I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I wrote five brief essays considering the five stages of "Spore." Late Friday I interviewed "Spore' creator Will Wright and asked him to share his thoughts on why each stage is essential. You can find his thoughts, shared during a half-hour phone call, at the end of this essay. This final installment of the series covers the Space Stage.

My Take:
With the launch of a rocket, "Spore" enters into a final stage that outlasts the previous four combined. The game's twin aspects -- gameplay and gawking -- come to balance. The choices about limb choice and food source that seemed so integral in the first two stages seem long-forgotten, possibly hidden into the game's code, subtly determining the course of the stage's events, or possibly discarded as largely unimportant. Read more...

I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I wrote five brief essays considering the five stages of "Spore." Late Friday I interviewed "Spore' creator Will Wright and asked him to share his thoughts on why each stage is essential. You can find his thoughts, shared during a half-hour phone call, at the end of this essay. This fourth installment of the series covers the Civilization Stage. The remaining Stage will be covered tomorrow.

My take:
The Civilization Stage is "Spore's" deep inhaled breath. It's a momentary constriction of the game before the vast widening of the last stage. It's the least "Spore"-ish stage, going by the standards that have been defined by the three stages that preceded it. Read more...

I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I wrote five brief essays considering the five stages of "Spore." Late Friday I interviewed "Spore' creator Will Wright and asked him to share his thoughts on why each stage is essential. You can find his thoughts, shared during a half-hour phone call, at the end of this essay. This third installment of the series covers the Tribe Stage. The remaining Stages will be covered over the next two days.

My Take:
As Tribe Stage begins, "Spore" changes its spots.

In the game's first two stages, the player is given direct influence over the evolution of the species they guide. At each moment of procreation they are sent to a character editor that allows them to bend spines, add arms, change mouths, alter skin tone and implement many other evolutionary alterations that affect the look, the attributes or the abilities of their creature. Success in the playing field leads to new basic abilities.

In Tribe, however, success in the playing field leads to a scripted upgrading of tribal village abilities: the permission to have one more resident in the tribe, the ability to construct a few basic buildings. Players can't affect the look of much of this. They can merely choose which of the buildings they might want. Buildings can provide weapons, musical instruments, or even fishing tools.

(Read on for the rest of my take and for Will Wright's.) Read more...

I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I wrote five brief essays considering the five stages of "Spore." Late Friday I interviewed "Spore' creator Will Wright and asked him to share his thoughts on why each stage is essential. You can find his thoughts, shared during a half-hour phone call, at the end of this essay. The second installment of the series covers the Creature Stage. The remaining Stages will be covered over the next three days.

My Take:
The opportunity to add legs to the player's "Spore" Cell Stage animal signals the beginning of the Creature Stage. This second stage is the first one that allows the player to decide that they may not like the game or that they're hooked.

(Read on for the rest of my take and for Will Wright's.) Read more...

I'm on vacation this week, but before I left I wrote five brief essays considering the five stages of "Spore." Late Friday I interviewed "Spore' creator Will Wright and asked him to share his thoughts on why each stage is essential. You can find his thoughts, shared during a half-hour phone call, at the end of this essay. This first installment of the series covers the Cell Stage. The next four will be published Tuesday through Friday.

My Take:
Cell Stage, the first playable stage of "Spore," is arguably the game's most successful section. It appears to come close to achieving all imaginable possibilities for controlling the phase of life it depicts, in this case that being life that hadn't yet walked on land.

(Read on for the rest of my take and for Will Wright's.) Read more...