Creature editor
From SporeWiki, the knowledge base dedicated to Spore
The creature editor is a popular feature in Spore that allows players to create and modify creatures. Creatures consist of a malleable body with an underlying spine, which can be sculpted in a variety of ways. Any of 228 functional parts can then be added onto the body, and be reshaped themselves.
In an article on GameSpy, Will Wright has this to say about the creature Editor:
"To build the creatures, you are starting out with parts. We have seven part categories -- feet, mouth, weapons… Each category has four columns of parts, and each column has eight or nine choices. As your brain level increases, you unlock more columns. All in all we have about 400 creature parts. Each of these parts also has morphs."
Contents |
[edit] Interface
The interface of the Creature Editor is organized into three portions:
- Build Mode, where the creature is sculpted and functional parts can be attached
- Paint Mode, where the creature is colored and textured by the computer according to the player's choices
- Test Drive, where the creature's in-game animations can be previewed
[edit] Editing
[edit] Status Bars
In the current version of the editor, the various statistics of the creature are displayed as icons on the right side of the screen with numbers indicating the skill in that field.
Abilities 0-23
General abilities such as Sight or Call.
Sight 0-1
- Use eyes to see the world around you. Zero Sight shrinks the area visible.
Sneak 0-5
- Move about undetected with camouflage.
Jump 0-5
- Wings let you jump.
Glide 0-5
- Wings give a limited form of flight.
Graspers 0-1
- Hands allow creatures to pick up objects in the world.
Mating Call 0-1
- Potential mates will reply from any distance, helping to navigate home. Granted by all mouths.
Sprint 0-5
- Lets you run extra-fast for a short amount of time.
Attack 0-20
Aggressive actions meant to harm other creatures.
Bite 0-5
- An average-strength attack with a short cooldown, granted by all mouths.
Spit 0-5
- The only ranged option, it has a medium cooldown and low damage over time. It is provided by certain weapons.
Charge 0-5
- A weak attack that stuns an enemy. It has a long cooldown. Most feet, especially hoofs, as well as horn-like weapons upgrade this attack.
Strike 0-5
- Hands and spikes make for a powerful attack with long cooldown; the only distinguishing feature is that it can hit more than one target at a time.
Social 0-20'
Charm 0-5
- Fur, feathers and other accessories.
'Dance 0-5
- Specialized feet = better dancer.
Sing 0-5
- Any mouth lets you sing, but some are more vocal than others.
Pose 0-5
- Adding hands to your creatures lets them pose.
Speed 0-5
Adding feet and other parts increases a creature's speed. Note: 0 Speed does not mean no locomotion; a creature without legs can still move, albeit somewhat slower.
Health 0-5
Various parts decrease vulnerability to attacks. As brain size increases, so does overall health.
Diet
Carnivore, Herbivore or Omnivore.
[edit] Creature Parts
To the left of the Editing screen are the seven palettes (categories) containing 228 functional parts that can be attached to a creature. Each palette contains up to four columns with up to ten parts in each.
[edit] Creature Stage
In the Creature Stage, parts are unlocked by extincting species or rummaging through bone piles.
- Determines the creature's diet (Herbivore, Carnivore or Omnivore) as well as its ability to Sing and Bite. The mouth may also be used to Spit, with each mouth being more or less efficient at doing damage. All mouths grant a Mating Call. Every creature must have a mouth; creatures without mouths cannot be saved.
- Eyes, ears, noses, and other organs which determine the creature's Charm stat and provide the Sight ability.
- Contains a selection of differently shaped arms and legs.
- Contains a variety of graspers and manipulators that contribute to a creature's Strike and Pose stats, and give it the Graspers ability.
- Determines a creature's Speed, Dance and Charge stats.
- Weapon parts, such as spikes and horns. They all provide offensive abilities, such as Charge or Spit.
- Feathers, leaves, wings etc that do not fall into any of the other categories.
[edit] Other GUI Elements
The editing interface also includes, in the bottom left, an indicator of the amount of evolutionary credits (DNA points) currently available to the player for use in creature editing. All creature parts have an associated cost, which reflects their efficiency and effect on the creature's rating. The further to the right a creature part appears in the list that opens on clicking a category button, the more expensive it is to buy.
