This Game Will Be Awesome
GameSpy has a neat article called Will Wright Presents Spore that documents a super-fantastic approach to game creation and gameplay.
Using deterministic, procedural algorithms in response to user-supplied data the game grows the creature and determines behavior based on its form. Awesome! I especially love the “massively single-player” aspect of downloading specifications for other players’ structures and creatures and populating the world with these buildings and beings. I cannot believe that I have to wait a year for this game to come out.
I’m also already thinking about ways I want to do this in my own as-yet-unnamed project… stay tuned. ( =
EDIT: Google video has a fantastic Spore gameplay video. 35 minutes long but so worth it.