Spore Could Have Been a Masterpiece (A Spore Retrospective)

In this Spore retrospective, we take a deep dive into the world of Maxis and explore how they created a universe with their groundbreaking game, Spore. Led by legendary game designer Will Wright, Maxis set out to create a game that would allow players to explore the mysteries of evolution and the vastness of space.
From the earliest stages of development to the final release, we examine the gameplay mechanics, design choices, and technical innovations that made Spore such a unique and memorable experience. We'll explore the five stages of evolution, from the humble beginnings of single-celled organisms to the rise of complex civilizations and spacefaring empires. We'll also take a look at the various gameplay elements that made Spore so engaging, from creature creation to interstellar exploration.
But that's not all - we'll also examine the legacy of Spore and its impact on the gaming industry. We'll discuss the game's strengths and weaknesses, its critical reception, and its enduring appeal to fans of all ages. And we'll delve into the mind of Will Wright, the visionary game designer who brought Spore to life and revolutionized the way we think about games.
So join us on a journey through the universe of Spore, and discover how Maxis and Will Wright created a game that captured the imaginations of millions.
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Chapters:
Introduction: 00:00
Cell Stage: 02:40
Creature Stage: 04:45
Tribal Stage: 06:42
Civilisation Stage: 08:38
Space Stage: 10:10
Retrospective & Thoughts: 11:23
Thanks and Updates: 14:55
If there are any games you would like to see on this channel, please comment them down below!

[@snickle1980]

I still remember the old 2005 GDC spore video before KZbin was a thing. These days, most people dont know about the potential that spore once had. Nice work.

[@11th-lemon]

I remember playing this game when I was a kid. Most of my species looked the same. The space stage was the most interesting one, but it was frustrating how after playing for some time you lost your freedom to do anything because everyone would keep calling you to solve all their problems, which were repetitive, required you to travel a lot and sometimes were insultingly trivial (like those nature disasters). As for the video, I wish you had analyzed spore a bit more. I feel like you only talked about the basics of each stage, which were probably already known by everyone who watched it. It would have been nice to learn about those scrapped mechanics too.

[@TheQuackingQuagSpy]

I just replayed Spore (up to about half of the space stage) to relive my younger days of playing it on my dad's laptop. As an adult, I really started to notice the things that kid me only picked up on subconsciously: the individual stages felt like they had no depth to them, especially the ones before the space stage. Back in the day, I used to love playing the civilization stage over and over, but always wished it had more content. What made it worse, is that there are two ways to preemptively end it (that being the final superweapon that isn't even that hard to get and the "We won! Let's unite!" thing that civs with one city do). It probably won't surprise you to read that I have about 350 hours in Civ 5. Now that I know what 4X games are, most of my issues are with the pre-space stages as a whole (with all of them being beatable within an hour, hell, probably even thirty minutes and feeling more like "unlock your space stage perks here" stages) and with the fact that the space stage feels like you're a one-creature empire, with the rest of your species... not really doing anything but giving you spice, selling every upgrade (at like double the price lmao) and getting struck by pirate raids and eco-disasters. It would have been cool to see your empire fighting or expanding without your influence, or at the very least send you invading fleets like how AI civilizations wage war. I get that Spore is, in essence, a true sandbox and that the AI civs will never really be at your level (especially not with the tech used in 2008), but at a certain point, it does feel like you're not *part* of a universe, but the sole reason why it runs. The NPCs feel less like actual NPCs and more like an ant colony that you are looking at as a human being. Ultimately I'm still generally positive about the game, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't mostly because of nostalgia reasons.

[@davisharper6704]

I played this game as a kid, and looking back on it now as an adult, I can definitely see it's flaws. EA definitely screwed over Will Wright and his creative vision for this game. But to this day I still praise this game's greatly in-depth creators that surpass most other games out there, and mods can make them even better, as well as fixing some issues in the overall game.

[@funnybones242]

Spore was actually a goated game when it released

[@ubbles1408]

Yo man, im not gonna lie. The content you just made, i would have sworn you had a few million subscribers. Keep up the great work! You have a fan!

