this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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It was supposed to be an evolution engine. That’s how they developed it and how the tech demos and marketing pushed it.
But then it ended up being simplified and gamified so much that it basically didn’t matter what you did, so the only fun part was making your creatures look like penises.
LMAO— ok, true…
But I actually bought the game (yes, once upon a time people used money and exchanged it for software) and the original version was just the evolution engine. There was actually some controversy at the time that the game didn’t actually contain any “game“. Eventually, further updates turned it into the “penis creation engine“ you described.
But who doesn’t love a lovely, well designed penis?
It really was a shame that they never turned it into a “best designed penis competition” game. I believe I would’ve been very good at that.
I was there, I bought it too. At release it was already dumbed down so much that it did not live up to the expectations from the tech demos.
Thrive is very much a spiritual successor to those tech demos.
The game was hobbled in development. I remember reading the early development stories and stuff as it was being made and they wanted to make a serious evolution sim. EA basically forced them to make it a light hearted kiddie game and so it pretty much died on release.
I mean it was extremely popular, got a sequel, and remains one of the top pirated games to this day
There is no spore sequel?
Darkspore is the sequel
Didn't know THAT was a thing. Not gonna lie it looks pretty rad.