Spore Community Day: My Experience

This might take more than one post to be able to tell the whole story but I’ll try to tell as much as I can. A special thanks to Maxis for the invitation to participate in this once in a lifetime event. I’m coming out of this with a deep desire for the game now, it’s going to be 100x better than I ever expected.

There were 11 of  us that attended. On the left from the front row is Jessica from Mysporepage.com, Jusdon from Sporeprograms.com, and LadyM (yes me) from Gaming Steve and here. The back row from the left is  Joel from Sporetube.com, Gary from xSpore, Rex from Simphoni.net, Vinny (Arti) from Hookedonspore.com, Todd (Hydromancerx) from Sagan4 and GS, Patrick (Petreak) from sporesite.com and Ryan from Sporeum.com. Missing from the photo is Kyle from Totalspore.com.

 So our day started with Maxis Cactus coming to get us at the hotel and walking us over to the Maxis Studio. Hidden away inside other office buildings with no visible signs except for a taped up nameplate in the window, it was like going into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with a golden ticket. We entered the world of Will Wright’s imagination.

We signed our NDA agreements, each of us had a packet with our papers and a cover sheet with our creature. They made sure everything was personalized for each of us including some gifts at the end. We were offered some bagels and coffee for breakfast as we sat around a very casual meeting area.

The entire office has a warehouse feel to it with wooden beams across the ceilings and open spaces with cubicles. A friendly and open work environment. We were given a tour of the studio including Will Wright’s office.

 It’s late and I need to sleep so I’ll update more later, stay tuned for more Spore information.