Archive for the “Site News” Category

I apologise for not putting up a notice previously but due to illness I’ve been unable to do so. I am currently on the mend and will hopefully be back to updating Spore Daily a bit more often before the end of the year.

But if you were wondering, no! I haven’t abandoned Spore. I’ve just had some more important things to deal with. :-)

If you really want to keep up to date with everything Spore I recommend Space Oddity’s Spore Blog or Spores Illustrated.

During my absence the first “parts pack” was announced for Spore, called the “Cute and Creepy Parts Pack”. As the name suggests, it adds a bunch of cute and/or creepy creature parts.

However the addon will also include the ability for your creature to “beam down” to a planet and wander the surface once you’ve reached the Space phase of the game, something a lot of players wanted. You’ll also be able to create custom missions for the Space phase which I guess is something people would want but perhaps were unaware they could have!

I’m not sure what the price for this pack will be elsewhere in the world but here in Australia it’s going to be $29.95 which is relatively cheap compared to the usual Sims 2 expansion price ($40-45) but still feels a bit pinchy in the wallet region when the game itself is still so new. It really feels like they could have pared down this content a little and released it in the first major patch as a further incentive not to pirate the game.

That said, the content is of interest to me (more parts won’t go astray) and the price is not exorbitant so I am likely to pick the expansion up, either directly or potentially from Santa!

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If you want to buy the parts pack, Direct2Drive are doing a digital download version of it as well.
Download Spore Creepy & Cute Expansion Pack at Direct2Drive.com

To say that this was a tough decision would be an understatement. To say that I am actually kind of glad I didn’t get hundreds of entries would be even more of an understatement. I can only imagine trying to pick and choose a mere 5 from so many, it was agony enough trying to choose from those I did receive!

Please note that at the time of this writing the Sporepedia is down. Links and/or images may be broken if it isn’t back up by the time this is posted. If any of the links/images turn out to be the wrong ones when the Sporepedia is up again, let me know!

But without further ado and in no particular order, the winning entries:

Disco Danica by Legodragonxp.

Why it won: Purple leg warmers! Awesome!

Also had a great compilation dance clip provided and Disco Danica grooves quite well.

While green and purple are not usually a colour combination I would think of, they work well for this creature.

Inferno Dee by IamMe.

Why it won: Big poofy hair and bright colours make this guy somewhat worthy, but what really sold me on choosing this guy is the effort gone to for the description.

When the Sporepedia is up again, I highly advise checking it out!

Pluffer by Marrow.

Why it won: A great big puffball of hair and a very retro paintstyle that makes it look like he’s wearing some kind of pantsuit.

The 70s in particular were very much about peace, love and mungbeans (baby) so the description helped Pluffer over the line!

Pscyhedelica by psychedelicsim.

Why it won: Pink and green? Only in the 80s, man! Only in the 80s!

Another good description and another good dance video helped get Psychedelica across the line.

Not to mention the name!

Disco Stew by Fobok.

Why it won: Well, look. He looks kind of funky.

He dances kind of funky.

He has a funky description.

But mostly… It’s a Simpsons joke. And that’s just groovy!

Congratulations to all the winners and make sure to check your emails (and junk mail) carefully. If you still haven’t got your notification by the weekend, please let me know and I’ll resend it. :-)

Sorry I’m a little late on the notification for everyone but to be clear – any “entries” submitted for the competition from here on in will definitely not be counted. You can still create something to match the theme, if you like, but you won’t be in the running to win a copy of the game.

For those of you who did enter, I have not yet decided who will win… And it may be a few hours until I can, since the Sporepedia is down right now for mysterious upgrades.

The winners will be announced later today, hopefully, both here on the site and via email to the winners, so stay tuned!

Easing the pain of my current ill-health I received confirmation this morning that my copy of Spore has been bundled off and is on its way to me, hopefully to arrive tomorrow.

One whole day early, here in Australia. But potentially not until Thursday.

In any event I will hopefully have my hands on the game tomorrow some time and if I can tear myself away from it I will try and have a review up… by the weekend or something!

Anyone else getting their’s early? Or already got it? Feel free to sound off in the comments so we can all hate you and plot your downfall and so on. :-)

NOTE: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

I realise it’s been a while between challenges but with the imminent release of the full game it seems like a good time to launch the Coolest. Challenge. Ever!

