Brainstorming: Every great idea has to start somewhere. In this phase the team throws out ideas for adventures, discussing what they want to accomplish. As the adventure evolves, goals are discussed, determining how gameplay will function.

Story: Most adventures tell some sort of story, so developing a narrative is a key element of the pre-production process. This can include a backstory (what happened before the captain arrived) as well as snippets of significant dialogue; when the captain speaks to someone, what will they say?

Production: Once the team has a good idea of what they want to do, they jump into the Adventure Creator and start blocking out the adventure, ensuring they have all the cast members they need. If not, they create them. Thanks to the intuitive design of the Creator, it only takes a few minutes to block out an adventure by creating environments and placing key gameplay objects. After placing all the objects and implementing the goals, the adventure is playable…but it might not be very pretty.

Art Pass: During this stage the team makes several passes through the adventure to ensure everything looks just right. This can include adding visual and sound effects. Maybe you want to add a lightning storm or the sound of wind blowing? Even simple additions such as these can have a dramatic impact on how an adventure looks and plays.

Testing & Tuning: This is the most time-consuming part of the creation process, requiring the team to play an adventure over and over to ensure everything works correctly and looks perfect. It’s a good idea to test an adventure with different captains of varying abilities to ensure it’s not too easy or too difficult for anyone. For example, a captain equipped with a Jump Jet could easily circumvent some obstacles.

So when you’re ready to start making your own adventures, follow the advice from the developers. For more information on the Adventure Creator, check out our guide, releasing next week. It includes a detailed overview of the entire Creator as well as a step-by-step tutorial.

In my first adventure the player’s captain beams down to a purple planet and is greeted by the leader of a colony under siege by hostile natives. During the siege, the colony’s deep space antenna array was damaged, preventing them from calling on their fleet for assistance. Therefore it’s up to the player’s captain to sneak past the enemy camp and fix the antenna array, located in a nearby valley. Once the captain fixes the antenna, a friendly space ship arrives and attacks the enemy camp. Upon the captain’s return to the colony he/she is greeted as a hero complete with dancing creatures, fireworks, and confetti. Originally I had the goal set so the captain had to destroy the enemy camp. But I wanted to make more of a stealthy adventure so I edited it so the captain had to sneak around, get to the antenna and let the incoming friendly space ship annihilate the enemy camp.

Anyway, that gives you a small taste of what’s possible with the Adventure Creator. There’s so much potential here that I can’t wait until the expansion releases to see what the Spore community can come up with. Like creations in Spore, adventures can be shared through the Sporepedia and the Spore web site so there will never be a shortage of adventures to keep your captain busy.