by Jess Howe

Created on: December 11, 2009

Here I'll give you a beginner's guide to Spore. It's a wonderful game but can drive you crazy in some spots, even if you work really hard at it (which is why my husband dislikes playing it). I'll also show you parts of the game which I'd equally recommend spending more time in, and focusing on; in the end you'll become a better player. Version 1 is the only version out currently, so there are a lot of bugs to work out still, but even so it's a fantastic game to play.

YOUR BEGINNING

There is a Sporeopedia, which is their game guide, but it's extremely basic and hard to find things inside that you want; I'd skim through it all the same, because you want the absolute basic when you're starting out.

You'll see a galaxy, and have your choice of which planet to live on, to begin with. This place will be your home; start out in cell so you get the full experience. You'll see a short movie once you have chosen a world, the movie showing basically the seeding. So life begins.

Once your life starts, you should pay heed to all the help icons that show up. If you play for long enough, these will get annoying but you really need to read them and pay attention in the beginning. Look at the bottom of the screen, where there will be an action bar: there will be a circle for mating calls - which will stay there through a couple stages - and also a bar you can click on at any point to see what you've done so far.

STAGES

- Cell stage:

DO NOT think starting out at this game that you know what you're doing, because you've played tons of computer games. You don't here; Spore's very different and can be very hard, especially at the cell stage, where you literally start out as a one-cell creature and have to eat (that's right, I said "eat") for survival.

Start out as a carnivore; it's your best bet for survival. However, when you get the chance to mate, do so immediately and then add on the mouth parts which will allow you to become an omnivore, because then you can eat ANYTHING, and your survival chances in the cell stage are even better (this will also help you later on).

Secondly, remember to upgrade yourself for the best speed/fight ratio: basically you want to be able to do sharp turns and move fast, but also to fight whatever comes your way. I'm one of those players who spends her time in cell stage yelling "agh! It's a thingy! Get away!" or "Get back here, you little..." which really annoys my husband. But I've also learned to beef up my character in cell ASAP, and

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