Spore
Kip
Photo credit: Wikipedia
Spore is probably the apotheosis of kid-friendly, science-themed, fun computer games. You start out the game as a sea monkey-sized cell floating in a pool of water. As you eat food according to your mouth type (carnivorous, omnivorous, etc.) your small creature grows in size and soon it evolves legs and toddles it's way onto dry land.
Once on the ground, you must search for new body parts and earn DNA points to give your creature more evolutionary advantages (claws, mouths, feet, etc.). These tools allow you to socialize and engage in combat more effectively. As you gain points and build on your creature, its brain enlarges in size. Once the brain is sufficiently large, your creature picks up a stick, accidentally makes fire, and starts a tribe.
Your tribe then befriends or razes the other villages in the vicinity and earns more advanced technology (axes, fishing spears, etc.), buildings and pieces of clothing. And once your tribe is the dominant village in your area of the globe, your now highly-intelligent species builds itself a city.
Your empire starts small, with one city hall and a land vehicle you create. You may then start buying, conquering or religiously converting other cities and empires to your civilization. You must build additional houses, entertainment facilities, factories, land, air and sea vehicles (all designed by you) to earn extra sporebucks (the intergalactic currency in Spore) and to manage your empire better.
Once you are the dominant civilization on your planet, your team of hard-working scientists manages to build a spaceship (of your design again). The galaxy is then your sandbox, and you may fly, collect, purchase, sell, trade, ally, jump through black holes and start interplanetary wars in it as much as you please, all while building your empire that started as a tiny cell, billions of years ago.
Recently, Spore introduced its new expansion pack, Galactic Adventures. Galactic Adventures is not only a game, but it's also a game software. The program allows users to create their own adventures, make vehicles, develop characters, construct buildings and formulate goals. It allows users to put in the slightest details, not only using the characters, vehicles, and buildings they've designed themselves, but also to color the planet in accordance to altitude, to add landforms and even to change the time of day. Furthermore, users can download adventures from all over the planet and play them, leveling up the captain they made with new items like armor, weapons or social items. Galactic Adventures is a wonderful and fun thing, and I recommend it for people of all ages.
Once on the ground, you must search for new body parts and earn DNA points to give your creature more evolutionary advantages (claws, mouths, feet, etc.). These tools allow you to socialize and engage in combat more effectively. As you gain points and build on your creature, its brain enlarges in size. Once the brain is sufficiently large, your creature picks up a stick, accidentally makes fire, and starts a tribe.
Your tribe then befriends or razes the other villages in the vicinity and earns more advanced technology (axes, fishing spears, etc.), buildings and pieces of clothing. And once your tribe is the dominant village in your area of the globe, your now highly-intelligent species builds itself a city.
Your empire starts small, with one city hall and a land vehicle you create. You may then start buying, conquering or religiously converting other cities and empires to your civilization. You must build additional houses, entertainment facilities, factories, land, air and sea vehicles (all designed by you) to earn extra sporebucks (the intergalactic currency in Spore) and to manage your empire better.
Once you are the dominant civilization on your planet, your team of hard-working scientists manages to build a spaceship (of your design again). The galaxy is then your sandbox, and you may fly, collect, purchase, sell, trade, ally, jump through black holes and start interplanetary wars in it as much as you please, all while building your empire that started as a tiny cell, billions of years ago.
Recently, Spore introduced its new expansion pack, Galactic Adventures. Galactic Adventures is not only a game, but it's also a game software. The program allows users to create their own adventures, make vehicles, develop characters, construct buildings and formulate goals. It allows users to put in the slightest details, not only using the characters, vehicles, and buildings they've designed themselves, but also to color the planet in accordance to altitude, to add landforms and even to change the time of day. Furthermore, users can download adventures from all over the planet and play them, leveling up the captain they made with new items like armor, weapons or social items. Galactic Adventures is a wonderful and fun thing, and I recommend it for people of all ages.