Creature Creator’s Cryptids

Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 21st, 2008

The following is a guest blog from Miguel Romero, a.k.a Red Pill Junkie, and Cryptomundo appreciates his insights into this speciality topic:

spore1

Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest developers of videogames in the world, is about to release the much anticipated Spore, created by Will Wright, the man behind the acclaimed SIMs titles that let gamers create and administer entire cities, or manage the lives and social interactions of customized virtual characters, also known as avatars.

But Spore is a much more ambitious experience—which is one of the reasons it has taken so long to be developed—since the goal of the game is to let the players create their very own planets & life forms, from unicellular microorganisms to evolved sentient creatures that will develop a whole civilization, and finally interact with different life forms created by other gamers once they reach the level of space travel.

That’s right: Spore lets you play God!

The game is scheduled to be released on September 7, but in the meantime EA has released Spore’s Creature Creator, which is kind of a mini-game within the game, and it’s the part in which people can model their creatures using an intuitive interface that permits them to choose from a large canvas of eyes, legs, antennae, horns, wings, etc. Any aspect of the creature (i.e. size, color, texture) can be customized, so that the design possibilities are seemingly endless.

spore5

Here you can see a video in which Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanof is trying the game for himself here.

spore2

So, you might be thinking “Cool game, but what’s got to do with Cryptozoology?” Well, it turns out that after you finish modelling your creature, you can upload it and share it with other users through Spore’s social network, Sporepedia.

spore6

The game was released last Tuesday, and there are already more than 600,000 creatures uploaded! And not surprisingly, many of them are modeled after some of our favorite cryptids. In his ‘I love the Yeti’ blog, Henry Stokes has taken notice of the Yeti-like creatures shown at Sporepedia.

spore3

But there are also dozens of Bigfoot, Nessie, Mothmn, Jersey Devil, you name it (all you have to do is type the cryptid you’re looking on the Search tab and Voila!); and although many are somewhat—shall we say— “off-model”, others show that they have been clearly created to follow the descriptions of those beings made in cryptozoological circles, or at least as closely as possible, given the natural limitations of the game, or the possible lack of ability of the users.

spore7

So, what are you waiting Cryptomundians?? Now’s your chance to create your own favorite cryptid just the way you think they look like! You think Nessie is a giant seal instead of a plesiosaur? That Thunderbirds are teratorns instead of pterosaurs? Well go for it.

spore4

Creature Creator can be purchased online for US $10 (both for PC or Mac), but EA is also giving away a free trial —although more limited— version of it, which seems a really clever marketing strategy.

Click here to begin.

Game on.

Oh! Just one more thing: do try to be gentle with your creatures, lest they grow up to despise you and negate your existence.

😉

++++

Even a creature named “Loren” ~

Loren

and one called “Miguel”:

miguel

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


8 Responses to “Creature Creator’s Cryptids”

  1. red_pill_junkie responds:

    Wow! the resemblance is uncanny, right up to the size of my horns 😉

    Thank you so much for letting me contribute with Cryptomundo, Loren. It’s really an honor.

  2. shumway10973 responds:

    have the programmers set this up to actually work on computers? Sorry for how that sounds, but I have so many friends and family that are hooked on SIMS, but it acted like a virus on/to their computers. I’m not a SIMS type of person (I like civilization), but the graphics ability is what excites me.

  3. red_pill_junkie responds:

    Hey shumway,

    I haven’t tried this game yet, because my home computer is 4-years old and I fear it may not have the necessary graphics capacity to run it properly—I also admit my gaming tastes are more aimed towards… annihilation rather than creation 😉

    However, for the last 4 years everybody has been talking about this game, and it looks really promising. What’s also exciting is that EA is making a deal with Youtube so that players can share videos of their creatures on the net. Maybe someone will try to re-create the P-G film with Spore 🙂

  4. Amdusias responds:

    This is particulary funny because one of the first things I did was make a bigfoot. If you search “Amdusias” you will see my take on bigfoot, and then a few attempts to make Sea-Monkeys as they were depicted in the old comic book ads.

    This is going to be a great game.

  5. Craig York responds:

    Great lookin’ critters, Red-Congratulations on the article. ( I probably won’t be looking at the site too soon-my home system is close to nine years old! 😉 )

  6. red_pill_junkie responds:

    Hi Amdusias,

    Your Bigfoot was one of the first images I saw at Sporepedia that gave me the idea to write Loren about this game. Great work! But tsk tsk, only ONE Bigfoot and TWO Pazuzus? It’s clear you’re more into the Exorcist than Cryptozoology—How about you make a Dover Demon and send the image to Loren so you can redeem yourself 😉

    Thank you Craig for the nice comments, I really would like to try this game too. Guess I’ll have to accept another debt to buy a new laptop or something, which would also let me read Cryptomundo from the comfort of my bed, so Spore is not my only incentive 🙂

  7. Amdusias responds:

    LOL nice, Red_Pill_Junkie.

    I did a couple passes at Pazuzu because I have always been facinated by what a four-winged anthropomorphised cat-eagle would look like if it were animated. That was quite an idol. I doubt it was based on an actual creature, but the idea of it being an actual creature has knocked about in my noggin since I was a kid.

    Yes, I think that will be my project tonight, crank out a mothman, jersey devil, and maybe a goatman to boot. Puckwudgies, while my personal favorite, never seem to get the same press as their flashy bretheren. **sigh**

  8. dogfightft3 responds:

    it gave me an idea to make a living dinosaur

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

|Top | Content|


Connect with Cryptomundo

Cryptomundo FaceBook Cryptomundo Twitter Cryptomundo Instagram Cryptomundo Pinterest

Advertisers



Creatureplica Fouke Monster Sybilla Irwin



Advertisement

|Top | FarBar|



Attention: This is the end of the usable page!
The images below are preloaded standbys only.
This is helpful to those with slower Internet connections.