Well that was eventful, wasn't it? While my internet connection wasn't exactly there, I was side by side with Crecente throughout the entire EA press conference live blog, immortalizing the event in pictures. From Will Wright's Spore presnetation to the golfer with nicer legs than Tiger Woods, aging basketball players to id's Rage, if they showed it, I desperately took pictures of it, oftentimes cursing at my camera, the presenters, and Crecente under my breath. Here it is, all at once, all for you.

If you can get to the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco (1 Stockton Street) by 7 pm PDT today, you can catch a one-hour demo of Spore — this would be the full bore Spore due out in September — led by the creator himself, Will Wright.

Interestingly, I'm in Washington D.C. for the weekend — normally we publish a little BART jaunt away from S.F. So if someone up that way can pop in and ask Will what, specifically, will get you banned for making Sporeporn beasts in Spore Creature Creator, I'd be obliged. Use as many clinical terms as possible, like, is an apparent glans by itsef banworthy, or must it also be attached to a shaftlike appendage? Also use "frenulum" and "taint."

The official EA release with who/what/when details is after the jump.

Reader Ben B. preordered Spore Creature Creator through the EA Store and just got word it's been rescheduled for release on Wednesday, June 18. Tuesday was the original drop date. He provided a copy of the email and it looked legit to me, so, spread the word.

If you're hankering for some Spore fruit fucker action right now, you can always grab the demo, which leaked early. It contains 1/4 the content, but that's 1/4 more than you're getting right now.

Easter Egg discovery is a bit like genetic mutation. Get enough numbers to try some random stuff that's well outside of what they're supposed to be doing, let alone what they've evolved to do, and you'll hit something eventually. How apt that the Spore Creature Creator Demo, leaked yesterday and downloaded by lots of gamers, provides that lesson.

Reader Bahamut sends the above Easter Egg, which is Spore creator Will Wright's head floating over the galaxy in the main menu screen. How'd he do it? By tinkering around. "Before I quit out of the entire game I try just randomly clicking around the main menu ..." Bahamut explains. Methinks he would have been among the first fishies crawling out of the ocean to breathe gas and not water. ("Before spawning and dying, I decided to randomly swim up this rock to see how far it was to the water's surface ...")

Bahamut shows how he did it after the jump. Since this precedes the official demo release, can we call this a zero-day Easter Egg?

Give Developers A Wish And They'll Wish For...

There's a cute feature up over at 1UP at the moment, where a bunch of noted developers have been given one wish. ONE ONLY (no secondsys). Or three, if they'd like, but not two. And those wishes can only be applied to some aspect of games development, not, you know. For their missus to get larger norgs, or to get a never-ending cookie jar or something. Warren Spector wants an engine that makes games as "easy" to make as movies. Will Wright wants better AI pathfinding. BioWare's Muzyka & Zeschuk want convincing, emotional AI. Some of the others are more interesting than that, others aren't, others cheated and are now trapped inside a brass lantern for a thousand generations.

Three Wishes [1UP]

Care to take a gander at the breadth and depth of Spore's creature creator? Then direct thy internet compass northward to the official Spore web site, with a freshly populated "Sporepedia" that's growing by the minute. The Spore monster manual has more variety than one could shake a stick at, with creatures that are fuzzy, tentacled, even ones that look like walking Bosch pears. Already, more than a gross of man-made beasts have been uploaded.

We're just a week away from the Spore Creature Creator going public, meaning it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the SimEverything bestiary before you get your mouse pointer on it.

Sporepedia [Spore.com]

GTA IV Killing Makes Will Wright Feel Kinda Bad

Will Wright feels "a bit of remorse" when he makes the choice to kill civilians in GTA IV, he said, speaking at the Vancouver Art Gallery for its "Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art" exhibition.

Gamasutra covered the event, during which Wright added, "but if it's to progress the story, then 'God told me to do it.'"

He covered a broad range of subjects during the talk, including whether games are perceived as an art form ("When comic book people are looking down on you as cultural refuse, you know you're at the bottom of the barrel,") and his vision of games as a "co-collaboration between player and designer."

Still, he thinks we have further to go:

Will Wright's Design Philosophy

Kieron Gillen has a new interview with Will Wright up over at The Guardian, discussing Wright's game design philosophy (more or less):

"What I want to do is craft this landscape of experiences where the player has a huge degree of control over what they encounter," he says. "I think that's what games have as an advantage over any other form of media; that the player is half the author of the experience if the game is done well - or even more so. I think this is the first form of medium which has really achieved that and it allows us access to emotional regions that are inaccessible to linear narrative."

Is Spore going to be the success many think it will be, or will it confound the average user (unlike The Sims) as Ian Bogost suspects? Or will people lose interest together before the thing is finally released? I guess we'll find out ... eventually.

Unlocking the power of parallel play [The Guardian via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Will Wright is speaking at NASA's upcoming Yuri's Night Celebration in the Bay Area this Saturday.

