If your a long time Maxis fan, then you may remember her as MaxisLucky.  I first met her over at the official Sims 1 forums (actually, many of us did).  She helped with the management of the official site, as well as launching The Sims 2 website when the hit sequel was released.  Her list of games include The Sims SuperStar, Makin’ Magic, SimCity 4 Rush Hour, The Urbz, The Sims 2 (and up to Open for Business if I recall correctly) then onto Spore (Senior Producer and manager of the Web Development Team)

She will still be with us in the game industry though, so not all is lost!  We can now follow her progress with ngmoco, a developer for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I can’t wait to see what her first project will be!  Best of luck with your new job, Caryl.  Readers, if you remember her from past games or would just like to share your farewell wishes, please leave them in the comments.  She may end up reading this

Related posts:

1. Aussies: Spore Producer Caryl Shaw at the “Game On Night” in Queensland, Dec. 5
2. Caryl Shaw to present at GDC 2009
3. NYC Comic Con 2009 – EA interviews Caryl Shaw

Here at EA Play, we’ve got a great family of people who are super passionate about making (and playing) video games.  We thought it might be kinda fun to introduce you to some of the real people who work here and make games for a living.  Each month, we’ll share a short profile of one of our coworkers so you can get to know the people behind the games.

First up?  Us!  The EA Play Twitter feed is run by Lauren and Rachel.  We’re no corporate robots—just two girls who love to talk about video games!  Get to know us a little bit more by checking out our profiles below, and feel free to give us a DM or @reply to say hi and introduce yourself to us too!

read about them at the EA Play Blog

Related posts:

1. ‘Sims’ creator lets people play god with Spore
2. Public Static – Spore Islands Cheats, Tips, and Tricks
3. The Sims Carnival – Press Release, now open to public

Thanks to reader Jucimar for sending me a note!

DS Screens

Wii Screens

Related posts:

1. Spore Hero / Spore Hero Arena – Official Wii & DS trailers
2. EA music to be featured in TV spots and trailers
3. MySims Agents – Official Wii and DS trailers

Voting: The top 4 creations will be featured and the top rated adventure will be featured. If there’s a tie, Maxis will be the tiebreaker and choose our favorite.

Vote by 11:20 AM PST 3/12.

1. Blueberry Pie By Jonathanjj55jj
2. History of Pi By Acheron55
3. Pi By 321drew123
4. pi nomer By Loppynutjob
5. Pi By techno605

6. Pi 3-142 By Vektrix
7. Pi Oven By codyr2391
8. Cutie Pi By _Mark_
9. The Power of Pi By delayedreaction
10. The Greatest Pi Ever By sarcosuchus

11. The Complexity of Pi By Stultus11
12. Ping By ComTek
13. Wheel of the pi By Berbert77
14. Spectral Pi By Chaoskampfkeks
15. Sir Cumference vs THE PIE By Quaizor

16. Super Ultra Pi Tribute By Phenotypical_1 (Adventure)
17. π-Race By yjulixz (Adventure)
18. KDC_Pi(e) By Rantalia (Adventure)

Related posts:

1. Spore Darwin Day Challenge – Finalists Posted; Vote now!
2. Spore Halloween Team Challenge – Finalists Chosen – Vote now
3. 8/25/09 Sporeday – Arthropod Adventure: Team Challenge, finalists listed – vote now!

On a much brighter note, The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff is still at #1 on the Budget Price list.

Source:  Chart-track

Related posts:

1. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 20, 2010
2. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 13, 2010
3. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending March 13, 2010

Source:  Chart-track

Related posts:

1. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 27, 2010
2. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending March 13, 2010
3. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 13, 2010

Maxis seeks an experienced Lighter to join the environment team and create outstanding content for an upcoming level based action RPG. Candidate will adopt a proprietary pipeline, assume full ownership of the environment lighting, and work within an established style.

Responsibilities:

• Create atmospheric lighting that contributes to storytelling in a science fiction setting
• Collaborate with level designers to make compelling gameplay
• Troubleshoot and problem solve technical issues with minimal supervision
• Optimize lighting setups to meet performance requirements while maintaining desired aesthetic
• Adjust textures & object placements as necessary for best results

Requirements:

• 3-5 years experience in game development lighting
• Well organized and able to commit to and meet deadlines. Ability to multitask while still meeting deadlines
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal; an ability to work effectively with producers, designers, engineers and artists
• Proficient with Maya & Photoshop
• Experience with level population and world building a plus.

