Sporepedia

The Sporepedia is essentially a heads-up-display, cataloging all stars, solar systems, planets and creatures (and, presumably, buildings, vehicles and flora) you have discovered. It has the look and feel of a pack of cards, with the name of the content in the top, an image and general stats for the represented content, and the name of the creator in the bottom. The player will be able to bookmark or blacklist a certain creator in order to prioritize or ban content from that particular creator.

Types of cards
There are several types of cards, each representing a different kind of content.

Sporepedia card
This is the top card, which does not hold any information by itself, but provides access to all the content currently in your database. For example, it is possible to list all solar systems you have encountered, or all the creatures in the database.

Star card
The star card holds information about a star. Once selected, a list of cards representing the planets revolving around it is shown.

Planet card
This card represents a planet, and will most likely show information such as how habitable the planet is. Selecting a planet card will show a list of cards representing the creatures that inhabit it.

Creature card
Shows information about a creature. The information shown is an icon representing the level of the creature's brain, its power, speed, stealth, senses, how social it is and an icon indicating whether it is a herbivore (apple) or a carnivore (meat). An icon for omnivore is yet to be revealed.

Will Wright has hinted that once you have a creature in the Sporepedia, you can duplicate/edit it in the Creature Editor.

Other cards
Other cards presumed to be available are those of buildings, flora and vehicles. There are also badge cards, which may determine objectives accomplished.

Obtaining cards
Cards in the Sporepedia are added automatically by visiting planets and solar systems. However, to upload a creature into the Sporepedia, you must first scan it with the UFO.

Other uses
These cards will also be available in a card game outside of Spore, most likely a multiplayer one. Will Wright has mentioned that this card game might be available on mobile phones and other hand consoles.

In an article on GameSpy, Will Wright has this to say about the cards: Well, actually we are going to go on all platforms, but we will come out on PC first. We will even come out on cell phones and stuff. One of the things in the game is that as you go around and encounter things… creatures and plants, or whatever, you make trading cards of each thing. That is the metaphor for the database -- trading cards. So you can collect your cards. You can print them out. You can now play your own card game. That might be like the cell phone part. That stuff is so light. It's more about collectability as opposed to interaction. Every creature in the PC game is three or four megabytes. But the cards, that is the database that the player is building.