Spore
Space Barracuda Template Challenge winners may be featured in DarkSpore
Jul 30th
So all of the template challenges held in the past year actually served a purpose – to help feed the NPC’s for Maxis’ newest game, DarkSpore. MaxisCactus gave us an inside look of the process of importing the latest Spore template challenge, the Space Barracuda, into DarkSpore for our characters to battle against. They’ll be holding more contests for Spore players to create NPC’s (note – only Maxis can convert the creations from Spore to DarkSpore as NPCs), so I’d suggest entering if you want a chance for a creation to be featured in a game!
Oh, and considering that they are tweaking this process, these may or may not make it into the final build of the game, set to be released in February 2011.
Space Barracuda: Preview Winning Player Designs in Game
Many of you probably already know about the template challenges we’ve been hosting on the Spore forum. We announced that these may be used to help design NPCs in Darkspore. Today we announced winners for the Space Barracuda Template Challenge!
Players created Space Barracuda designs based on the following brief description, imagery, and template creation. Check out the original thread here.
“Space Barracuda
Bio: Once tiny sea creatures, the space barracudas are now larger and via gravitic powers, able to “swim” through the air on land. Dangerous and unpredictable, space barracudas use their gravitic abilities to teleport themselves and their prey. Prospectors and fighters should exercise extreme caution around these bizarre creatures.”
The creation entries designed by the Spore community were judged by the Darkspore team and finalists were hand picked for preview in Darkspore.
Check out the finalists in the level editor. They won’t all swarm like this in game, but we needed to see all the finalists animate in game to verify viability as potential NPC designs.
We chose our top six and verified that their animation, look and feel all integrated well with the game environment.
Check out the top 6 in game, pitted against Zrin. They look great!!!
The Winners:
1. Space Barracuda By shamar10
2. Starstaidned Space Barracuda By KaluluUchiha
3. Space Barracuda By WforWumbo
Honorable Mention:
1. Space Barracuda By ESquidey
2. Space Barracuda Template By Richardson72
3. Space Barracuda Template By Richardson72
I want to stress that this whole thing is WIP (work in progress). We’re still working out the kinks with UGC, but we want to try to get your creations in game. The images above depict a level populated with a bunch of Space Barracudas, but that was for judging preview purposes. We can’t guarantee that these will be in the final game, but we’ll continue to explore this as an option.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in this challenge. I hope to see you guys enter the next one soon!
-MC
Darkspore UGC NPCs – contests to turn your Spore creature into DarkSpore NPCs
Jul 23rd
The following was posted by DarkSpore community manager MaxisCactus. In the following text, she explains how you can participate in upcoming Spore contests in which winning creations may be featured as NPC’s for the upcoming game!
On the Spore forum, many of our Spore players have participated in our template challenges and there has been speculation around why these are happening.
With the huge announcement Tuesday about Darkspore, you may have already guessed that some of the winning creations from these challenges could help constitute the cast of NPC creatures you’ll see in Maxis’ new action-RPG.
Stegavaar Template Challenge Entries
The entries to these contests absolutely blew us away, and we can’t wait to show off challenge winners as NPCs in Darkspore.
During each template challenge judging round, we bring our favorite entry creations into Darkspore to see how well they integrate with the existing Darkspore environment. A group of Maxis artists, designers, and producers analyze your creations, how well they animate, the execution of their design, and their fidelity to the NPC bio we provided to inform your work.
Stegavaar Entries Previewed in an earlier game iteration
Each template challenge is based on a real Darkspore NPC, which has its own specific abilities, unique animations, and personality already designed and implemented. When we drop your models in to skin the NPCs, they come to life in a new way.
Loading up a level where I have to battle Falcore’s inspired triple-spike tailed Scorpiod or flee Potatofish’s barreling armored Stegavaar proves that these creations deserve a spotlight in Darkspore.
While we’re still working on the pipeline, and the process hasn’t quite been ironed out, there’s something magical here that we can’t wait to show you.
Your participation in this is completely voluntary. The Maxis team is creating all of the core NPCs in the game, but we want YOU to contribute too!
I hope you’ll keep submitting entries in future challenges, and maybe some of you will see your creations come to life as mutated E-DNA hordes in the Darkspore game!
Previous and Current Challenge Links:
• Stegavaar Template Challenge
• Lightning Stalker Template Challenge
• Space Barracuda Template Challenge
• Triocular Scorpiod Challenge
• Uklideon Template Challenge
• Quadrakiller Template Challenge
• Toxiraptor Template Challenge
• Necro Template Challenge-MC
Spore Lightning Stalker Template Challenge
Jul 6th
Sigh…seriously, come on Maxis… Contest here 
Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mclightningchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creaturmclightningchallengee bio, how well they animate.
Lightning Stalker
Bio:Lightning stalkers have been the scourge of stragglers and survivors since the planet’s ice-age set in. Heavily armored with terrible claws and horns protruding from across their bodies, lightning stalkers are highly adept at tracking prey for hours, days or even weeks if food is scarce. While they’re quite capable of ripping their targets to bloody shreds with their claws, they more often strike at a distance with blinding bolts of their electroplasma.Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, arms, “fingers” or mouth. You may swap out the feet as desired. You may add parts anywhere.
Tag: mclightningchallenge
Template:
Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.
What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.Challenge Rules:
- To submit a creature, tag it with: mclightningchallenge
- You can submit as many entries as you’d like
- All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT July 20, 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
Space Barracuda Template Challenge
Jun 30th
Half the year gone by and nothing – absolutely nothing new on the Spore front. Someday…I don’t think the franchise is dead yet. However, I do want to know if there is a purpose for these contests other than just keeping the game alive…Here’s a new one kicked off by MaxisCactus from yesterday.
Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mcbarracudachallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.
Space Barracuda
Bio: Once tiny sea creatures, the space barracudas are now larger and via gravitic powers, able to “swim” through the air on land. Dangerous and unpredictable, space barracudas use their gravitic abilities to teleport themselves and their prey. Prospectors and fighters should exercise extreme caution around these bizarre creatures.Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine or mouth. You may add parts anywhere.
Tag: mcbarracudachallenge
Template:
Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.
What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.Challenge Rules:
- To submit a creature publish and tag it with: mcbarracudachallenge
- You can submit as many entries as you’d like
- All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT July 13, 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
EA / Dr. Pepper Promotion – Downloadable Spore Posters and Wallpapers
Jun 16th
Remember the special promotion between EA and Dr. Pepper where if you purchase a drink, you’ll get a code to redeem various downloadables for EA Games? It’s still going on. A new batch of content has been added for Spore – but it relates to wallpapers and posters only – the digital kind. I grabbed small caps of the new items, and I redeemed a code for (in my opinion) the best Spore poster they had:
Spore Islands Facebook game to end its run
Jun 4th
Sad news to report. The official Spore game on Facebook – Spore Islands – will be shutting down the game’s server early in July. Such a shame as I still play that game everyday – in the morning and evening. As of right now I hold the 5th spot for global rating and the 10th spot for global points. All good things have to come to an end, wish they could keep it up as it’s pretty much the only game I play on FB.
EA Mobile – 70% off with sizzling savings on iPhone/iPod Touch games
May 27th
The Sims 3 World Adventures and The Sims 3 are $4.99, Spore Creatures, Spore Origins and SimCity are $1.99. Good savings for those who’ve yet to own the games!
Spore’s Toxiraptor Template Challenge
May 25th
Okay, if I see one more friggin’ Template Challenge from the Spore site I’m going to take this paperclip in my hand and jam it in my eye. Seriously, what is going on over at Maxis…Do these templates serve a purpose? Are they for the rumored ‘DarkSpore’ game? I’d sure love to know!
Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mctoxiraptorchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.
Emerald Toxiraptor
Bio: Centuries ago the rainforests and grasslands teemed with gentle creatures sharing their habitats. Following the invasion, the planet exchanged its serenity for terror. Once tiny creatures with a mild, stinging bite, toxiraptors (striking for their glowing emerald eyes), became tall, lightning-fast attackers that hunted in packs. Aside from the terrible damage their fangs can inflict, it’s their toxin that’s of greatest worry to any being they target, a nerve agent that untreated causes paralysis and death within minutes. Any explorer catching sight of toxiraptors hunting in packs should evacuate or flee immediately… or be prepared to unleash maximum firepower.Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, or mouth. You may swap out the feet as desired. You may add parts anywhere.
Tag: mctoxiraptorchallenge
Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.
What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.Challenge Rules:
- To submit a creature, tag it with: mctoxiraptorchallenge
- You can submit as many entries as you’d like
- All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT June 8, 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
Posted via MaxisCactus over at the Sporums
Spore – Game Changers Winners Announced!
May 25th
I haven’t been keeping track of this contest but I do recall posting about it…I believe back in January. Well, the winners have been chosen and 3 of the winners used Spore Galactic Adventures for their projects. MaxisCactus has more with the following press announcement:
Game Changers Winners Announced!
NINE GAME DEVELOPERS TO SHARE $250,000 FOR EDUCATIONAL GAMING EXPERIENCES USING LittleBigPlanet™ and Spore Galactic Adventures
May 24, 2010 (Games for Change Conference, New York City) U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, will announce on Tuesday the nine winning game developers who will share $250,000 for new and educational gaming experiences on the commercial games LittleBigPlanet™ and Spore™ Galactic Adventures. These winners are part of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition, which is designed to support the most novel uses of new media for learning. This year, MacArthur teamed with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Electronic Arts (EA), the Entertainment Software Association, and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation to support new and creative user-generated levels and adventures to engage young people in learning in the two games. The intention of the competition is to promote “participatory” learning, which operates under the notion that individuals, specifically young ones, learn best through sharing and involvement. The competition is administered by the virtual network of learning institutions, HASTAC, and is part of the Obama Administration’s Educate to Innovate initiative. More information at www.dmlcompetition.net.
The three winning Spore™ Galactic Adventures projects include:
Creatures Classified! An exploration of cataloging creatures across the galaxy, $40,000
Mathew Powers, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Best in Class: Creatures (Spore™ only)
In this Spore™ adventure, fifth and sixth graders, acting as “intergalactic speciologists,” learn how to collect and organize scientific data and employ the scientific method to classify living things. Armed with a science field journal, players must navigate progressively more complex and challenging planets, collecting data, and classifying the myriad species they encounter based on the evolutionary and physical characteristics of the creatures.DIASTEM: Digitally Integrating the Academics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, $15,000
Patrick Keller, Albuquerque, NM
Leveraging Spore’s™ powerful ability to personalize gameplay, DIASTEM targets STEM-related content that applies directly to digital game development. Within the Spore™ interface, players will complete challenges—from simple math and logic puzzles to more complex physics and engineering construction projects—that are specifically developed and created to elicit player understanding of game design theory and application.Mission: Evolution, $15,000
Jennifer Biedler, Blacksburg High School, Blacksburg, VA
In Mission: Evolution, high school students thoroughly analyze the evolutionary science driving the Spore™ game engine and investigate the scientific accuracy of the game. Working together to identify principles of evolutionary change that are absent from the off-the-shelf version of Spore™, students collaborate to introduce these principles into their own missions in Spore™ Galactic Adventures.
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