Level 1: The "Cell" portion of Spore will see you assuming the role of a single-celled organism for around 30 minutes. Your goal will simply be to swim around and eat other organisms and, in doing so, enhance your DNA.

Level 2: The "Creature" phase will see you crawling out of the water onto land for the first time. When you get there you'll need to evolve your creature through either aggressive or social interactions with other creatures, through eating various meats and fruits, and using the game's powerful creature design tools.

Level 3: After getting the population of your new species to a certain size you'll enter the "Tribe" phase of the game, which takes the form of a somewhat simplistic real-time strategy game. As a tribe, your main goal will simply be to grow, which you can achieve through procreation or by recruiting creatures from other tribes by befriending or going to war with them.

Level 4: Once your tribe reaches a certain size--the required population appeared to be 15 in the version of the game we were shown--you'll enter the "Civilization" level. Although your creatures can no longer evolve at this point, you'll have the freedom to design buildings, vehicles, and such using tools similar to those with which you designed your creature. Interactions with other groups of creatures will become more complex at this stage, since you'll gain access to strategies such as diplomacy and cultural conversion.

Level 5: "Space" is the final frontier as far as Spore is concerned, and after winning the evolutionary race on your start planet, it'll be time to take to the stars in search of new ones to colonize or conquer. Along the way you'll encounter other species every bit as advanced as your own, and you'll have the option to trade with them, go to war with them, or simply do your best to ignore them.