Letting gamers play god and create seriously fucked up creatures, EA and Maxis have announced that a free downloadable demo, and complete retail version of the Spore Creature Creator will be released on June 17. The creator will give fans of the highly anticipated game the first hands-on opportunity to design their own species and share it with friends. All creatures designed using the demo can be imported into the full retail version of the game for PC and Mac when it launches on September 5 in Europe and two days later in North America.

“We are thrilled to finally be putting the creative tools of Spore into the hands of players around the world,” said Will Wright, chief designer, Maxis. “The amazing creations players design this summer will help populate the game universe we all enter when Spore ships this September, so in a sense, the Spore Creature Creator is the birth of Spore.”

The demo will let players shape, paint and play with an unlimited number of creatures, using 25 percent of the creature making parts from Spore. A complete retail version of the creature creator will be available for $9.99, giving players access to all the creature-making parts in the game.