Source: SimOperations

Related posts:

1. Maxis looking for Lead Designer for upcoming multiplayer action game
2. Another EA/Maxis job opening – Lead Simulation Engineer
3. Now hiring for Maxis’ next secret title

We all know the end of the story. Activision today is one of the biggest and most successful publishers in the world and owns the rights to some of the most popular gaming franchises, including 2009’s blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

But Kotick said that his high-level management style has proven costly on occasion. For instance, when Activision had the chance to buy Maxis, the developer of SimCity 2000. He visited their offices and spent an entire day looking at SimCity 2000, which was said to be buggy and unpolished. He thought the only reason to buy the company would be for the game and the franchise so he didn’t even bother to look at another title codenamed Jefferson in one of the back offices. It was being worked on by Will Wright and it turned into The Sims. 

I don’t know what would have been better – the way it is now or if Activision had bought the company.  Personally I’m kind of glad it’s at EA…It’s been a pretty good run all the way up until 2007 when EA switched CEOs.  Bobby Kotick of Activision probably would have ran the Sims series into the ground faster than what EA could ever do.  I mean how many Guitar Hero games did they produce last year?  7?  I used to love that series, now I despise seeing the game in stores…

IGN – Activision passed on The Sims

Related posts:

1. Tis’ a sad day…Randy Pausch, from “The Last Lecture” has passed away
2. Live in the Bay area? Help Maxis test Spore Galactic Adventure
3. Site updates on hold – Grandmother passed away…

Let me note that compared to Origins, Spore Creatures is more challenging. There are 20 levels spread out in 4 different environments, and to complete each level successfully the player needs to collect a certain number of points or fulfill quests. There are boss battles for example, that require some ingenuity in order to emerge victorious.

The game is unstructured enough to allow the player freedom to explore the environment. Because the environment is populated with flora and fauna, it’s more difficult to move around especially using accelerometer controls. While the tilt controls run quite smoothly and can even be calibrated to suit one’s preference, the small physical space to work with makes it difficult to move around freely.

review here

Related posts:

1. Touch Arcade – Spore Creatures (iPhone) review
2. AppModo – Spore Creatures iPhone review
3. CNET – Spore Creatures iPhone review

The second in the series takes us to land this time, you start off with a basic Spore on the sandy beach and it just gets wild from there. As you play the game you can create new Spores based on your actions in the game, there are over 40 different things you can add to your Spore to make it different there are so many possibilities of what it could look like. As you play the game and explore around on one of the 20 different levels you can find and collect different items that can then be later added to your Spore all while slowly evolving the DNA of your spore. You also have the option the change the color and shape of your Spore. One of the really fun features is how you can chose to interact with other creatures; you will sometimes have the choice of communicating or attacking and both will lead you down different paths in the game. This all makes for a unique game play with high replay value.

AppModo reviews Spore Creatures for iPhone

Related posts:

1. CNET – Spore Creatures iPhone review
2. Slide2Play – Spore Creatures iPhone review
3. Touch Arcade – Spore Creatures (iPhone) review

Related posts:

1. Spore Creatures for iPhone now available on iTunes App Store for $6.99
2. SimOperations – Spore Origins reviewed for the iPhone
3. Spore Creatures (iPhone) releases in New Zealand

Related posts:

1. Spore Creature Creator 2D Challenge – accepting entries
2. More Than 250,000 Creatures Created and Shared in the Spore Creature Creator
3. IGN’s “Awesome as Hell” Spore Creature Creator contest

Brits…care to explain why The Sims 3 Design & Hi-Tech Stuff didn’t make it on the list this week?  Have you gotten fed up with Stuff Packs?  You’re doing your job in the fact that both The Sims 3 and World Adventures have moved up…I just find it odd that the Stuff Pack isn’t on this….

update – wow, thanks to a mention from ConnorJack, the Stuff Pack is on the Budget Price list, and took #1 in that listing.  Okay, so congrats EA for #1

Source:  Chart-Track

Related posts:

1. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 20, 2010
2. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 27, 2010
3. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 6, 2010

The topic of evolution has been around for a long, long time…but I think Spore had to play some sort of role in giving this artist the idea of creating this flipnote video.  Loved it!  Thanks to Robb for sharing this video with me!

Related posts:

1. The Evolution of the Grox
2. Millions Embrace The Sims 3 with Biggest Launch Week in Franchise History
3. Spore “Procedures” history lesson

I can’t take credit for the following as it was posted on the official Spore forums.  However I tried one of the codes…and to my surprise, it actually worked.  It did say that it was for Mass Effect 2, but it’ll still let you choose what games to use it for – Spore, The Sims 3, Battlefield Heroes – its left up to you to decide.  Here’s the info below.  Enter your codes at the Dr. Pepper Promotion Page

Reusable Dr. Pepper Codes

Use one of these:

CBEEAAA41NWH

CBEEAAAE4L9N

CBEEAAAFQG9J

CBEEAAAE98ZV

They are ALL reusable. But you can only enter one of these on your account. But if you want more prizes you can just make another account. These also work outside of the US.

