Sign Ups Now Available for Project Spark’s Beta Program

Sometime back at the turn of the decade, a simple convention about the state of the video gaming industry sparked an idea for game developer Team Dakota. As the guy in the above video puts it, “I love video games, but they’re all starting to feel the same.” Not to say that video gaming has gone stale, or that there are no unique titles out there, but to an extent Team Dakota’s questioning of the industry is just an echo of a sentiment felt by gamers everywhere, even if we don’t want to admit it. 

So what do you do when people are questioning your creativity? As Team Dakota sees it, the answer is simple: just put the game-building in the hands of the gamers themselves.

Project Spark: Your mission, create gaming nirvana

Team Dakota’s answer to their own questions of creativity is the forthcoming free-to-play digital-only title for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows 8, Project Spark.

Following the success of other vaunted series that put the power of creation in the hands of its gamers, such as Little Big Planet or Minecraft, head game developer Claude Jerome wanted to provide gamers with an open-world digital canvas to create, play, and share their visions of gaming perfection. 

“It’s a powerful, yet simple way to build and play your own worlds, stories and games. Share all of your creations with a dynamic community and play what the community makes. Project Spark brings creation to life and presents endless opportunities for play.”

According to Jerome, where Spark differs from its predecessors is in its core ability to reshape the game down to even its most minute details, including in-game object actions. This greater breadth of possibilities allows players to tell more individualized and specific stories, thus giving them even more agency in the shaping of their vision for a game.

Time to test the waters

With the game’s official launch scheduled for sometime shortly after the official release of the Xbox One later this fall, as of today Team Dakota has officially opened up sign ups for the Beta testing of the game. Though betas tend to be a bit clunky and bug-prone, they nonetheless offer early and unique insight into what the polished final release will entail. Though few details have been leaked as to what signees should expect of this version of game, it promises to be an exciting bit of meta-gaming. If you’re an interested, creative, and ambitious gamer, I highly recommend checking out what all this phase has to offer.

Do YOU dare?

What do you guys think about Project Spark? It’s not the first game of its kind, true; but its purported expansive options and unprecedented control over both the environment and story certain give it a notable allure. Do you dare check out this game and put your skills where our collective mouths are? Let me know what you think in the comments below, and, as always, game on.