Spore add-ons: hardcore, real evolution/natural selection mode?

Another day, another idea for one of my favorite PC games, Spore. Would it not be wonderful if a “mode” that truly implemented natural selection existed? It would be challenging from a game design standpoint to make something so complex, and it would most definitely be a more mature game (seeing as the objective for your creature would be sexual activity). Yet I get the feeling that it would be interesting, you want to go the violent route, so the creatures that have bigger claws in your pack would go on to reproduce. You would not be able to form your creature exactly how you want, and there would be a much greater risk of dying out, but it would be very fun. I am not sure how evolving sentience would work out, players may end up being stuck in the creature stage forever, and the timeline would have to remain accelerated just as in the original spore.

One complaint of Spore that I have is that one can just wantonly throw claws and bigger mouths on their creature, this is a nice representation of evolution, but is most certainly not how things actually work. I understand Spore is a game, but for something that has been pushing the evolution angle, there is surprisingly little of evolution as we understand it in the game. For instance: your creature begins with eyes in the cell stage, this makes the word cell seem like a misnomer. Assuredly, your creature has comparatively less cells in this stage, but they are far from being single-celled if they have complete optical abilities. It may have been fun to grow photosensitive parts over time, and then achieve eyes, this would have added depth to the aquatic portion of spore. Finally, it would be excellent if maxis added the ability to place creatures on a planet knowing fully well that the ecosystem could not support them, I would still like to see the process without the creature just dying on impact.

Spore is a wonderful game, yet the addition of natural selection would have bolstered its scientific weight. We can only pray that Maxis has something similar in mind.

If you enjoyed this article be sure to click here to check out our homepage where you will be sure to find something nerdy that will entertain you, whether it be our podcast, webcomic, or one of our opinionated articles!