EmailElectronic Arts has unveiled an ambitious new design package named Create – and as you can see from the video above, we've been given an exclusive interview with Rod Humble, senior vice president of EA's casual gaming division, EA Play, who's overseeing the project.
Set for release next year on PC, Mac and console the title will allow gamers to construct their own 3D worlds using a simple set of tools, menus and customisable items. In the demo footage we've seen, the player assembles a stunt car track complete with ramps and realistic physics properties, and a space station with controllable star craft flying overhead. Judging by this footage, the game seems to use a drag-and-drop interface, allowing players to grab objects from a menu and place them anywhere on the screen. The game is PlayStation Move compatible, which should offer a more intuitive way to chuck stuff about in your virtual art studio.
According to EA's press release, you'll be able to employ a vast selection of textures, brushes, stickers and ready-made animating objects to populate scenes. However, it seems there's no Spore-style character creation element, so users will have to think outside the box if they want to construct human inhabitants. Meanwhile, they can complete up to 100 design challenges to unlock new areas, and learn about the possibilities. In order to beat these tasks, users have to select and manipulate available objects in a variety of emergent ways, to move items from one end of the screen to another.
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac and PC owners will be able to upload their creations to a dedicated website, which works just like the "Exchange" system used by fans of The Sims to swap game content. There's also a "succession" co-op mode where users can pass projects to and from their friends, taking it in turns to add new elements.
So is it an art package or a game creator? Humble says it's actually neither. And both. "On one hand you can just make 2D scenes," he explains. "If you just want to paint a picture in your living room without any mess, you can do that. The next step is similar to the way paintings work in Harry Potter – you can make them a little bit alive and add a touch of interactivity, So for example, I like to draw landscapes in Create, and once I've added the clouds, I just give a little flick to create some wind and they drift across the screen. Or you can go all the way to a fully interactive 3D scene where you've decided you're going to put in a challenge where the player has to collect four objects to make X happen. You really can do anything with it on that spectrum. It's not a game maker it's not a 3D art tool, it's this lovely mush in between."
In some ways, there are clearly elements of The Sims in here, but also user-generated content games like Little Big Planet and Trackmania. Humble acknowledges the comparisons, but denies there's a link. "I'm certainly a big fan of LBP but I don't think we're really in competition," he says. "It's got a great game in the centre and you add bits too it […] With Create, you can build up whatever you want out of the blocks." Instead, he points out EA's own heritage in the creative gaming arena – the company once developed and published Deluxe Paint, essentially the de facto art package on the Commodore Amiga during the eighties and early nineties. The demo we've seen, with its emphasis on physics challenges and drag-and-drop items, actually reminds us more of The Incredible Machine, the legendary physics-based puzzler series that required players to fulfil specific tasks by building wacky contraptions out of an array of objects.
Humble certainly has plenty of experience with offbeat gaming projects. He was executive producer on The Sims for several years, and before that oversaw the growth of the formative MMORPG Everquest, at Sony Online Entertainment. He's also a keen experimental games designer, working on his own innovative coding projects. "In my position you tend to manage more and more, but I like to get hands on. So I make a lot of little art games in my spare time which are very experimental. I made a game that looks like two cubes interacting, but it's actually about my marriage. The last game I made was called Stars Over Half Moon Bay, which is where I live; it's just about staring up at the stars and making patterns. Right now I'm making a series of text games. I'm exploring strategy and just getting rid of the graphics altogether, just to see what I can do."
Currently in development at EA's Bright Light studio in the UK, it's an intriguingly open-ended project – the sort of thing you might see coming out of the indie community, if in a much more modest and less professionally presented form. We've also seen plenty of more limited art and design packages on handheld and smartphone platforms, including Nintendo's Art Academy for the DS. But will there be mass interest in a more ambitious and demanding title – one with no immediately obvious gaming application, and with a genuine sandbox approach to design? Humble is naturally confident. "When we released The Sims we didn't know who would play it," he argues. "I'm hoping for the broadest possible audience."
;
Comments
2 August 2010 3:30PM
It certainly seems interesting but I can't help but feel that this sort of thing is just an exercise in futility. It will sell, but I doubt to the broadest possible audience.
Some people will be able to come up with some excellent ideas because of this, for others it will just be a gimmick that they regret spending their money on.
2 August 2010 4:53PM
I have friends who still invite me to try out their new maps Far Cry 2, which has an excellent editor built in for PS3/360 - many of them have petitioned UbiSoft to release an updated standalone version
People like to create.
2 August 2010 7:07PM
As long as a few people can create fun games on it , mostly free to play then will be a success.
However this is EA we are talking about they are bounds to balls it up somehow.
I also hope in not to simple an to limiting an will allow true creativity.
2 August 2010 7:38PM
Either you're creating a game or you're playing one. (because you know already all the riddles) Nothing is more disappointing than if your game is just made for the rubbish tip.
Maybe it's better to download a 30-day trial version of 3dsMax. It will also be for the rubbish tip, but it's for free at least.
3 August 2010 1:02AM
Looks like LittleBigPlanet, but bad.
It's a race to the bottom for the games industry at the moment. I work in the industry and frankly the fun has been sucked out of the development, and the products are getting less creativity and enthusiasm behind them, because of it.
3 August 2010 1:22AM
no-wonder retro is so popular
3 August 2010 9:26AM
@Knowles2
That should've been the sub-heading!