The Biology of Spore | Part I
1,093,021
Published 2022-03-11
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I don’t think there’s ever been a video game quite like Spore. Released in the late 2000s, the game lets you create and then guide a lifeform from a microorganism in a tidepool to an advanced creature in a galaxy-spanning civilization. Being able to, essentially, design and play as your own speculative creature really blew my mind when I was younger. I remember spending hours trying to make my creations as detailed as possible, and coming up with fake scientific attributes about how they functioned in the ecosystems around them. Of course, you could also use Spore to create bizarre creatures, and throw the rulebook of biology out the window. I also know a lot of content was cut during its development.
Yet Spore remains an evolution simulator that’s quite nostalgic to many. And the game does explore a number of the principles of evolution and biology, albeit in a simplified manner. So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll make a creature and play through the game ourselves to gain an understanding of how this virtual race for survival relates to real scientific laws. And as an added challenge, we’ll try to keep our creature within the parameters of plausibility — as much as such a thing is possible in Spore.
So, let’s begin our multi-billion-year voyage through this simulated universe…
0:00 The Biology of Spore
1:38 Dawn of Life
4:15 Early Adaptations
6:26 Changing Tides
7:59 Ocean to Land
10:39 Conflict and Evolution
13:14 Rise of the Pack
15:04 A Changing Mind
17:56 What Comes Next…
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow, Firesong, Impact Lento, Majestic Hills, Thunderbird, Bittersweet, Floating Cities
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#CuriousArchive #SpeculativeBiology #Spore
All Comments (21)
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Spore is both super impressive while also being held together with toothpicks and glue. And I still can't bring myself to hate it.
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i dont think any other game has ever reached the level of pure uniqueness that spore had. im so sad that it seems to have faded into the background, but every now and again people seem to find interest in it.
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Did not expect a spore playthrough here! Wonderfully relaxing yet intriguing! 🙏
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If you like Spore then I recommend keeping an eye on “Adapt”. It’s a spore-like indie game with more in depth features based on realistic speculative evolution.
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Man spore was so great. I'd die for a new game with a similar concept.
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How on Earth were you able to document spore seriously when most people use it to create civilisations of pears
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This game WAS my life as a kid. I grew up in a small village in Germany. Me and my friends shared the same CD of Spore and I remember it barely running on our parents PCs. We made clubs based on our favorite creatures, drew comics and made weekend long sleepovers playing the Adventure add on. It was also the first time I made friends online, through the creature upload archive, where I would make gifts for other Spore players. Signs of its impact are still in my life to this day
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I love this. This approach of focusing on real-world biology is the one I use when making my own spore creatures. I even go as far as creating entire biospheres for my planets (6 herbivores, 3 carnivores/omnivores) so I can make a scientifically accurate version of my planet in space stage.
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ARE YOU SERIOUS? DUDE YOU MADE MY DAY! This Game was what drove me to study biology
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Unironically, Walking with Dinosaurs and Spore were the two things that drove me to be more interested in biology I'm a software dev now, but I still really like learning about animals and speculative evolution I really wasn't expecting a video on Spore, considering how "intelligent design"-y it gets
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The motto of Spore is "How will you create the universe?" and I have been part of it for a long time. I think the game is awesome, and about the last thing I expected to end up on this channel. Thanks, CA!
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Spore is one of the most nostalgic games for me, and I’d love to see you make a second video on this covering the Tribal, Civilisation and Space stages.
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Oooh this was wonderfully unexpected! :D
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I would love to see a second part, even if the creature isn't evolving anymore.👍
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I love how this series so far is closer to a let's play than it is a fiction documentary like so many other videos on this channel.
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This is tangential learning at its finest. I’ve been watching this channel since the first upload and I’m impressed how far the archive has come.
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This is great, I recently got spore back on steam and its the only game I want to play. I love to make weird creepy creatures with the Cute and creepy DLC and its just a great game. I wish that EA didn't abandon spore.
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I genuinely love this. When I was a kid, I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do a play through taking a realistic approach to spore, but alas, I was only 7.
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Honestly I would love to see a detailed speculative evolution/story on the Curiosus Sapiens.
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Spore is fantastic! A game of my childhood that I still play today! I really enjoyed seeing the footage of real life examples of what you were evolving, seeing those microorganisms was fascinating and I never fail to learn something new, watching your content! I really hope for a new Spore some day!
