Creature Phase

The Tide Phase is followed by the Creature Phase, a much more dynamic environment than the one our organism first began its journey in. This phase is marked by larger diversity of creatures and a tightly controlled balance between the population of herbivores and carnivores. You can think of it this way, the surface is suppose to be a self sustainable area; if you have too many herbivores they will devour all the green life, however if too many carnivores are present they will quickly kill all the herbivores and they will eventually starve. The Spore backend actively maintains an appropriate level of both. It also actively adjusts the strength of these creatures based upon the strength of your own organism. The stronger you become, the stronger everyone else is as well. When I said the phase was dynamic, it goes beyond the herbivore/carnivore ratio, the world is actually inhabited by entirely player generated creatures. This is also to say that your own creature is being transfered to other games played by other players as well. You can keep track of how your creature is doing through Sporepedia.

This phase also introduces the powerful creature creation editor. Like the Tide Pool phase, as you complete tasks, eat and grow your organism acquires DNA points. These points can be spent to upgrade your organism in a variety of ways. What makes the creature editor so fun is its versatility, you can create literally anything that you want; from a present day tiger-like creature to a Care Bear. Your creatures won’t only look unique, the way they move will be as well. Their gait and attack moves are completely dependent on you designed your creature. This feature is arguably the most enticing of Spore - the ability to create an almost endless number of unique creatures is astounding and it will surely push everyone’s imagination. How you decide to design your creature will also help determine it’s food supply, whether it will be a herbivore, omnivore or carnivore very much depends on the type of mouth you give your creature. Creatures themselves have five distinct attributes: Attack, Health, Speed, Social and Stealth. You can also acquire a number of skills as you progress.

While this phase, at its core, plays a lot like like the tide pool - it has a few differences (gameplay wise). As you may know, unlike unicellular organisms (namely bacteria), animals/creatures must find a mate to procreate. This holds true in Spore, in your quest to produce offspring you will have to find a compatible mate, turn on some romantic music (it’s a nice feature) and engage in sweet love. An egg will then be laid and eggs are easy target for scavengers, you will have to protect until it is hatched. Once the egg hatches, you then become the small hatchling. If you have enough DNA points, at this point you are given the option of modifying your creature.

There are a few caveats, there will not be any underwater creatures - your last time spent in water is at the end of the Tide Pool stage. However, it remains a possibility that flying creatures will be available as their has been evidence of their existence in recent previews. Regardless, there will be Spore expansions, therefore you can probably expect that anything interesting absent from the game will find itself added at a later point.

Eventually, as your creature’s brain increases in size and earns the capacity to understand its own existence you will move into the Tribal phase. A stage that entirely different than Tide Pool and Creature phases. It is a switch away from what is essentially a role playing game to a real time strategy.

Interface & Windows

1. Species Box - Supplies the name of the species you are interacting with
2. Relationship - Informs the player of the species’ standing with the creature on a five point scale
3. Sporepedia - Opens Sporepedia, the encyclopedia/social networking service
4. DNA Points - Acquired through completing tasks, can be spent to upgrade the creature
5. Progress Bar - Unknown, although it appears to show the number of generations having past and how long until the creature can mate (end of block). This is speculative though.
6. Communication Abilities - Appears to be communication/relationship abilities
7. Call - Call other creatures to you (note: the icon may actually be the ’sing’ ability, to befriend other creatures)
8. Attack Abilities - Access offensive abilities