Spore Game Overview:

Spore is a multi-genre "massively single-player online game" under development by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social land-walking creature, to levels of interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation.

The full version of the game is due to be released on September 5, 2008 in Europe, and September 7, 2008 in North America and other territories. Spore will also be available for direct download from Electronic Arts on September 7.

Gameplay:

Overall, the game allows the player to develop a species from its beginnings as a microscopic organism to its evolution into a complex animal, its emergence as a social, intelligent being, to its mastery of the planet and then finally to its ascension into space, whereupon it interacts with alien species across the galaxy. Throughout the scope of gameplay, the player's perspective and indeed the player's species change dramatically.

It was necessary for the developers to break the game up into distinct yet consistent, dependent "phases". The outcome of one phase affects the initial conditions of the player's species in the next. Each phase, while housing the same creature and player, exhibits its own style of play, and has been described by the developers as ten times more complicated than its preceding phase. While players are able to spend as much time as they prefer in each, it is possible to accelerate or skip phases altogether.

There are three difficulty levels; Spore defaults to the easiest level.

Spore Platforms:

Spore is available on Windows, Mac, and appears to be available for Nintendo DS, and there will be some sort of mobile application as well.