SporeCast

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Greetings Sporelings,

I’m coming to you this week with an article not necessarily focused on the game of Spore itself but instead with a look at the potential future of the “Sim” genre. Keep in mind that I’m working from my own experience with gaming and if I left out titles that you feel need mentioning or work that is being done right now by some intrepid developer that will revolutionize things, feel free to hop onto our forums and let’s discuss the topic in depth. We’d all love to learn more.

Evolution and intelligent design in video games is certainly no new concept and I think that first we have to examine the past in order to appreciate the future. Will Wright and Maxis had the idea 18 years ago when they released SimEarth in 1990.

In SimEarth the goal was basically to take a planet devoid of life and use the tools at your command to allow sentience and eventually civilization to emerge. This process was fairly complicated and I’m not ashamed to admit that I am one of the many who just didn’t quite get it. But as complicated as it was, compared to Spore, the scope of the game was relatively small since almost all you could do was monitor the results when you changed certain elements and attempt to offer better conditions in hopes that your little critters would thrive. SimEarth was a very scientifically-minded game that looked at the interaction of life and I like to think of it as a primitive version of Spore but perhaps I’ll go more into this comparison another day. For now, let’s move on to other games that either touched upon or dealt heavily in the chosen topic.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden was another game that I still pick up from time to time because it’s simply a lot of fun to play. Released in 1993 on the Super Nintento by Almanic and Enix, E.V.O. was an interesting take on the platforming genre because it included collecting evolution points by eating defeated enemies and spending those points to upgrade parts of your body and increase your ability. The stages of this game progressed from fish to amphibian to reptilian and finally mammalian while you passed through time in order to rise to the top of the evolutionary ladder and become the perfect partner for the goddess Gaia.

These are both a couple of examples of where we’ve been and while they do come from different genres, the subject matter relies on the same basic principle. Now that we have Spore, we can clearly see how far we’ve come. The question remains however, where are we going?

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The future of Sim games could lie within this image.
No idea what you’re looking at? Today I stumbled across a project called Darwin@Home and if you are at all interested in computer simulations of algorithm-based, self-evolving structures then this is the site for you. What’s that? You’re not? You should be and here’s why.

Right now, the technology behind this seems confusing but intriguing and though it’s primary use seems to be focused on building things that can withstand the forces of nature such as buildings that won’t fall over in earthquakes, I can see this sort of thing leading to a lot of innovation in gaming because of it’s sheer malleability. But for those of you without 45 minutes to spend watching their lengthy videos, let me sum up for you what Darwin@Home is.

Gerald de Jong of the Netherlands founded the Darwin@Home project and began work with an interest in artificial life and a knowledge of complex mathematics. Having gone through several prototypes, he has managed to design a java-based program that anyone can use from his website to design a simple structure and watch it evolve with the simple goal of being able to move further in a limited amount of time. The science and math behind all of this is much more complicated than this but if you watch this in action on the videos on their website it’s easy to see how something like this could be translated for Sim games in general.

Sure, you can create all sorts of otherworldly creatures in Spore but what if you throw in some realistic physics? Well your little bobble-headed monster finds itself unable to move about let alone catch those tasty little yellow things the next nest over. All is NOT lost however. With a little addition of the code developed by Darwin@Home, that creature, through a series of mutations over several generations could develop a more efficient way of getting around and thereby become more successful at whatever it needs to do. What if the goal of the program is not to move over land but through air? This code, given the proper parameters of weight, air viscosity, etc. could also potentially work to develop a realistic mutation that is capable of flight. This is where the intelligent design aspect slips away and a true, evolutionary game could reveal itself.

I love Spore and understand that it’s developed with every average gamer in mind but I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to see a little more reality, detail and diversity of species. I dream of a day when I can make a quadrupedal creature that moves like no other quadruped because of the shape of it’s spine. I would love to see just what it takes to make an insect that floats about on inflated sacs full of hydrogen.

Now I understand that realistically we’re a long way off from this but today was the day when I saw that we’re standing on the threshold of the advancements that will inevitably lead to much bigger things in gaming. Now if only some game developers would see what’s being worked on and incorporate it into their projects. I’ll let you all know if I come across anything in the future because I’m sure I’ll be returning to the subject again one day.

For those of you who are interested in the project, you can find the Darwin@Home project at www.darwinathome.org where they have hosted a blog and basic information on the project along with a few videos. If you don’t have a lot of time, I would recommend at least viewing the Darwin at Home in Ten Minutes video here - Darwin@Home in 10 Minutes. Enjoy!