Spore Creature Creator

The Creature Creator is the name of the stand-alone creature editor released on June 18, 2008 by EA/Maxis prior to the release of the full Spore game. Purchase or download of this stand-alone editor is not required for full functionality of the full Spore game.

Trial and Full Version
Three varieties of the Creature Creator are available: the paid version for $9.95 (USD), a free trial version downloadable from Spore.com (also bundled for free with the SimCity Box), and the AT&T Edition. The free trial only contains 25% of the creature parts found in the full version.

The AT&T Edition
The AT&T Edition is a free download for AT&T customers. It contains 37 more parts/paints than normally come free. Breakdown of these additions to the normal free trial version follows.

Build Mode
 * Mouths: The 5th omnivore row (begins with Sauroclod)
 * Eyes: The first 5 in the 3rd column (begins with Eyebissed)
 * Arms: Cutty, Scrappy (2 more on the 3rd row)
 * Legs: Ostrichopath, Thighstrider (2 more on the 3rd row)
 * Graspers: The first 3 in the 3rd column (begins with Anphibigrip)
 * Feet: The first 4 in the 3rd column (begins with The Clawman)
 * Weapons: The first 3 in the 3rd column (begins with Ultramegadeer)
 * Details: The first 5 in the 3rd column (begins with Jellybutton)

Paint Mode
 * Complete Styles: 3 more, 2nd page, 2nd row
 * Base: 3 more, starting on the 1st page, 2nd column through the 2nd page, 1st column
 * Coat: the last two on the 2nd page, 1st row
 * Detail: the item on page 2, 1st row, 3rd column

Rebate Offers
Consumers who have purchased the Creature Creator have been hoping to receive some sort of discount or perk on the full Spore game when it is released. While EA has made no announcements regarding this, other third party vendors are providing a $3.00 (USD) certificate to be used towards purchase of the full game, including Amazon.com. Target is offering the same discount.

Community
Immediately upon release of the Creature Creator, the Spore community became active on the official Spore forums and elsewhere. There were many complaints of difficulty downloading the game, but most of these were resolved within the first 48 hours. Since then, the community has been holding informal creature creation contests and staging statistics-based, text only battles among creatures, as well as creating numerous fan sites and fan fan artwork using their creatures and materials found in the Spore fansite kit. Third party businesses have also been staging formal contests, including Yahoo Games and SurveyGizmo.com

Differences between Creature Creator and the final Creature Creator

 * The effects of parts do not add up (Example: you put a part with 1 charm when you already have another part with 1 charm, you no longer will get 2 charm.) Because of this, all parts were changed to offer different stats, and because of that, some parts were made cheaper or more expensive.
 * Some mouths (Primate Mouths, Radial Mouths, Herbivourus Bird Mouths, Insect Mouths and Carnivore Mouths) have a different mating call.
 * Different animation when showing an example of the creature's gliding ability.
 * Wings have a different design. Rather than being open at all times, they are now 'folded up", and only opened when the creature uses them.
 * Creatures make sounds when jumping in Test Drive mode (press Spacebar)
 * Senses no longer have any effect.
 * The Radial mouths are closed (although the creatures created in the pre-release editor will still have the old design on the thumbnail)
 * All the social moves, not just Sing, now make sounds and have particle effects. When using Dance, a beat plays in the background, and yellow flashes emanate from the creature's footsteps. Charm makes sparkles and "sparkly" sounds. Pose makes a "ta-daah" sound, and a multitude of flower petals emanate from the creature's hands.

Resources

 * Get the Spore Creature Creator from the Spore website
 * Get the AT&T Edition of the Spore Creature Creator
 * Get the official fansite kit and wallpapers