Will Wright on Spore: 'it’s too much hype'

Courtesy of Game Informer. In a recent interview the site had with him, Wright spoke of the unease he feels concerning the amount of positive press that Spore has received.

From the horse's mouth:

"I think it’s too much hype. About a year ago, we were realizing how much hype we were getting and we decided we should start to say that it’s going to suck just to de-hype it. That is a certain amount of pressure. When people don’t know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way you want them to be filled in. That’s true of almost anything. Then, when the actual thing comes out some people will be disappointed that it’s not 'hardcore enough' or it’s not 'easy enough' or that we didn’t do this or that. We’ve gotten to that point any additional hype isn’t serving us well. It’s a concern."

To be worried about something as beneficial to sales as hype shows true dedication to the game that Maxis are making and the experience of the end-user. It's reassuringly honest coming from a man so high up in the developmental food-chain.

Check out the full interview here for more info on the upcoming release.

UPCOMING 2008 - Spore

To begin with, Spore interested me very little. As someone who's never been particularly fond of Maxis franchises, I could have been mistaken in assuming that this would be another Sims. However, as time has gone on and along with the release of the fantastic Creature Creator, I can now see the potential that this game clearly has to offer. Despite the gaming press swarming all over the project for some years now, it's still a little hazy to me as to how the game will actually function. The five stages, from the point at which your creature crashes onto a planet encased in a meteorite to the final stage of space exploration, seem to embrace a variety of different genres, including arcade-action, strategy and simulation. It's an intriguing prospect and right now IGN are running a series of explanatory videos to show the game in more depth. Worth keeping an eye on.

Of course, anyone who is half-interested in the game will at least have tried out the Creature Creator Demo which was released in June. It's hard not to love a tool that let me create a donkey with large bollocks and a spiky cock. His name is Ned.

As well as being simple to get the hang of, the program provides a lot of hidden depth to the creation of animals as hideous or as beautiful as your imagination will allow. The animation is spot on for whatever freak you wish to bring into the world and it's hard not to feel something for the little scamp as he moves about the screen.

In related donkey cock news, PC Gamer US magazine editor Kristen Salvatore was given a hearty slap by EA recently when her creature, Boobalicious was pulled up for being the first to breach the terms and conditions of the online Sporepedia. Check out this link for the full story.