You get to play God when you download Spore, a game that gives players the power to create species as a microscopic organism and then evolve it into a complex creature of your creation. There is no limit to how creative you can get when designing your characters. Give them personalities, unique looks, and use them to complete different phases of the game.

While Spore is a single-player game, you can share your creation with your friends and see how other gamers are designing their characters. Download the Spore free trial today and start moving through the five stages of evolution.

How to Download and Install Spore for Free

  1. Click on the Download button on the sidebar, and a new tab will open to the Spore download page.
  2. Choose whether you want to download the game for PC or Mac.
    Download Spore
  3. If you’re using Windows 10, read this first. Otherwise, double click on the file when it finishes downloading, and the setup wizard will open.
  4. Agree to the terms of the agreement and click Next.
  5. If you don’t have a preference for which directory Spore is downloaded to, use the recommended settings. Otherwise, choose Custom and specify a folder location and then click Next.
  6. Click Install.
  7. If you don’t already have the latest EA Download Manager, a pop-up window will open and ask if you install it now. If you decline, some security patches and updates may not be installed.

How to Uninstall Spore

If you’re not enjoying Spore or you’ve decided you don’t want to use it after the free trial expires, you can quickly remove it by following these easy steps. I’ve listed some free alternatives to Spore if you’re still looking for some exciting free PC games.

  1. Type Add or Remove Programs in the Windows search bar.
    Add or Remove Program
  2. Scroll through the list of installed programs until you find Spore and click Uninstall.
  3. Confirm that you want to remove the game, and the Windows Uninstallation wizard will do the rest.

Spore Overview

Spore was first released in 2008 and hasn’t had a serious update since then. This is great for gamers looking to reconnect with games from their youth or enjoy the nostalgic graphics and gameplay. If you want to evolve from the free trial to the complete game, you will need to purchase it on Steam or with an EA Play subscription.

How to Play Spore

You get to play the role of the creator of your own universe as you design different creatures. Will they be predators, vegetarians, pack animals, or loners?
Customize your Spore creature

Watch out as your creatures venture into the unknown and look for food, and create a strategy to help them survive and thrive in this universe. As you move through the different stages of evolution, you will have some tough choices for your creatures. Choose from three paths; religion, commerce, or war mongering, and see how your choices affect civilization’s balance. Other species will try and attack you, and you’ll have to survive and eventually try and colonize other planets in the galaxy.

If you need inspiration or want to show off your creatures, login to the online Spore site. Here you can look at what others in the Spore community have done and download different creatures and accessories to be used in your universe.

The Five Stages of Spore Evolution

There are five stages of evolution in the Spore universe that your creatures will ultimately have to go through as they change from basic organisms to space traveling, highly intelligent creatures.

  • The cell stage: Life for all creatures begins as a single-cell organism. This is a crucial stage for learning the basic rules, such as how to eat, reproduce, and how to survive. These skills will come into play in the later stages. During the cell stage, you’ll decide whether your creature is a predator or plant-eater, which will determine what kind of mouth and teeth they’ll develop as they grow into a complex organism.
  • The creature stage: Your creature is now living on land and has to begin to search for food and be wary of predators looking to eat it. While it can go in the water, if it tries to discover new lands, it will be eaten by a sea monster. Find the home base for your species, and as you interact with other animals, your creature will begin to develop social skills and find allies and enemies in the animal kingdom.
  • The tribe stage: Congratulations, your species has now developed a brain, personality traits, and a permanent design. Now, instead of controlling a single creature, you can manage the entire species. Your tribe will consist of 12 creatures, and you can further increase their development by finding allies among the other five tribes. You can increase the population of your tribe by either becoming friendly or destroying other tribes.
  • The civilization stage: After successfully progressing through the tribe stage, your creature emerges as the prevailing species on the planet. It has divided into distinct nations and begun expanding across the globe. You’ll still control one nation and one city, with the goal of world domination. It’s up to you to choose whether you want to accomplish this with war, diplomacy, or religion.
    Build Spore City
  • The space stage: Once you dominate the earth, it’s time to take to the skies and colonize outer space. You will get to take control of a single space ship which is built when you begin the space stage and travel through black holes, wormholes, and visit all the different planets in the galaxy. Once on a planet, you’ll be able to meet with other space civilizations and build your empire.

Free Alternatives

  • Roblox: The Roblox gaming platform has millions of user-generated games that can be played with friends or alone. You can download and play Roblox for free and enjoy hours of fun. Search for games by filtering for themes, popularity, active players, and more.
  • Minecraft: A sandbox 3D gaming environment allows gamers to be as creative as possible when building structures such as houses, parks, cities, art, machines; basically, if you can imagine it, you can build it. In addition to the creative mode, you can opt to play in survival mode and avoid being attacked by night monsters. Join up with friends or play alone. Either way, Minecraft is 100% free to play.

FAQ

Is Spore free to play?

The full version of Spore is available through purchase only. However, if you follow the steps above, I’ll show you how to download a free trial, so you can start creating your creatures right away. If you have a subscription to EA Play, Spore is included in the subscription package.
How can I download Spore on Windows 10?

Since Spore was developed in 2008, it is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. Follow these steps if you have Windows 10:

  1. After you download the .exe file, right-click on the file, and select properties.
  2. Click on the Compatibility tab.
  3. Select Run this Program in Compatibility Mode and choose Windows Vista.
  4. Check the box that says Run This Program as an Administrator.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Follow the instructions in the setup wizard.
What are the system requirements for playing Spore?

  • Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 1 and Vista. If you have Windows 10, follow the instructions above.
  • Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or similar
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM
  • Graphics: 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
  • DirectX: The latest version of DirectX 9.0c or higher
  • Hard Drive: You’ll need 4 GB to download and play Spore and another gigabyte to save your creatures.
Download Spore now!