Spore is a game released in 2008, developed by Maxis and published by (the be loathed) Electronic Arts, EA. The game’s lead designer was Will Wright, Co-founder of Maxis. Spore is an evolution-based sandbox game, following a cell as you eventually conquer your galaxy in many different ways. The game follows a structure of 5 stages.

The earliest prototype seen publicly was in 2005 at GDC (Game Developers Conference), containing the foundations seen in the final release, though having drastically different mechanics and visuals.

2005 GDC demonstration video

almost all footage from the demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofA6YWVTURU

The main difference is obviously the graphics and ui with a generally more "realistic" and serious art direction. Another major difference is the inclusion of a stage between Cell and Creature, which is the Aquatic stage. This would have served as a 3d companion to the cell stage with more aquatic like creatures, which aren't seen very often in the final build (Apart from the massive water creature).

I mean just look at those swimming physics! I understand the removal to make the game more marketable but the difference between the Cell and Creature stage is still a really big one, and this could have evened out the difference in playtime. Another underwater aspect that was cut was the inclusion of underwater cities during Civillisation stage. Obviously this wouldn't have worked with the way Civ stage was implemented in the final game but it was still an interesting addition to the showcase.

Civ stage seemingly had the inclusion of a forth vehicle, it was never shown in the showcase it is stated in the demo that it was a submarine to compliment the underwater cities.

Expansion Packs

Creepy & Cute

This expansion pack added new parts as well as drive animations when editing a creature.

Galactic Adventures

This expansion pack added an entirely new gamemode to spore, being able to make your own adventures, as well as playing other player’s adventures. These adventures were also added to the space stage.

Bot Parts Pack/Dr. Pepper controversy

The Spore Bot parts pack, also known as the Dr. Pepper DLC and similar names, was an expansion released on January 1st of 2010 as a part of a promotion with, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper. They were only available at select Arby's and Taco Bell stores up until the end of 2010, meaning a lot of the player base was physically unable to obtain these parts without modding.

Spin-off Titles

There are a surprising number of spin-off titles for Spore, sadly none of them count as a sequel to the original, as many follow a more story driven approach differing from the main game’s sandbox gameplay.

The first spin-off released was Spore Creatures for the Nintendo DS, during 2008, following the storyline of a creature attempting to rescue their species from a civilisation called Gar’skuther. The design of the creatures and environment are very stylised, akin to visuals of the Paper Mario series, which isn’t really seen again in any of the other spin-offs.

The next game released on the same console, during 2009, was named Spore Hero Arena. I haven’t actually seen that much content on this title, but from what I can gather it has a similar playstyle to Spore Creatures, though rendered in 3D and focusing more on combat with other species.

A little later in the year of 2009, they released a Wii spin-off, which I have actually played this time, titled Spore Hero. Again, a story based game revolving around saving all species from a creature called Darkhator. The visual style in this game is honestly very charming, even though it may be a little dated by today’s standards.

There were 2 mobile games developed for Android and IOS, namely Spore Origins and its sequel Spore Creatures (Which… Has nothing to do with the DS game… Guess they were running out of ideas or forgot about it??). The first game revolves around the cell stage, the latter being the creature stage. I personally have not played Spore Origins (And by the visuals, I’m definitely not thinking about it), though I have played Spore Creatures, and in my opinion it was a perfectly enjoyable game, by mobile standards at least.

Spore islands was a Facebook game released in 2009 which ran for around a year. It had the same 2d artstyle as the DS Spore Creatures game, with added 3d backgrounds.

Darkspore was the MOST beloved spin-off, being a multiplayer action role-playing game adding a lot to the Spore universe. This included tons of new lore, characters, species, and a variety of new parts for the editor. Releasing in 2011, EA shut down servers only 5 years later, leaving a lot of lost and unobtainable content and a current effort to revive the servers, similar to efforts like Club Penguin Rewritten.