That’s right, we’re returning to the land of superbright colours, bad hairstyles, strange dancing and groooovy chicks, man!

Yes, this week’s challenge is to create a creature you think would have fit into the disco dancing scene of the 70s and 80s.
Not sure what that entails? Perhaps you’re a little too young to know the 70s and 80s? Check out this YouTube video and you ought to get the idea. And possibly some bad flashbacks!

And since this is the final challenge before the release of Spore it seems fitting that this week… there be prizes!

NOTE: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

With thanks to the good people of Direct2Drive.com I have five – yes FIVE – copies of the full version of Spore to giveaway!
These copies of the game are the digital download version, the same one you can preorder from them now or buy as of the 7th of September.

NOTE: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

How to enter:
1. Create a creature in the Spore Creature Creator.
2. Make sure you put “sporedaily.com challenge” as one of the tags for the creature.
3. Include a groovy description for your creature. It doesn’t have to be 70s-80s related.
4. Upload your creature to the Sporepedia.
5. Reply to this post before 5pm, Wednesday the 3rd of September (Pacific Daylight Time), with the name of your creature and a link to the Sporepedia entry for your creature. Be sure to include a working email address with your comment (or have a working address attached to your Disqus account) as that is how I will contact the winner! Put the address in the “Email:” line, not in the comments box.
5a. (Optional) Include a link to a YouTube video of your creature busting some groovy dance moves!

Winners will be selected by me, based on how good your creature looks and moves, your creature’s description and the overall grooviness, dude!
Winners will receive one copy of the full game, Spore, available via digital download from Direct2Drive.

NOTE: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

Rules for entry:
1. You must be a resident of the United States of America or Canada. Sorry. As an Australian myself, I feel your pain, but Direct2Drive can only offer me copies for the US and Canada.
2. You must use a real email address when entering as I will need to contact you with details on how to claim your prize, should you win. Your address will not be recorded or displayed publicly, it will only be used to contact you if you win. If you cannot be reached to claim your prize it may be given to the next person in line. Add sporedaily.com to your mail filters if necessary!
3. One entry per person, please.
4. The judge’s decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into, etc.
5. All entries must be posted PRIOR to 5pm, Wednesday the 3rd of September, Pacific Daylight Time.
6. Your creature MUST be tagged with the “sporedaily.com challenge” tag. I must insist on this to confirm that creatures are in fact owned by someone entering the competition. When the competition ends you are free – win or lose – to remove the tag, it is purely for the purposes of competition verification.
7. Responsibility for downloading the game is the winner’s. Spore Daily will not be providing DVDs, you will have to download the game from the Direct2Drive (Fileplanet) servers. As part of claiming your prize you will need to register a Fileplanet account. Registration is free.
8. The prize is not redeemable for cash. If you do not want a copy of the game, do not enter!
9. Reply to this post directly to enter, do not reply to another comment “higher up” or you will be disqualified. If you do so accidentally, there is an edit button available so you can remove your misplaced entry and enter correctly.

Failure to follow any of the above rules will result in disqualification. I realise there’s quite a few of them but I expect I’ve managed to forget something anyway. Ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse for rulebreaking.

If you would like to participate in the challenge but live outside the US or Canada, please clearly mark your comment “(Non-US/Canada)” so that I know to exclude your entry from consideration for the prizes.

And if you have not yet pre-ordered yourself a copy of Spore then I can recommend Direct2Drive’s digital download store, and not just because they’ve given me fantabulous prizes to hand out. Their system is simple and painless. It is, in fact, how I got my copy of the Creature Creator!
To order the game from the US/Canada store, please click here.
If you’re in the UK/EU, you can buy it from the UK Direct2Drive instead.

Take your time and make sure you submit your best entry if you want to win yourself a free copy of the game. You have until Wednesday!

(Please note, I have never given away anything remotely like this before so excuse the length of the above. I wanted to ensure all bases were covered.)

NOTE: Please wait a couple of minutes before reposting an entry you think did not go through. My site is cached to reduce server load so you may not see new comments immediately. Sorry for any confusion!

NOTE: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!