Yuri's Night is an annual celebration of space exploration. On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in space, orbiting around the Earth once during a 108-minute flight. Exactly twenty years later, on April 12th, 1981, the United States launched their first Space Shuttle into space.

Wright will be joined at the public event by a variety of scientific speakers, artists and musicians. The developers talk will focus on astrobiology, the history of the Russian space program and Spore. The game will also be on display.

Back when I was at the Palm Beach Post I was actually one of three reporters who helped cover shuttle launches. Watching a shuttle literally push itself away from the Earth and rip through gravity's pull is probably one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life.... and there was swag. No lie, NASA actually had a little kiosk set up at every launch selling shit. I think it was because all of the visiting general and dignitaries always wanted shirts and hats to give to their kids. So funny.

Yuri's Night

Ian Bogost on Spore's Universal (?) Appeal

After taking Spore's creature editor for a spin at the ICE 2008 conference and watching the average, non-gaming public's response to the editor, Ian Bogost has some opinions on the universal appeal of Spore (or lack thereof). Unlike The Sims, Bogost says, Spore is facing a significant challenge in getting to the general public:

... The observation that surprised me the most was how people totally unfamiliar with Spore reacted to the very idea of a creature editor. From my perspective, it's a brilliantly engineered, elegantly constructed content authoring tool. But from theirs, it's an unfamiliar interface to an almost deviant act.

... Among the newbies, there was a significant amount of uncertainty and performance anxiety. People weren't sure they would be able to build something, even with encouragement and example. One even said, over my shoulder, "I'm not sure I'm creative in that way." I found this reaction fascinating.

Is Spore 'For Everyone'? [GameSetWatch]

GameSetWatch notes that Will Wright has signed on as one of several co-curators for an upcoming museum exhibition in Vancouver that mashes up the worlds of anima, comics and video games.

KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art will be on show at the the Vancouver Art Gallery from May 17 through Sept. 7 and will feature original sketches, notes, concept drawings, animation cells, 3D models, published work and last, but certainly not least, a "sneak preview" of Spore.

The show will travel to New York next year.

KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art [Canadian Architect, via GSW]

Probably my utter fascination with Care Bears. I could tell you more than you want to know about Care Bears. Oh, you want to know about Care Bears? ...Yeah, 'cause they live in Care-a-Lot, which is above the Forest of Feelings where the Care Bear Cousins live, which is above Earth... But the Care Bear Cousins aren't even Bears. They're like lions and monkeys and things, but they call them Care Bear Cousins. Yeah... They have these particle beam weapons in their stomachs, and when they get really upset, they fire this Star Wars thing. Yeah, they're cool.

Will Wright Gets all Brainy on Drunk Audience

Last night, Electronic Arts threw a little party for the gathered game developers and various hangers on at the Mezzanine. About an hour into the party, EA's Neil Young took to the stage to introduce Will Wright who wouldn't, he was clear to point out, be talking about anything even remotely Spore related. Instead, Wright took to the stage to deliver a talk in the scatter-topic method that has earned him a small cult following, touching on everything from Godzilla and lunch boxes to James Bond and the abundance of Sims titles to hit the market.

It was as always, a treat to watch. It was also, as always, something that leaves you perhaps with less of an idea of what he's on about than before he started talking.

Check out the clip which shows the talk in all of it's more than 30-minutes glory and stay, at least, until you get to his now infamous Russian Space Minute.

Spore Creature Creation Preview

EA is showing off a bit of the recently dated Spore today, with the PC and Mac versions getting special treatment in the creature creation preview department. In the clip above, you'll learn more about the process of building your own species from all manner of body parts—arms, legs, tails, custom torsos, even parts that are "social," including plumage that draws attention and mouths that are better at singing than others.

The preview also shows off Spore's content browser, a web app that lays out user and Maxis generated content. Highlighted here are a few interesting, holiday themed items like a building shaped like a Christmas tree and a UFO built in the shape of... well, I won't spoil it. Just watch.

Spore Launches In September

After years of eager anticipation, EA has finally announced a concrete release date for Will Wright's latest potential masterpiece. A link of the front page of Spore.com takes you to a video that proudly proclaims, "Earthlings, get ready to leave your galaxy...September 7th, 2008." The video was heralded by a message from Will Wright himself, sent out with the first official Spore newsletter.

While we finish up the game over the next few months, we'll be sharing more information with you and other fans. As a newsletter subscriber, you'll be among the first to get new Spore information, screenshots, videos and other cool features from the Spore team. Check out our launch date teaser, and of course you can visit Spore.com for updates anytime.

The Spore Launch Date Annoucement Trailer [Spore.Com - Thanks Deadeyereborn!]

EA CEO Calls Spore The Greatest Creative Risk In The Industry

2008 is going to be a very strong year for Electronic Arts. Whether we are talking about Spore, which has been talked about for a long time. Personally played the software, it is very impressive.