————————

EXAMPLE REGISTRATION:

ZIP CODE: 85224
Town: Chandler
Street:2118 w knox rd
State: Arizona

–

Only 1 EA account is necessary, however multiple Dr.Pepper accounts are necessary.

Related posts:

1. How Dr. Pepper/EA is screwing over one of their fans
2. Dr. Pepper/EA Promotion – Get 14 new Spore Robotics parts
3. Spore Mech Parts from Dr. Pepper demonstration

This spot was inspired by, and is a new take on life and evolution simulated video games.  It was a labor of love, animated by the wonderfully talented staff at Tippett Studios in Berkeley, CA.

All the characters are CG, modeled and painted after drawings by Daren and Isaiah.  The swarms are particle simulations, with creatures exported from a game and attached as sprites.  The backgrounds are all digital matte paintings, created by Isaiah and Daren.

Source:  Ghostrobot

Related posts:

1. Spore creature animated in Maya
2. 100 Million Creations Take Over Spore Universe
3. Story-based Spore expansion shelved, Spore Galactic Adventure created

This week’s contest is the Stegavaar Template Challenge.

Challenge Details

In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, and how well they animate. Show us what this creature should look like in the Stegavaar Template Challenge!

Creature Bio:
Name: Stegavaar

A solitary, dangerous creature, Stegavaar burrows through the eternal rock of its planet’s mantle and crust seeking the loren, the rare and precious underground rivers in which to spawn millions of creatures like itself in hopes of one day conquering the surface.

Stegavaar has the power of devastating bio-electron beams–living lightning. Charging at speeds that belie its cumbersome appearance, and protected by its impenetrable bio-armour, Stegavaar is nothing less than a living tank. Should Stegavaar ever fall in battle, its final act will be an electron explosion of vengeance that slaughters all who are nearby.

Stegavaar’s adaptations:

• Lightning based creature.
• Charges at its enemies.
• Tendrils emit electric current.
• Explodes in electricity on death.

Suggested colors: White, red, and/or blue. This is just a starting point. Feel free to deviate if you come up with a color scheme that better suits your creation.

To use template:

1. Right click on either image above and choose Save as. (The second is for non-C&C players)
2. Open your Spore Creature Creator and drag the png into the editor.
3. Add parts and paint to flesh out the character of this creature. All parts including accessory, mech, C&C, and base game parts are allowed. You may not scale, remove or move any parts of the original template, with the exception that the feet may be swapped out for other feet.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner in this challenge. Finalists will be posted before the 1st place creation is announced.

Challenge Rules:

• Your creature must use the provided template
• To submit a creation, just publish and tag it with: mcStegavaarChallenge
• You can submit as many creations as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT Mar 1, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

Related posts:

1. Spore Creature Creator 2D Challenge – accepting entries
2. Spore presents the “Captain Postcard Challenge”
3. Wild Pet Spore Challenge

EA COO John Schappert said during the company’s Q3 financial earnings call Monday that “every one of EA’s releases will have an online component—both downloadable content and online play.” That goes for Dead Space 2, the two Need For Speed titles, and Crysis 2, as well as Fighting Title and Action Title. Everything.

Now, does everything even go as far as MySims Sky Heroes, the new Spore games and the various console/handheld releases of The Sims 3?  Cause if so, it’s about time!  There are a number of EA games that would of been perfect for online play – MySims Racing and MySims Party for one.  I wonder what online feature’s they’ll consist of…leader boards, a library of downloadable content (like the Sporepedia), a Sims 3 Store (no thanks!).  Better keep your word, EA.  I want to start playing your games online!  Source:  Kotaku

Related posts:

1. Up, Up and Away! EA trademarks ‘MySims Sky Heroes’
2. GDC 2008: Who says Spore doesn’t support all consoles?
3. Oh noes! Spore Online mode might be charged!

We already are aware that The Sims 3 will be hitting consoles and handhelds…but we are still left wondering for which ones.  The new MySims game they mentioned is probably ‘MySims Sky Heroes’ that was trademarked last week.  The Sims 3 has a new expansion coming out for PC – but no information for that.  Oh, and Spore will be having two titles – one for PC and the other for consoles coming out as well, so long live Spore!  Hopefully the PC one isn’t a spinoff but I have a feeling it’ll be Spore Creature Keeper… 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Sim/Spore fans… Can’t wait until we start getting actual news to report on!

Related posts:

1. EA to Release Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2010 Results on November 9, 2009
2. EA’s Fiscal Second Quarter Results, Playfish $275 million buyout, and employee layoffs
3. EA to drop software prices for 2010?

Source:  Chart-Track

Related posts:

1. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 20, 2010
2. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 13, 2010
3. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 27, 2010