[@simxander]

I think it's evident that the cell and creature stages were finished as well as all of the creators but then they found out that EA wanted Spore released and tribal, civ and space stages felt fast and underdone. This is even more evident when you look at just how detailed galactic adventures is, it's as if they had far far more time to do that expansion seen as there was less pressure. For tribal stage I'd have liked to see far more tribes, smarter AI and far more customisability for your village like having a farmers hut where they'd go out and tend crops or a hunters hut where they'd hunt automatically and meanwhile raiding/impressing other villages would be a much slower process and early 'diplomacy' would show up. In civ stage I'd have loved for you to not have to angle for a certain specialization and be able to create all vehicles from the get go. It all just needed to go far far more slowly so that diplomacy, trading and fighting over spice would mean something. Too often does one other civ just take everything over very quickly so if you ally with them by trade or a superpower they instantly end the stage. The stage just seems to end itself quickly when I feel it should be much longer and drawn out. Space stage? A more proactive empire that will invade planets and trade on its own, launch fleets to help you invade planets on request and improve its cities on its own. Patrol ships on your planet and more variation to the planetary governors. It generally needs more quests to do that are specific to archetypes and I think it would be really good if each and every archetype had its own mechanic and its own special ending. For example, perhaps a diplomatic empire would be able to form a space senate which they need everyone to get along with each other in and remain happy in to get them to join and stay - and get the canon ending to their races legacy if they get so many empires to join their senate. I think the most beautiful part of space stage is honestly going and visiting civ stage planets and watching them to see which nation wins.

[@dakotastein9499]

despite the hell teh franchise went through...the fact that poeple to this day still download this game despite its glaring flaws and setbacls prooves that while it didint live up to what it could have been,its still a diamond in the ruff and a masterpiece in its own right.

[@StellarAeon]

I loved your take on this, sir. Keep up the good work!

[@retro_today]

Thank you kindly!

[@growliff5998]

Awesome to see another upload, I like your editing.

[@retro_today]

Thank you very much!

[@daviddimitrov3696]

I wish someone would make a mod or something for spore that makes it more like the beta but there doesn't appear to be such a mod

[@dirtyunclehubert]

awesome content, brother. i REALLY enjoyed that and agreed on almost everything. thing is, we today bemoan how good IPs get destroyed by the big corpo publishers etc etc etc. but THIS was EA in 2008, this happened already then. this is not a contemporary issue, its been always like, "once corporations do it, it becomes gloogamuffin manure." also, it would be SO nice and easy to simply remaster, redo, relaunch SPORE. shhhhhh shouldnt have said it. i hear the massive perma-online multiplayer with ingame store remaster already coming........

[@Youmu_Konpaku_]

Hmm thanks for the retrospective, i am more curious about what spore could've been but the current spore is fantastic by itself

[@TubbzOfficial]

nostalgic asf, love it

[@Detank2002]

Very well done good sir

[@exodore2000]

I think the drm was even worse than that it would sometimes count updating windows as a reinstall.

[@pigoverlord8250]

Spore was what no man’s sky wanted to be, but now, no man’s sky is what spore wants to be

[@VoMetruToa]

14:25 What video was that?

[@retro_today]

Most of that footage is from the Alpha and Beta stages of Spore's development. You can find videos of Will Wright demonstrating them at various conferences and conventions on KZbin if you search "Spore Beta" or "Spore Alpha"

[@VoMetruToa]

@retro_today Yes, but not that specifically. I watch playlist with 148 videos of beta spore and none of them had that point of view on mechanics in game …

[@retro_today]

Had a look through the files for this project, and that specific clip is from Will Wright's TED Talk "Will Wright: Spore, birth of a game". You can find it on KZbin if you search for that title. The timestamp from my video is around 04:30 in the TED talk. Hope this helps!

[@VoMetruToa]

@retro_today Thanks men. Really appreciate 🙏

[@Mxdsleazy]

Ngl id play spire over most games now

[@Sir_Newkirk]

I hate that EA is just sitting on this IP and doing absolutely nothing with it. Sometimes I think this company just hates free money.