The game focuses on the Creature phase of the larger game, with elements of Nintendogs and Drawn to Life. Spore Creatures characters are ball and line generated 2.5D. Unlike the characters of Spore, creatures are completely 2D,[2][3] but the environments remain 3D.
The iPhone version is unrelated to the DS version; the environment is 2D, similar to Spore Origins for iPhone.
Spore Creatures is a more story-based game as the game is played as an Oogie. Another Oogie creature (named Little Oogie) is kidnapped by a UFO inhabited by an evil scientist creature named Gar'skuther, and the player is forced to survive on strange islands over the course of 12 levels, a plot that has somewhat of a conservationist theme present throughout it. The creature is created and modified in an editor, using points earned to give the creature different body parts and skills. The player is given 20 points at the start with which to build their initial creature. This is not true for the iPhone version; it is completely different.[2]