Just a few questions and answers between an short interview with World Gaming Network and DarkSpore producer Mike Perry:

Question: How in depth is the creation of your squad members?

Answer:  We’re creating a large set of characters that you can unlock in the game. All of the heroes in the game belong to different types and different classes. The types are what we call genesis types and they each have different sets of abilities that fall within those types. For example we have bio-genesis types that have plant like abilities, snares, poisons, roots. Plasma-genesis characters are made out of fire and lightening. Cyber-genesis characters have laser attacks. Quantum-genesis can manipulate space and time; they can warp between different areas. As you collect characters that fall into these types, you will find that they fall into different classes as well and as you build this collection you’ll organize them into squads. Squads are where you can combine the abilities from the variety of heroes in your collection. So the way that works is in our unique campaign system, the campaign design is something we internally call a chain game but it’s very much inspired by games like Plants vs Zombies. What I mean is, before you attack a planet in the game you’ll actually see the enemy NPCs that spawn in on that planet. You’ll then choose which squad is the right one to attack that group of enemies. You’ll go in, you’ll attack the planet, you’ll play in either solo of co-op (the game totally comes to life as your playing co-op by the way), and you’ll defeat the enemy NPCs in the planet and fight the boss. Then you will have a choice, the choice is, take the loot that you’ve collected on that planet, cash out take it back to your ship and use it to upgrade your heroes. The way you upgrade your heroes is by putting loot on them, parts, hands, armor and so on. Or you can choose to forfeit that loot, leave it and go on to another planet, which is going to be harder. Now why would you make that choice? Harder planets give you better loot. So there is this risk reward system, where you go to harder and harder planets to get better stuff but, if you fail you won’t get any loot at all.

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