Spore is a game made by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. In 2008, Spore was released for Windows and Macintosh. Today, the game is available for Wii, PC Games, Web, Xbox 360, PS3, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and Mobile.
The game has many genres like RPG, strategy and action. This game lets the player have control over the development of an organism from the cellular level to a whole and intelligent creature. The player can make the organism evolve and to explore water, land and the space between the star systems within a galaxy.
This is a very fun game that teaches players the most important ideas of Charles Darwin like The Survival of The Fittest and how Natural Selection favors certain organisms to evolve and survive through many stages (generations) until he becomes so strong that he can conquer the galaxy.
The Cell Stage
This the first stage of the game, teaches the scientific concept of panspermia (in Greek pan means “all” and spermia means “seed.” The hypothesis of panspermia tells that the life on Earth originated from seeds of life that are all over the universe). The concept of panspermia is shown by the crash of a meteor in the ocean of a planet giving origin to a prokaryotic (single cell) organism.
The organism has to evolve in order to progress. The player has to guide the prokaryote through a liquid environment, where it can find other simple organism to eat or big predators that can eat him. The player can decide if the creature will eat plants or meat. Later on, the creature evolves and can eat both.
The eating habits that the organism acquires in the cell stage directly influences the next stage (creature stage). Only feeding structures (for plants, meat or both) that the creature uses in the cell stage will be available for the creature stage. However, the player can change the feeding structures of the creature before entering the creature stage.
As the creature evolves, the player will have to add legs for the transition to land. When the creature is out from the water will join a nest with other nest mates.
The Creature Stage
The creature stage contains different animal species. This stage shows and teaches the distinction of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. In other words, the player can find animals that eat meat, plants or both. In this stage the player has to take care of the health and hunger of the creature.
When the creature explores the land will find other kinds of creatures with their nests. Some creatures will be powerful and will have los of babies or others will be weak. The player can decide if the creature will be friendly or attack the creatures. If the player is friendly to the other creatures, they will be friendly with him, but if the player attacks them, the creatures will get very angry and attack him.
This is a very good way to teach the concept of Natural Selection to the players. The most powerful creatures are the ones that have more mates and can reproduce more successfully than others. The players will learn the importance of “The Survival of the Fittest” between different species on land.
Equally important, the player will learn that the only way of species to survive is in a group. Like Charles Darwin would say, they will never make it alone. He will learn this by socializing and hunting with other creatures.
The more time that the player socializes with other creatures; the more points that he will get and his DNA will become stronger. The interaction with other creatures will allow the player to form a pack that will follow him and help him to fight or to heal.
The importance of reproduction is observed in the game. Reproduction has a very important role in evolution. In the game, the player has to mate his creature with other members of the nest (they have to be from the same species otherwise they cannot mate).
After the creature mates, the player can change the creature and make it stronger and totally different from the old version. This will show how a new and a stronger generation can be the result of a successful mating.
The creature’s brain will evolve and become more intelligent as the player socializes and hunts with other creatures. When the creature intelligence has reached a certain point, the player enters the next stage.
The Tribal Stage
In this stage the biological development of the creature stops. The player cannot longer control the individual creature. From here on, the player has to take care of the whole species or tribe. The player will have a hut and a pack of evolved creatures to play.
The creatures can interact with other tribes and learn to speak. Other creatures can be added to the pack like pets that will make eggs for food and the creatures can wear clothes, use tools and musical instruments.
Creatures give birth to babies that will become members of the tribe. When they grow, they can gather food, attack other tribes, hunt for food and become friend of other tribes.
The player will face 5 different tribes. Three tribes are aggressive and the player can decide to be friendly or to attack them. A piece of a totem pole is built for every tribe that is destroyed or became a friend.
The sculpture will allow the player to increase the tribe population number or will provide more tools for the population. When the totem pole has 5 pieces and the player’s tribe has become the dominant tribe, the player can move to the next stage.
The Civilization Stage
In this stage, the player’s tribe has divided into different nations, like in reality. The player controls one of the nations. The purpose of this stage is to get control of the whole planet. The player can decide to conquer the planet by the economy, religion or military.
If the player wants to conquer the planet by the economy, he can trade and buy cities. In the pet hand if the player wants to control the planet by the religion, he will have to convert all the cities to the player by religious domination.
The player can mark his territory by making vehicles and buildings and adding specific color to define the territory boundary. The territory will increase as the player gains more power by conquering cities and nations. When the player conquers the planet, he will move to the next and final stage.
The Space Stage
In this stage, the player will spread through the galaxy with the purpose of colonizing planets. The player will be able to manipulate the planets by altering the ecosystem, temperature and the atmospheric conditions to kill the inhabitants in order to conquer the planets. He can also make changes in the planet to make it a better habitat.
The player can abduct creatures and transport them to different planets to test the environmental conditions to create ecosystems. In addition, the player can trigger life in a planet by placing a monolith.
The player can interact with other ‘space civilizations’ that are called empires and form allies. He can conquer the galaxy by creating a federation or an interstellar war.
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