So the Spore Creature Creator has been out for a while. It seems like there’s plenty of people out there doing their best to create the most crazy, weird looking things they can. I’ve tried doing this but every time I finish making something weird I find myself saying “Yep, that’s dumb.” and then delete it!

However the fella above I’m proud of ‘cus he looks kinda normal and cute. Just a typical dragon sorta thing. I’m sure with more parts he could look better, but I’m not paying for the full demo with all the body parts.

I’m morally against paying for demos, they’re meant to get you to buy the full game damn it. I mean sure Spore is coming from Will Wright, who’s skill and legend in the games industry kinda grants Maxis the right to say “come on guys, you know this is gonna be good, show your love with your pennies!” but seriously, demos are a marketing thing. Would you pay 10p a time to watch even the best Guinness commercial?

The counter argument (being on the music side of things) is a music ’single’ kinda does the same thing. It’s a marketing tool to get you to buy the full album. With individual track downloads available online the single is kinda losing its edge, but if the song’s good enough people will pay for it and you can generate interest AND income.

I just hope this doesn’t lead to other games manufacturers thinking their games are better than they are and alienate their product by demanding money for a demo. Perhaps for a game which plain ain’t that good?

Anyway, Spore’s looking great and the creatures nearly always turn out way cuter than you’d think. Even a multi-mouthed, many tentical’d monstrosity can have the cutest laugh and look awesome dancing to beats which I believe are the work of Brian Eno. I read it on the internets so it might be crap, but apparently he’s going to be behind the Spore soundtrack which is just plain awesome.

That’s enough rambling for now, if you want to find out more check out www.spore.com and download the (free!) demo!