It hasn’t taken long for “Spore” users to start cranking out content. Much of it has been interesting, a few disturbing, and some were taken down (hint: phallic creatures).

But that’s partly what Dan Moskowitz, a software engineer at EA Maxis and lead programmer on the “Spore” creature editor (we featured some of his creations yesterday), anticipated when their tool was let loose on the public.

“The editor is so flexible, it’s almost like putting a kind of paintbrush in people’s hands,” he told me over e-mail. “I expect we’ll see some jaw-dropping works of art, some hilariously funny, some edgy, maybe even controversial creatures.”

He even expects some folks to spend up to 20 hours on a single creation.

I sat down with the “Spore” creature editor for the first time while during a press event last week at EA Maxis. This is where Moskowitz and the rest of the “Spore” team have been toiling over bringing Will Wright’s latest vision to fruition. He was understandably anxious to see the creature editor released to the public.

But I was anxious, too. I’m not an artist, and I was asked to “create” something while a bunch of people, “Spore” developers included, looked over my shoulder. In spite of my anxiety, my creature turned out awesome. Several “Spore” developers even asked me to save it, so it became part of the official Sporepedia.

Given that most users won’t be playing with the creature editor in front of anyone but themselves, Moskowitz doesn’t think others will have the same problem I did.

To ensure that “Spore” was accessible to the everyday user, however, Moskowitz explained what EA Maxis calls the “Kleenex test.”

“[We use] the term Kleenex because once we test a user, they are ‘tainted’ like a used Kleenex and we can’t test with them anymore,” he said. “These don’t have to be long, formal analysis – most of the time we’ll grab an engineer, artist, or producer from another part of the team and say ‘Here, have a seat, try this.’ You can usually find out if the specific feature you’re testing works within seconds of watching.”

The “Kleenex test” is being used by Moskowitz and the “Spore” team to iron out the kinks in all of “Spore”’s editors. Many more will ship with the full version of “Spore” in September, including editors for building, space ships, among other things.

“Making the game has been a long process, but the team wants to finish so we can not only play but see what players can create,” he said. “It’s an amazing feeling to finally be able to release the editor and say to the public ‘Here you go, now show us what you can do!’”

Chances are your reactions to this editor will influence how they polish off the others. In essence, this seems like one big “Kleenex test” for EA Maxis.

On that note, I think I need to take a shower.

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