Will Wright LOVES user-content. It’s true. At his Spore conference at E3, he proclaimed loud and clear how his Sims2 franchise had just reached its 1 Millionth downloaded piece of user-content. He loves it so much, that it gave him an idea; an idea for his newest genre-breaking game, which is almost guaranteed to make us rethink gaming altogether.

The First Russian Doll

In order to properly illustrate the vastness of this game, I’ve decided to use a Russian Doll metaphor. However, one must imagine that you are inside the Russian doll, breaking out to reveal that you are, in fact, inside a much bigger doll.

The player starts this game, in what appears to be a rather rich and colourful game of Pac-Man…where the player is a small amoeba swimming through a tiny particle of water, feeding on other varieties of molecules. Some molecules, however, cannot be eaten in your current state, and can in fact do your character harm. After eating a certain amount of food, your character will "lay an egg" (I’m using it as a general term... I know amoebas cannot lay eggs).

Then the magic happens. This egg is the gateway to your character’s next generation. With the points earned, you can "buy" a new feature for your character from the massively expansive built-in editor. For example, my amoeba cannot eat the spiky brown molecules, so I decide to buy him a mouthpiece. Once I’m all done with the editor, I return to the game.

The camera pans out slightly, as in each new generation my character gets a bit larger, and I go hunting for spiky brown molecules, which I can now eat!

You then repeat this process, until...

The Second Russian Doll

We’ve broken out of the first doll, a very simplified tutorial to the editor, and we eventually find ourselves as a fully aquatic animal, in a full and flourishing underwater 3D environment. Everything you find in this environment: plants, rocks, landscaping etc. is completely (to use Mr. Wright’s terms) "Pre-seedrally" generated. The game randomly creates the landscape. The other characters, however, though still controlled through the game’s AI, have been created by other players, and downloaded directly into your game folders - the gaming experience is thus entirely dependent on the people who play it.

The concept here is still the same, you must feed until you "lay an egg" (somewhat more literally this time), and proceed to the next generation. However, there is an added dimension to the editor. Your characters now have a spine, which can be freely moulded and sculpted. Each added piece can be lengthened or thickened and placed anywhere on your character... the freedom that the editor offers is stunning.

Your character will most likely (but doesn’t have to) stray onto land, where the landscaping is again generated randomly, containing user-created creatures. Repeating this process of generation jumping by mating with other members of your species, you are continually saving up to buy a larger brain for your character. Once you have bought the largest brain, you have attained sentience, and you continue to...

The Third Russian Doll

Your creatures now work in groups, and have built a hut. You now lose the direct control of your character, and instead control a full tribe of them. They can hunt in groups, start fires (if you buy it for them) and develop weapons for themselves. Just like with the previous phase, you are saving up your accumulated points for bigger huts. Once you have bought the biggest hut, things turn into something not dissimilar to SimCity. You now have the ability to build buildings. Now, sticking to the theme of user content - you guessed it - every building you make is completely made by you - the style, the shape, the size, everything. Thus, so far, your player character, his species, and his city, have been completely made by you, with the game’s in-game editors.

In this stage, you are also competing with other cities (much like Civilisation). Alongside normal trade and interaction, there is also warfare, which, as you may have guessed, contains vehicles - land, air and sea - that are completely user made. Even at this stage, the game presents itself as a canvas for your creativity, shared with the rest of the world. Eventually, you will accumulate enough points to purchase the UFO, which leads you to...

The Fourth Russian doll

With this UFO, you can perform a multitude of actions (the more powerful ones are unlocked the further you progress). Perhaps one of the most interesting is abducting those species on your planet that once hunted your ancestors, and experimenting on them. The next level of the game is truly set however, in the bounds of space travel. The UFO can zoom out, and out, until your own planet is in view, where you can see all the different "countries" of your species. Zoom out further, and you can see your own solar system. A unique collection of planets, asteroids, comets, and moons around your own sun. All of which can be visited with your UFO.

What will you find there? Depends on the planet: Is it a desolate and icy planet at the far reaches of your solar system? Is it a molten planet at the forefront? Visit a neighbouring planet with your UFO; you may come into contact with another species (which are completely user made by other Spore players). How will you communicate? With a barrage of lasers? With your own attempted pidgin of sounds, in Close Encounters style? How will they receive your visit? Friendly trade, or full-on warfare?

However, if the planet you find is desolate, it is essentially another pallet for you to play with. No atmosphere? Easy, just use your own built-in volcano tool! Over time, an atmosphere will be created, and the planet could then sustain life. Until then, you can build your own colonies, neatly protected from the harmful pressure of space by a dinky little Jetson-esque bubble. Once safe to inhabit, a multitude of possibilities present themselves to you. You can turn the planet into a second home, or seed it with other species from various planets and see which one of them grows sentient first, and then trade with them. Eventually, once your UFO gets enough upgrades, you move onto...

The world beyond the dolls

As Will Wright said in describing Spore: in most conventional games, there is a sandbox mode to test out different playing methods, and then you move onto the real game. In that respect, Spore is the complete opposite. The player plays the game, in order to reach the Sandbox.

After exploring your own solar system, your UFO can eventually pan out even further, and reach your entire galaxy (and eventually a multitude of galaxies). The scope for play is utterly endless. What can you do with all this freedom? Perhaps you could find a horrid predator from some far off planet, and unleash it on your foes, destroying their ecosystems. Maybe your species wants to strive for complete galactic domination? Whatever you choose to do in Spore, the choice is completely yours. Using a powerful selection of in-game editors, the game focuses on your creative input, and those of other players around the world, to create a gaming experience that will, in true Will Wright fashion, turn the gaming world and the way we think about gaming, on its head.