumbnail (like the one above) to your desktop, then drag and drop it into the Creature Creator to see it move or use it as the basis for a creature of your own. Clever stuff.
More of my creations here.
