Project Spark
Developer(s)	Team Dakota SkyBox Labs
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Studios
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows & Xbox One October 7, 2014 (NA) October 9, 2014 (AU) October 10, 2014 (EU)
Platform(s)	Windows 8.1, 10, Xbox One
Genre(s)	Sandbox, Action-adventure
Credits • Gallery • Cheats & Hints • Videos

Project Spark was a game creation system developed by SkyBox Labs and Team Dakota and published by Microsoft Studios for Windows 8.1, Windows 10, and Xbox One. It was announced during Microsoft's E3 2013 press event, and was launched as a Windows open beta in December 2013, and an Xbox One beta in March 2014. Project Spark is not available for purchase, and online services are also unavailable as of August 12, 2016. Although no longer available for sale, players can continue to play offline as long as they have both a physical disc and downloaded local copies of any custom-made creations.^{[citation needed]}

Gameplay

Project Spark is a digital canvas that can be used to make games, movies, and other experiences. A player can download other user-generated content, remix the content, or create content of their own. A player can use the Xbox One controller, keyboard and mouse, touch devices, and Kinect to build experiences. Kinect can be used to animate models and record audio. The created environments may contain mountains, rivers, and cities. The player can also create events, such as battles between characters. Created elements and objects can be shared with other players.^{[citation needed]}

Players choose whether to start from a blank map or a pre-designed level, but always have the tools to customize the topography, add animal behavior and plant life, and programs for specific objects, like a rock that bounces when a player is nearby. The topography is altered by pushing and pulling the land, digging through the surface to adjust a wall or create holes. All this added to the soil reacts to the circumstances, like the grass that covers the floor and vertical surfaces, becomes rocks.^{[citation needed]}

Game designer Claude Jerome has said that "the game is all about giving players options", like the ability to add a single flower versus a field of flowers just by resizing the flower paintbrush's size.^{[citation needed]} He added that the game is also about "sharing and playing with the community", and that the difference between Project Spark and LittleBigPlanet or Minecraft is the core ability to customize the game down to the minutiae of the in-game object actions, which lets the players tell more individual stories.^{[citation needed]} Players can control the game with the Xbox controller, touch controls, or a keyboard/mouse combination.^{[citation needed]}

Worlds created in the game are shareable. Other players who enter can use the world as created, and a duplicate world is created if they would like to make changes.^{[citation needed]}

Development

Project Spark, developed by Team Dakota, was announced during Microsoft's E3 2013 press event. Registration for its beta began in late June 2013. The game's cross-platform compatibility was demonstrated at Microsoft's Build 2013 developer conference. The system has been described as an evolution of concepts introduced in Microsoft's previous game creation tool Kodu Game Lab.^[1]

The game features the character Conker the Squirrel, with an episodic campaign for the game called Conker's Big Reunion, set ten years after the events of Conker's Bad Fur Day. The first episode of the campaign was released in April 2015, but the remaining ones were cancelled the following September.^[2]

Initially, the game was supported by microtransactions; however, in September 2015, Microsoft announced that the game would transition to a new "free and open creation" model by which all the downloadable content would become free for both new and existing players starting from October 5, 2015. As part of the transition, players who had paid for such content, after up to one month before the announcement, were eligible for a refund based on what they had paid.^{[citation needed]} Microsoft ceased production of all the downloadable content, including future Conker episodes, after the last update was released on the same day.^[3]

On May 13, 2016, Microsoft announced that it had ceased all future development of Project Spark and that it was no longer available to download, effective immediately. Online services ended on August 12, 2016. Measures were implemented for those who had purchased the game before it transitioned to a free-to-play model.^[4]

The game is still playable, though with reduced features. Xbox users can play locally saved games, and can create new games, but can't share them. PC users can share the individual-level files directly or use the SparkShare application, which allows sharing of levels, brains, and other assets.^[5]

Reception

VentureBeat cited Project Spark as a "good example" of a game that takes advantage of Microsoft's investment in its ecosystem of products.^{[citation needed]} IGN's Mitch Dyer called the game a fascinating "strange mixture of complex and rudimentary".^{[citation needed]} Hardcore Gamer said "Project Spark is the most user-friendly game creation suite to date, enabling one to be crafted with less work than anything else like it on the market."^{[citation needed]}

During the 18th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Project Spark for "Family Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming".^{[citation needed]}

The video for Linkin Park's "Guilty All the Same" was made using Project Spark and is available to play in-game using the community page.

References

External links

• Project Spark official website (archived 2016-11-19)
• Project Spark at MobyGames
• Project Spark at Wikipedia

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