GDC Radio: Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore
Caryl Shaw - Producer, Maxis
Length - 41:11

When you fire up your copy of Spore, that crazy three-headed, five-legged creature you see coming over the hill to attack your creature may have been created by another community member, or your best friend, or maybe someone you've never even heard of. The experience that the creature has in your game will become part of its recorded history as it gets downloaded and challenged by other players in the Spore universe. Through in-game and web-based features, the person who created the creature can review and share its stats with friends and other community members building notoriety for both the creature and the creator.

This session explores how user-created content in other Maxis products like SimCity and The Sims 2 created a different kind of online community, and how those lessons are being applied in the Pollinated Content System in Spore. Specifically, we'll look at how to tailor the system to appeal to both users who specialize in creating content and users who are more likely to download someone else's creations.

Attendees learn the history of shared content and community involvement in previous Maxis games and how those lessons are being incorporated into Spore.

This session is for game designers and producers who are interested in alternate methods of creating community with online features that don't require a persistent web connection. No prerequisites are necessary.

You can now now download the 'Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore' GDC Radio lecture (.MP3, 9.4 MB).

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