could Spore help Metaplace modelers?

I've mused before about collective assets in the upcoming community of Metaplace designers. Now, I'm wondering if Maxis would be willing to join that community, and if there's any financial reason they couldn't.

Spore seems to have a load of impressive editors. Its gamers will soon be designing animals, plants, buildings, transports, military vessels, spaceships, music, and who knows what else. And, just as Wright said he hoped, it all appears to be Pixar-quality.

All of those assets will be shared between Spore players through highly-compressed but detailed files. Well, what about sharing with non-Sporedians?

Just think of how useful those editors could be to Metaplace designers! Designing art, like designing anything else, can be much easier when shaping some pre-existing thing and receiving real-time feedback than when having to imagine somehing new from a blank slate. I think Spore could greatly empower the Metaplace design community. All that's needed is Maxis and EA's permission, and a tool that could convert Spore item files into 3-D models that could be imported to a Metaplace game.

Do Maxis or EA have any incentive to prevent the sharing of Spore players' creations outside of the Spore community?

If they do, it's not obvious to me. I don't see how their choice to share could hinder Spore's popularity or act as direct competition. If anything, it would direct more attention to Spore.

I hope Wright, Maxis, and EA will consider the possibility of creating or allowing a program that transfigures Spore item files into non-Spore files. It would be greatly appreciated by hundreds of gamers and designers.

Collective assets

Something else Areae's Metaplace has me wondering about is the possibility of shared assets.


What I mean
Bioware included a design toolset with Neverwinter Nights, but modules were limited to NWN assets and applications. I doubt they would have been very happy to find their proprietary NPC models or sound effects in a non-Neverwinter game, even if no profit was made from the game.

But the sharing of assets without such limitations on their use might be possible with Metaplace. Someone creates a model of a horse, and a dozen other users use that model in their own games. The horse might have been created for an RPG, but another user might make the model the basis of a horse-racing game. Someone records the sound of an evil cackle, and the audio asset spreads like wildfire.

Certainly, many users will only license out assets for money, but some (how many, I don't pretend to know) would certainly be willing to give theirs away. Perhaps, most of those would ask to be credited for the asset by name, but the use is essentially free.


What Areae must do
Or, rather, what it seems they must do. I'm not a legal expert.

If they want to this happen, Areae should facilitate the transfer of assets from one user to another through a simple and painless, but permanently recorded and easily accessed, legal agreement. Basically, it would be like clicking on a EULA before you start playing an MMO. After the two users have agreed to a moneyless transaction, they use the Areae tool to formalize the contract by both clicking on this agreement; thereby keeping the free nature of the transfer on record in case one party changes his or her mind. (Please note that this is just theoretical. Areae has suggested no such feature.)


The result
If users can comfortably use the assets other Metaplace users have created, then it opens up many possibilities. Areae's design tool will help amateur designers cut a lot of corners by not having to build the games' programming foundations, but shared assets could result in even more saved time and work.

For one thing, it would expand the Metaplace toolset's accessibility to would-be designers who are short on available time. More people would be willing to try their hand at implementing a Metaplace game.

It would also inspire some designers to tackle larger projects; to be more ambitious.

For example, I've always wanted to design a multiplayer RPG in which there are so many different weapon and armor effects that no one player will ever see them all; a game in which the item you loot from the monster is the only weapon in the game with that particular effect (such as a sword which gives you a ghostly companion or a frightening helmet that reduces the morale / combat effectiveness of most enemies). You might have read an old post of mine on how content doesn't always need to be experienced directly by a player to improve his or her game experience.

That sort of feature would never get into a professional game, because it requires the creation of too many assets. But if many different Metaplace users permitted me to incorporate some of their assets into my game, then a little creativity would enable me to build that game at a reasonable pace. I wouldn't be making the models; I'd just be looking at what other people have created and asking myself what sort of cool effect I could use it for.

Someone models a fire for their log cabin's fireplace... I make the fire appear in front of enemies when my players cast a Fire Wall spell. Someone models a candle... I enlarge it, change the hue, draw runes on it, and turn it into a pillar of an old ruin lost in the forest.

Collective assets would enable us to design as we designed when we were little kids. We can use our imaginations to rearrange the familiar into something new and wonderful.

Teaching with Metaplace

If Metaplace is what I think it is and it turns out well, then I really want to help Areae advertise this one. It's the sort of thing that could help legitimize the game industry and accomplish a lot of good.

One way to help is to demonstrate the tool's diversity of possible applications. Educational games are a fine example. I can see a lot of potential in the general concept for designing games that are as educational and enlightening as they are fun.

So here I'm going to come up with an example. I'd really love to hear other persons' ideas for games which could educate kids; kids mainly, though educating adults is just as important (but harder). I might follow up with more educational game concepts later.

