Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff sat down with Darkspore Executive Producer Mike Perry to find out how Spore's Creature Creator inspired Maxis to bring a new level of detail to an action game.

With all of these different features available in Darkspore, how much customization is actually appropriate for an action RPG? Here's Perry's response:

"With Darkspore, we want to make sure players understand the characters they're getting. They have a backstory. They fall into types and classes. Sentinels are tanks, Tempests are like mages, and Ravagers are fast melee guys like rogues.

When you unlock the characters, they have a predefined look. We want to make sure players see the types and classes at a glance. This is important for multiplayer when you go into a PvP match. You'll look at a guy and know he's a Plasma Sentinel."

Perry's comments highlight a noteworthy distinction between the character creators in Spore and Darkspore. Spore allows players to design creatures from the ground up. Darkspore, on the other hand, lets users customize predefined characters to make sure they're recognizable by other players.

Can this amount of customization be overwhelming to gamers? Perry admitted the team was worried about that issue in the beginning and mentioned that they have seen two widely different groups of players during the testing process: players who collect a large amount of characters and then grind for loot, and players who focus on leveling up the characters they enjoy the most. “The game balance is accommodating to both styles of play,” Perry said.

In addition to the Darkspore's single-player and co-op campaigns, MMO fans may be most interested to hear about Darkspore's PvP arena-based combat system. Although PvP is separate from the game's story mode, players will use the same heroes they've earned in the campaign to bring to the 1v1 or 2v2 battlefield.

According to Perry, Darkspore will use EA's matchmaking system to pair up opponents in PvP. “It's based on how many games you've won, how fast you've won them, the hero level of your characters, and so on,” he said.

Perry also hinted that there might be room to introduce more characters to Darkspore in the future. “We've built an infrastructure that allows us to do that. It's a community that we really want to support. It's definitely the kind of game that we can continue to add to,” he said.

Darkspore is scheduled to launch for PC on March 29. Stay tuned to ZAM for more coverage leading up to the game's release.

Darryl Gangloff, Editor-in-Chief