Creature

The term "creature" in Spore refers to the organism controlled by the player. The term is most of all relevant to the Creature stage, because that is the stage where the player controls a single creature. The creature begins as a micro-organism (microbe), however.

Microbe


In the Cell stage, the player interacts with the world with a "cell" (although it is closer in appearance to a piece of zooplankton). The objective here is to consume food to gather "DNA Points". The cell can then find a mate and lay an "egg". This takes the player to the Cell Editor where one can give different abilities to the cell by adding parts, ranging from stronger weapons to various forms of movement.

As the generations go on, the cell grows larger and the camera pulls out until the microbe becomes a multi-cellular organism, most often referred to as the creature.

Genetics
Each creature has its own set of genetics, which is (in practical terms) the procedural code compressed to a small size which generates the 3D creature on a player's machine.

Creature size
Creature sizes range from mouse sized to truly gigantic. The player cannot create an Epic Creature without mods (in Space stage the player can unlock the Supersizer tool, and can make Epics in the adventure creator), the largest creature so far known in Spore, as the game uses procedural generation to create them. Hyper Size creatures may exist on vast, unknown worlds.

Land
All of the creatures possible in Spore (with the exception of those in the Cell stage) are land-dwelling.

Amphibious
True amphibious creatures were cut from the final game, but all creatures can swim in water around the world.

Aquatic
Aquatic creatures were originally included in the game, but they were removed due to animation difficulties (player would need to navigate in three dimensions underwater). It has been rumored, however, that they will bring them out in an expansion pack. If a creature swims too far from shore, they are eaten by a sea monster.

A glitch, however, can sometimes cause a players creature to generate underwater. If the creature dares venture onto land, he or she is eaten by the sea monster, which emerges from the dirt rather than the sea.

Flying
Any creature can fly if given a single or pair of wings, which are available in the detail section of the creature creator, and can only be used effectively in the creature stage, however a creature will fly long distances in the tribal stage. The level determines how long one can fly, and the skill is called (more appropriately) glide

In the GDC 2005 presentation about Spore you can see a little creature flying away from behind a rock after the Willosaur escaped from the spidery creature and Will Wright says "...on the other hand this guy is kinda fast...", talking about his Willosaur. Also, a more defined bird-creature can be seen in the presentation as the Willosaur emerges from the water and onto land, the bird is seen on top of a tree and flies across to reappear again to fly above another tree and into the distance.

According to Gamespot it was seemingly impossible to create a flying creature during the E3 playable demo of the Create a Creature system.

Flying has been included in the game, though it is posssible to fly forever through a glitch in Spore: Galactic Adventures. If the player's creature obtains a speed powerup, then flies with a glide level of 5, the creature will glide forever, provided the played holds the left mouse button down.

In a demonstration at Gadgetoff 2007, Will Wright created a winged-creature in the creature editor. Despite having large wings relative to its body size which displayed some functionality once in the game world, i.e. they flapped as the creature walked, the creature did not ever take flight. 

However an article published on the 13th of February 2008 at bit-tech.net claimed that placing wings on a creature would allow it to take flight.

In the final game true flight like amphibious creatures has been cut. Like Amphibious creatures an element of flight is still in the game with the creature creator having four types of wings that allow the players character to 'fly' for different lengths of time. Only the highest level wings allow a creature to achieve anything resembling true flight.

In the new expansion pack for Spore - Spore Galactic Adventures, the players captain can be outfitted with a jet pack. If the hero flies too high, lightning can strike the players creature on planets with high atmosphere.

Subterranean
Subterranean creatures do not feature in the game, they can be made possible in the Adventure creator, using caves etc.

Arboreal
Aboreal creatures do not feature in the game. However, creatures can be made to walk on trees in the Adventure creator, but after a while, they may fall off.

Asymmetrical
Asymmetrical Creatures can be created since Patch 1.05, but the only asymmetric creatures that appear with an unmodded game are the Grox and the Anticipaste.

Rolling or slithering
Blobs and snakes exist in large numbers in the spore universe.