Spore is a "god simulator" computer game developed by Maxis under the direction of Will Wright and published by Electronic Arts for Windows and macOS. The game allows players to guide an evolving species through several stages, from a single-celled microorganism to an interstellar civilization, with the scale of the game expanding from a single planet to an entire galaxy. The gameplay of Spore significantly changes with each new stage, incorporating elements from various genres, including action, role-playing, and real-time strategy games. The developers of Spore used procedural generation to create a vast array of unique and non-repeating creatures and planets. Although primarily a single-player game, Spore included an asynchronous online component where player-created content, such as creatures, was uploaded to a shared database. This allowed unique species created by one player to appear in the universes of other players. Critics praised Spore for its unprecedented scale and the ability to create unique creatures, buildings, and technologies. However, the gameplay on most stages was criticized for being overly simplistic and bland. Additionally, the use of the SecuROM digital rights management (DRM) system drew significant criticism.