Although Frank was largely complete, the basic earthy red tone of the default skin just didn't suit, so it was off to the paint shop to make a statement.
Here you can choose from a series of colour templates provided by creative Maxis employees, or you can delve a little deeper and create your own base coat and additional detail. Nothing says "keep away" better than a large red stripe, so Frank was duly imbued with this, and a series of bright effects just to show the other creatures that he's not afraid to set fashion trends. All that was left was to hit the "test drive" button, take some screenshots, and capture a few videos!
As you can see, you can test out your creature's sounds, make them jump about, and even dance for you! You can also generate an offspring for that added cute factor:
Once you've settled on the final design, you can upload your creature directly to the "Sporepedia" - a kind of online database that can be accessed by all Spore players, and will presumably form the basis for creature creation in the final game. It was an emotional farewell as we sent Frank out into the universe, but before we did, we thought it best to max out Frank's Complexity Meter by adding some additional limbs:
The Spore Creature Creator will be available this Friday, and those that want to check it out before parting with $15 can download the demo, which contains twenty-five percent of the body parts available in the full version. Apart from this restriction, it contains everything else mentioned in this article and will be available Tuesday afternoon, so be sure to check GP Downloads then.