I went back after I'd described the game and added some section titles to make for an easier read, but I'm not going to reorganize and divide the sections properly.


MR. BONES
The first thing that pops to mind is an anatomy game. The game's purpose is to teach people about skeletal structures.

Goal and rewards
The player's goal is to look at a 3-D model of an animal from all sides (by moving the camera) and point to (or trace, though I think pointing would be easier, both to implement and to play) where each individual bone lies under the animal's skin. Correct identifications are rewarded with points, while errors cost points.

The player can try the same level again for a better score or move on (if they achieve a minimal accuracy requirement). The player's points from various levels accumulate to acquire badges, which can then be shown off on the his or her homepage (Myspace, Facebook, whatever) or included in group leaderboards (the group might be a group of friends or it might be a class competition which a teacher sets up for the students).

For all ages and types
The intended audience ranges across all age groups, kindergarten to senior citizens. Consequently, the game should begin simply, becoming more difficult and dynamic as the player progresses.

Choose the levels and options you prefer
It might make sense to begin with human animals. So the first level might be identifying bone regions (torso, head, leg, arm, etc) or identifying the bones of specific areas (the hand bones, for example). Regardless, players would have the option of playing the full game or just the human levels.

Teachers could toggle an option which provides bone labels at the end of each level (tibia, fibia, etc). There might also be more depthful information, such as an explanation of the human skull's crenulations (the skull is actually many bones fused together).

Escalating and dynamic challenges
In the complete version of the game, each new level is a different animal. This is where parents and teachers can really have fun with their kids (or by themselves), since most people don't have much knowledge of zoology.

Can you identify all the bones of a red-tailed hawk? How about a squirrel? or a raccoon? All of those are North American animals. Players might have the option to sort animal-identification levels by region. Try Amazon animals one day and North African animals the next.

There would also be "trick" levels. Can you identify the bones of a sea sponge? Yes and no. Sponges don't have skeletons like ours, but they do have thousands of triangular bones called spicules. Those spicules actually have to be hammered out before the rock-hard sea sponge can be made into the sponge you use to clean in your kitchen or bathroom. Another trick animal might be the nautilus, which has only one shell but adds new layers to the shell as it grows. Another example is sharks; they have only cartilage, not bones.

Animated rewards
Unless Metaplace makes animation easy, I probably wouldn't be able to reward players with animal animations, like I'd want to. But as a substitute (one which can be toggled on/off), perhaps I can use a link to videos (like YouTube videos) of real animals in action. Identify all of the lion's bones correctly and you get to see a short video of a lion. Get the lemur completely right and you can watch a real lemur.

This sort of thing would encourage players to retry levels so they can correctly identify all bones, rather than settling for "close". A possible alternative to an animation or video would be sound clips, like hearing the lion roar or the lemur chatter.

Fun facts
I might even include non-skeletal facts about each animal in a little bubble at the end of each level, like "A lion's roar can be heard a mile away" or "Some orcas (killer whales) have been known to massage their bellies on rocks."

Laugh it up
In any educational game, humor is a great way to immediately impress upon the learner that the game is meant to be fun. I'd squeeze in as many bad puns, funny facts, and other jokes as I could.

If I was really feeling ambitious (or had some awesome help), I'd allow the player to tickle each animal for a funny visual and audial reaction. Ever seen a bear laugh? If I can make a dog squirm, I'm sure their cousins (bears) are ticklish, too.


As you can probably tell, I enjoy teaching. I also love animals and know a lot about tons of them. So I'll probably make at least a couple educational games with Metaplace, if it turns out well.

Metaplace!

I have to admit, I've been pretty doubtful that Raph and Areae were going to go in a direction I like with their game; but I'm completely converted!

If you haven't checked out the basic concept of Metaplace, go do it!

If they can pull it off, I'll be churning out the games as quick as I can... actually able to put my ideas into action! I've been planning on eating and breathing Spore for a year, but that game might have to make room for Metaplace.

If they can pull it off, I can see this having a huge impact on the whole industry. Designers will be hired based on their Metaplace projects. Small-game developers will be able to not only build prototypes, but also get popular feedback on their ideas before investing further time and money.

... not to mention that you know everyone in our little blogosphere will be competing to design the best game. ;)

Honestly, I'm looking forward to collaborating on projects as much as building my own. I can see this being a great tool for Nick's project, especially.

And I bet a lot of folks are going to find out they're great designers when they had never even considered making a game before. People always surprise you with creativity when you give them just the right tools and setting.

There are three exclamation marks already in this post, and I bet that's never happened before (I'm a calm person). I'm really excited about this project. Best of luck, Areae!