This is going to be a very difficult review, if it is even a review at all. I say that, because I’m still trying to work out what exactly Project Spark is trying to be, so to try and work out whether it achieves what it’s trying to be is very difficult. Officially, Project Spark is a ‘game maker’ game. Where you can, in theory, create your own game & play other people’s creations. As I type this I’m trying to figure out how to put my thoughts into words, which may well lead to a disjointed and difficult to read review, but bear with me, because it’s probably a good reflection on my thoughts.
Firstly, in a way Project Spark is a success. You can dive in, create a world quite quickly, put basics rules into place and play your creation, making tweaks and changes along the way. The more you put in, the greater the reward. The process of creation is very in depth if you want it to be – and I have no doubt if you want your ideas to come to their full fruition, you’ll need it to be. And this is where Project Spark doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. There seems to be far too many options and long windedness to make a casual gamer stick at it, but not enough for a game developer to use Project Spark as a platform for new creations.
Let me break it down a bit. The tools you use are simple, ‘painting’ environments, and easily placing objects, characters etc. Even changing the terrain is fairly straightforward. Perfectionist could be here for hours just making slight tweaks to make their game world just right. Then you need to make the game work. This is where ‘Kode’ is introduced; this is Spark’s version of a programming language – in a visually appealing easy to understand system. ‘When’ something happens, you want it to ‘Do’ something. For example, pressing the ‘A’ button (When) will make the character jump (Do). Each of these lines of Kode can be complicated and extended to take into account multiple different scenarios and multiple different outcomes. There are limitations though – only a certain amount of character and object available to choose from, but there are more available thanks to the dreaded microtransactions that are present….I’ll move on to them shortly.
From a developer’s point of view, there probably aren’t enough options here to satisfy what you are able to do in the conventional way of creating games – though I’m sure they would be able to knock out plenty of half decent games quicker than using Spark. An issue would be though, that there is no way to import your own textures, character models etc. which is going to be a massive stumbling block.
So onto the issue of microtransactions. There are a lot of DLC packs available for Project Spark. They include new characters, objects, effects, sounds and more. You can pay for Tokens which allow you to download the DLC to the game, or play and create to increase your level and earns credits to purchase. However, if you aren’t a Spark Premium subscriber the ability to purchase DLC’s with earned credits is locked for a certain amount of time. Spark Premium is purchasable with tokens, and can be bought for different periods of time. You’ll also gain experience and level up quicker aswell as earning credits quicker. I’m guessing that this is the only option for making money with Project Spark, but it just seems like the ‘free’ game that it claims to be isn’t quite as free as it appears.
I will accept, that Spark has a huge amount of potential, and the ease and speed you can make a simple game is great. But even if you did spend a huge amount of time to show your perfect game to the whole world, that whole world is currently not hugely impressive. The most popular games only have around 10,000 plays – which could be the same people playing multiple times. I’d like to think that eventually, Spark could provide a platform for budding developers to be noticed, and maybe able to kick start a career for them – whether this will ever happen or not I really don’t know.
With Project Spark being free, it’s worth downloading just to see what it’s all about, even if it is to see and play through the games that others have created, there are some genuinely funky little games to play. And if you have a good imagination this could be a playground for you. As it is, I’m confused as to what it is trying to achieve, and to whether it is a game or a tool. And as such, for the first time ever, I’m not going to give it a rating. Check it out, there is nothing else like it, and see what you think of it.
**Thank you to the XCN (Xbox Community Network) for the opportunity to review this game**