Spore is a 2008 life simulation real-time strategy god game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Controversy surrounded Spore due to the inclusion of SecuROM, and its digital rights management software, which can potentially open the user's computer to security risks.

Unlike many other Maxis games,[5] Spore has a primary win condition, which is obtained by reaching a supermassive black hole placed at the center of the galaxy and receiving a "Staff of Life".

The player guides this simple microbe around in a 3D environment on a single 2D plane, reminiscent of Flow, where it must deal with fluid dynamics and predators, while eating meat chunks or plants.

[10] The player is given a hut, a group of up to 12 fully evolved creatures,[11] as well as two of six possible Consequence Abilities, unlocked depending on the species' behavior in the previous phases.

The diet choice that the player made in prior stages, whether herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore, determines what food the tribe can gather and eat.

The goal in the civilization phase is to gain control of the entire planet, and it is left to the player to decide whether to conquer it using military force, diplomacy, or religious influence.

[13] The presence of other nations requires the player to continue expanding their empire using military force, propaganda,[14] or simply buying out cities.

One of the main goals in the Space Stage is for the player to push their way toward a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center, which introduces the game's final antagonists, the Grox, a unique species of cybernetic aliens with a powerful empire of 2,400 systems surrounding the core.

If Galactic Adventures is installed, the player may be given missions which involve travelling to planets, beaming down and completing Maxis-created, planetside 'adventures'.

Once the torso is shaped, the player can add parts such as legs, arms, feet, hands, noses, eyes, and mouths.

Spore has also released an API (application programming interface) to allow developers to access data about player activity, the content they produce and their interactions with each other.

In April 2009, the results of the Spore API Contest was concluded with winners building interactive visualizations, games, mobile applications and content navigation tools.

By setting out to instill a sense of wonderment at creation and the majesty of the universe, it's shown us that it's actually a lot more interesting to sit here at our computers and explore the contents of each other's brains.

"[29] GameSpot in its 8.0 of 10 review called Spore "a legitimately great game that will deliver hours of quality entertainment", but criticized the "individual gameplay elements [that] are extremely simple.

[47] Spore uses a modified version of the controversial digital rights management (DRM) software SecuROM as copy protection,[48][49][50][51] which requires authentication upon installation and when online access is used.

[58] Electronic Arts cited SecuROM as a "standard for the industry" and Apple's iPod song DRM policy as justification for the control method.

[64][65][66] On October 14, 2008, a similar class action lawsuit was filed against EA for the inclusion of DRM software in the free demo version of the Creature Creator.

Evolutionary biologists T. Ryan Gregory of the University of Guelph and Niles Elredge of the American Museum of Natural History reviewed the Cell and Creature stages.

Those unwilling to comment publicly speak privately of grave concerns about a game which seems to further the idea of intelligent design under the badge of science, and they bristle at its willingness to use words like "evolution" and "mutation" in entirely misleading ways.

[79]Will Wright argues that developers "put the player in the role of an intelligent designer"[80] because of the lack of emotional engagement of early prototypes focusing on mutation.

Creatures can add new abilities, including weaponry, tanks, and crew members, as well as a section of the adventure creator that involves editing a planet and using 60 new flora parts.

[83] Codes found on certain bottles of Dr Pepper allow the player to redeem these parts, albeit only for the US, excluding Maine.

[85] A Wii spinoff of the game now known as Spore Hero has been mentioned by Will Wright several times, such as in his October 26, 2007 interview with The Guardian.

"[87] Eventually, a spin-off under the title "Spore Hero" was announced, an adventure game built ground up for the Wii with a heavier focus on evolution.

Comic books with stylized pictures of various creatures, some whose creation has been shown in various presentations, can be seen on the walls of the Spore team's office.

Following Disney's purchase of Fox, Blue Sky Studios announced that they would be closing down, leaving the film ostensibly canceled.

[112] Cliff Martinez composed the main menu galaxy theme track, along with the related interstellar and solar music.

Brian Eno together with Peter Chilvers created the generative music heard while editing planets in the Space Stage.

The Civilization Stage user theme generation was designed by Kent Jolly, Aaron McLeran and Cyril Saint Girons, with sample source provided by Eno.