MaxisCactus sends the following Spore news bits:

For those of you wanting to see more gameplay footage from Galactic Adventures, visit our movies and screenshots page for a new video and screenshot!

http://www.spore.com/what/screensmovies#pc/v17

Also, now that the Spore API is up and running, we’re calling on you to invite your communities to participate in the Spore API Contest 09!

http://www.spore.com/comm/contests

Prizes include an NVIDIA 9800 GT graphics card, a copy of Spore, or a copy of Galactic Adventures. Check out the contest page for more details.

To get inspiration for the kinds of apps you could submit, check out our new gallery of player made apps and visualizations here:

http://www.spore.com/comm/developer/gallery

Hopefully, this contest will motivate people who’ve never programmed before to try it out. The Spore Aquarium was my first app, but I used a sample app as a template, which was easy to work from.

http://www.spore.com/comm/fishtank

Don’t count yourself out of this one before checking out the samples. You can get the basic source coded you need, then tweak it to add your own personal touch.

http://www.spore.com/comm/developer

Stop by Voodoo Extreme for the latest Spore: Galactic Adventures trailer to his the web waves! The footage is available in HD and SD for your viewing pleasure. One part trailer, one part tutorial, and one part delicious!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Maxis! Send custom Valentines to all your buddies this weekend simply by snapping a pic of your favorite creature in play mode and sending it as a postcard! Not sure what creation to use? Make your own syrupy-sweet creation, search the Sporepedia, or subscribe to this Sporecast full of player published Valentines creations. Here’s an example of what your card could look like.

Fast Company has posted a couple of questions with Will Wright on how to break into the game industry.

This is probably an excellent time for doing a start-up if you don’t need funding. It depends on what your means are. A lot of people are going to try and stay in their jobs because of the economic uncertainty. On the other hand, this is an excellent time to go off for a year and start on your own company if you can afford it, and position yourself for a couple of years down the road when you’ll be in a position to sell.

Love is in the air for Spore players who want to send out their very own custom greetings for Valentine’s Day. Send custom Valentines to all your buddies this week simply by snapping a pic of your favorite creature in play mode and sending it as a postcard!

Maxis is currently working on some features that will help enrich fansites by allowing them to create their own Spore applications. These features are going into a web-based Spore API so that people can access a huge database of creations and creators. There are some samples up to get people started. Some of them are pretty sweet and would be perfect for your personal Spore blog and the like!

NPD pops out the list of top selling PC games of January 2009.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Spore
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Left 4 Dead
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
8. Fallout 3
9. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
10. Call Of Duty: World At War
11. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
12. Civilization IV
13. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Expansion Pack
14. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
15. IGT Slots: Little Green Men
16. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack
17. Starcraft: Battle Chest
18. Bejeweled Twist
19. Reel Deal Slots Blackbeard’s Revenge
20. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack

Today the British Academy Video Games Awards announced the nomations, featuring 39 different games. The Awards recognise the very best in artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games, and will be held at the London Hilton on Park Lane on March 10. This year’s Fellowship, the highest accolade the Academy bestows is being received by legendary Pong creator and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Spore has been nominated for a Technical Achievement Award.

IGN stopped by Caryl Shaw’s Spore Galactic Adventures presentation at NY Comic Con. She had a fair bit to say on the upcoming expansion, so be sure to give the article a read if you’ve been waiting to find out what’s in store!

The new expansion significantly enlarges the space portion of the original game, and even grants players the opportunity to create and share their own planetary adventures with other folks in the Spore community. In place of the rather tedious space missions from the original game, players will now encounter a wealth of user-created missions that require your species to actually descend to the surface of the planet and undertake a variety of interesting tasks.