/games/ - Games

I played Spore once, wasn't very fun. That's all I have to say about this.

>>28153
The editors had more of a learning curve than what was supposed to be the most complex stage of that game, Space Stage, which was just flat out boring except for maybe terraforming and blowing planets up. Figuring out various functions, shortcuts and even alternate uses for parts in order to create more complex shapes in creatures was on the other hand a lot more fun and rewarding for me. Wish I still had my creature .pngs from back then, but they sadly got wiped when I reinstalled the system.

I have fond memories of Spore, so I want this game to succeed, but fundamental problem with Spore is unavoidable - effectively it consists of 5 separate games. Inevitable the end result is going to be very shallow. Especially for a small indie team, there is just no way they are going to have resources to deliver on the promise of "evolution simulator".

>>28154
IIRC space stage basically required you to do everything yourself instead of having some kind of 4X management system. The whole game felt very incomplete.

>>28155
If they just focused on the cell/creature stage then it could work.
Tbh the way games do early access these days they could just start with the most basic stage and try to get traction and then push an update that's like a soft "sequel" that adds the next stage. Maybe release it as DLC or something and a bundle package to attract new players.

>>28157
They seem to be basically laying out the skeleton of the game right now, then after that they are going to flesh it out stage by stage. So far it seems their next goal is to release the creature editor and the cell stage in the next few demo updates, polish these with help of public feedback and then gradually go on to making a creature stage demo.

A good Spore succesor it's too much to chew for an indie game developer. One of these projects should be bought by a bigger studio that can sets limits and deadlines to not let it turn into a never ending alpha.

Hello Games said months ago that they are working on their next game after No Man's Sky, and that it is "big". With their work on procedural generation, and their contacts among high profile game publishers like Sony, they could be developing a Spore 2 right now. And I would trust them more cause they actually have shipped a game.

>>28162
"Spore but good" might actually make sense with open source development.

>>28155
>it consists of 5 separate games
This is what killed Spore for me when I found out about it several years ago. A simulation of life evolving sounds cool, but I don't want it to turn into a RTS/4X game halfway through. Someone else mentioned a game that just focuses on the cell/creature stage and I'd prefer that.

>>28164
> A simulation of life evolving sounds cool
That wouldn't be a very fun game as the player wouldn't have anything to do.

>>28164
Seems like Thrive, Niche and SPECIES: ALRE might be more up your alley then. Thrive currently only has the microbe stage but a very complex one, while Niche and Species focus solely on creature evolution with new traits being automatically evolved based on environment and player's actions during gameplay.

>>28164
>>28166
The problem is that Spore and its "spiritual succesors" have an identity crisis. Wanting to be a game about evolution that even teaches biology while being a GOD SIMULATOR where you CREATIVELY DESIGN your creature is nonsense. A creature creator game can never be an evolution game. That is why some devs supported designing Spore to be cute and bubbly, beacuse makinjg it educational is impossible. Niche and Species are a good example of games about biological evolution done right. Thrive suffers from that identity crisis. A good creature creator game should drop the pretense of being about "creating your universe" and "explaining evolution" and instead tell a fantasy story with entertaining gameplay or something.

>>28162
i got nms because I heard it was "fixed" and "good" but found it was an incredibly boring shit with lackluster mechanics, wouldnt trust their devs for anything

>>28169
Procedurally generated with a focus on resource gathering and doing other generic MMO tier quests is almost always a recipe for bad time.

>>28168
Yeah, I always thought that Maxis bit more than they could chew and Spore would probably be a much more coherent game if the project was split into a straightforward alien evo sim with just the Cell, Underwater and Creature stages and no creature editing, and a game that would be basically the Space stage redesigned as a pulpy sci-fi 4X-RTS hybrid with a species designer and whatnot.

>>28165
The player's actions as the creature could influence the ecosystem or selection pressures on their species. If you cheese a particular food source you might drive it extinct and then make it harder to survive yourself. Or if you die a lot the cause of death could affect what traits are in your species' gene pool.

Aquatic stage prototype showcase dropped just a day ago, as well as new version of the microbe stage demo.