Lastly, in the bottom right we can see the buttons for Undo, Redo and Exit, and the name of the creature in the top right, next to the ranking.
Also, there is a button for having symmetric parts on or off. Where this button is located is currently unknown. However, such a feature has not appeared in the Creature Creator, so it was most likely scrapped, but there is an exploit and a mod to make asymmetrical creatures. Since Patch 5, however, asymetrical parts are possible by holding down "a".
[edit] Keyboard Control
- Holding down ALT/Option while clicking on a part will copy it.
- Rollover any part and hold down the 'i' key to display part statistics when you are in Build mode (Patch 1.02 and higher).
- Holding down CTRL will let you delete a node in a leg. A new limb can then be attached to the end.
- Holding the TAB key while selecting a part will display more rotation rings to better position it.
- Holding the A key will allow the placement of asymmetrical Parts (After Patch 5.00)
- Holding CTRL and F and clicking will flip an astmmetrical part (Right hand becomes Left hand)
[edit] Texturing
The texturing tool is an integral part of the creature editor and operates on the simple premise of selecting a color and texture, which the computer will then procedurally apply to the creature. In addition to the basic texture, three levels of overlay are available for things such as body markings, stripes, and so on.
[edit] Testing
The Testing area is a small arena in which the edited creature is brought to life. Here the player can preview animations for Roar (which also demonstrates the sound the creature will make), Attack, Play and React. The new testing area contains cartoon-like trees and grasses.
[edit] Robots/Robotic Parts
This post mentions that Will Wright would like to have robotic parts in the creature editor after attaining the UFO, possibly as a result of 'research' in the game.
There is also a species of bionic creatures called the Grox, which have robotic parts. However, these parts are impossible to put on normally, and creatures using them cannot be saved, except with two hacking programs, T-search and SporeEditor Hack V2 By RamonZ. In the space clothing editor, metallic, robotic looking parts can be placed on the creature, although those parts are only clothing for decoration only.
[edit] Example creatures
- See also category:creature images.
Here are a few examples of creatures that have been made in the editor, showing the incredible range of styles that are available to the player.
 Aawkwaard |
 Bunzo |
 Garoupa |
 Fishface |
 Orlop |
 Grumpsnout |
 Monoptica |
 Screwtail |
 Borsch |
 Lapihorn |
 The Jolly Lumpus |
 The Pretty Ballerina |
 The Eggman |
 Gulp |
 Flirtilla |
 Borge |
 Brandy |
 Debug Squid, the first creature made when the skin script was first being made |
 Buttface |
 Tweety Bird |
 Hangdog |
 Dilemma |
 Camoflauge Carnivores (a Care Bear) |
 CrazvMan |
 A group picture of creatures that were created in the editor with landscape |
 A group picture of creatures that were created in the editor |
[edit] Part Packs
It has been confirmed that there will be new creature parts in post-release Add-ons. One has been released so far, named Creepy and Cute. Contrary to the name, however, it has three themes: Cute, goofy,and Creepy. There was speculation that the Galactic Adventures would have new parts, however, it is now known that the expansion has no new parts. But it does have a new paint ability for captains.
[edit] History
The creature editor impressed fans so much that many petitions began to spring up, including this one from Petition Online. The concept of releasing a module from a game to serve as its demo, sometimes months ahead of its release, is not unknown. Peter Molyneux's The Movies' Starmaker and Wright's own The Sims 2's Body Shop modules are both example of such a demo release.
- A demo was announced in the interview with ign shortly after the start of E3 07.
- On 17th of June 2008 the creature creator was released at around $10.99. A demo version is available from spore.com, but it only contains around 25% of the parts from the full version. The creatures made with the pre-release module can later be downloaded into the full game.
[edit] Trivia and Goofs
- In the movie Shorts, the Spore Creature Editor Test Drive Mode was shown on a TV Screen while a boy and girl were having a long staring contest. This is inaccurate, however, as Spore is shown being played on a Playstation 3.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Get the Creature Creator demo from Spore.com
- Bamzooki - A free downloadable game which is similar to the creature editor.
- Creature Editor 3.0 Fan-made creature editor(2D).
