Spore

continent.

It's the Blizzard rendition of Spore, but in World of Warcraft.

Where you pick your race.

Don't shoot the messenger.

It's going to be like No Man's Sky, but with WoW or Spore.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Don't say I didn't tell.

Sam, did you see anything particularly interesting today?

I saw Spore was in there.

Oh, yeah.

Some kind of Spore build.

I checked the subreddit and people were like, there's no beta build, unfortunately.

But that would have been cool to see because Spore has such an interesting backstory.

Quite a fascinating game, I would agree.

That was like the original No Man's Sky in terms of disappointing the fans.

After earning a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, he joined Firaxis Games, where he worked as both a programmer and designer on Civilization III before going on to lead the design of Civilization IV, one of the most celebrated strategy games yet made.

Over the years he has contributed to a wide range of projects including Spore, Dragon Age Legends and Offworld Trading Company, bringing his distinctive blend of historical insight, systemic thinking and player-driven design.

Today he is the founder and design director of Mohawk Games where he recently led the development of the acclaimed historical strategy game Old World.

Alongside his dev work, he continues to explore the craft of game design through his long-running blog and podcast, both of which are titled Designer Notes.

I had Bennett Foddy on the podcast last year and he was talking, I suppose he was talking about a particular indie era that he felt had kind of ended maybe seven or eight years ago that had run all the way from the release of like Braid and Spelunky and things like that.

Sure.

You know, as someone who's worked for, you know, on blockbusters, I mentioned, of course, the Civilization series and Spore and things like that, and who now works in the indie space.

Yeah, what era do you think we're in at the moment, Kenneth?

He's going to be three in a couple of months.

And I thought he would really enjoy... watching me play Minecraft or, you know, that game Spore from years ago where you have like a creature and it evolves.

I thought he would love that.

And then he could have input and I'd get to relax and, you know, I'd be socializing with him and I thought this could be good.

I was like, nah, I'm glad we don't exist with those.

It's just a Spore creation, you know?

I don't like it.

Much like Spore, I don't like it.

Dude, I forgot about Spore.

Everyone forgot about Spore.

We were promised, we were promised so much.

What? The

Before we leave the Rings of Saturn, I do wanna put in a plug for The Hidden Palace podcast.

We did a special episode on the video game Spore, which is a 2008 game, so I knew nothing about it, but I was informed Uh, very thoroughly by our guest, Biolaser, who is an expert and an enthusiast about the game.

And we also talked about something good that Electronic Arts is doing with their back catalog games, which is they're establishing official communities.

They are, um, not officially endorsing, but, uh, tolerating and, uh, being friendly to modding.

Anyways, the world's history.

How long have certain regions been settled? How long has the world itself been settled? What are the major events that shaped its kingdoms and nations? Just like in the video game Spore.

The world's religion.

Are there more than one? Do religious differences even inside the same faith cause conflicts? Are the gods real? Do they come down and mess with their followers? Think about Bajor in Deep Space Nine.

So good.

Spore released 18 years ago.

Oh my God, I love Spore.

Yeah.

What, what would you love about Spore there, Eva?

Uh, I always, uh- Would make incredibly messed up creatures that usually ended up having wings, and I would always go very aggressive when I got to space age.

Well, I'll tell you this.

I remember there was a lot of dicks made-