Will Wright's 'Future Of Content' GDC Talk Analyzed

As part of its continuing coverage of Game Developers Conference 2005, Gamasutra is proud to present a registration-free version of a new feature documenting Will Wright's much-lauded "The Future Of Content" GDC 2005 lecture, in which he introduced details of his previously unannounced game Spore. The piece comments: "While the focus of the game consumer world seems to be on Spore itself, perhaps the game development paradigm shift that Wright proffered will find its own place in the evolution of the video game industry", and goes on to talk about Wright's views of procedural content creation and 'the need to push down the content/value curve' as particularly pertinent to today's game developer. Spore is a sprawling multi-genre title (unfortunately without publically available screenshots) which follows life from its smallest single-cell origins all the way to planet-spanning conquerors, and the gameplay spans all the way from Cubivore-style animal consumption, through real-time strategy in the controlling of tribes, all the way up to a Civilization-reminiscent planetary, and eventually interplanetary expansion phase. More details on the game are likely to be available at May's E3 trade show.