With EA Games' having just launched Spore this past week, legendary designer Will Wright was able to take some time out of his schedule to answer your questions in this special edition of 10 Questions.

Wright talks about how happy he is with the community that formed around The Sims, things they cut from Spore, the effect of networking tools, dealing with design constraints in creating creatures in Spore, among other topics.

Thanks once again to those of you who sent in questions. Please enjoy the full Q&A below, and stay tuned for our next 10 Questions announcement!

1. Will, looking back over your entire game design career, what is the one moment that stands out in your mind as your biggest personal achievement?

I think the community that built up around The Sims is what I would pick. We did a lot of experimental activities before launch (live webcasts, free tools) to encourage fans to start collecting and distributing content. In hindsight I think those experiments really set the tone for the community that built up around the game.

2. Has anyone on the Spore team created a single microbial creature that eventually evolved into Will Wright?

Somebody did create a Will Wright sporeling; I don't know if they evolved it all the way from the cell game or not. They did print it out in 3D; it's still sitting in my office next to my computer. It's a rather ugly little thing.

"As far as character development goes, I think that's a bit of a red herring in games. We should focus on extracting and expanding worlds, characters and storylines from the players."

3. What things did you want to include in Spore but couldn't because of time or technology restrictions?

There are obviously lots of features you eventually need to cut from any design if you actually want to eventually ship. Sometimes these cuts are due to time/resource constraints but not always. We had wanted the ability to build underwater civilizations in Spore but could never get a very usable interface for controlling a 3d RTS in our prototypes. There was also a "close encounters" minigame that we cut because it was only fun to play about three times.

4. Did the introduction of social networking tools (such as Facebook & Youtube) during the production of Spore have a large effect on the final result?

More 10 Questions!

  • Read the Q&A with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
  • Read the Q&A with EA CEO John Riccitiello
  • Read the Q&A with Microsoft's Shane Kim
  • Read the Q&A with Epic's Cliff Bleszinski
  • Read the Q&A with Firaxis' Sid Meier
  • Read the Q&A with Insomniac's Ted Price
  • Read the Q&A with Lionhead's Peter Molyneux

    • That was a feature that came in rather late. We didn't even realize we needed it until we had a fairly large set of team-built objects in our database. By large I mean about 15,000 objects, which is nothing compared to the 13 million we now have due to our players being online. But even with that few we were beginning to see how fun it was to browse, subscribe and build collections out of the pool of content.

    5. Do you think that games will ever be able to provide experiences compelling enough that they can change your outlook on life the way a good movie or book can? Or star characters that are as rich and believable as those seen in books and movies?

    I think we already have the ability to change the way people see the world. I hear that from players all the time whether it's from playing SimCity, The Sims or other even Grand Theft Auto. As far as character development goes, I think that's a bit of a red herring in games. We should focus on extracting and expanding worlds, characters and storylines from the players. I'd rather amplify what's in the player's imagination than impose a linear story on an experience that should be player-focused.

    Spore Screens

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA

      Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

      EA