Spore, the latest creation from acclaimed creator Will Wright, has officially reached gold status and printing on retail copies of the game has begun. This signals the final stage in the game’s development, and now all that’s left is to print the discs, box them up, and send them out to retail outlets around the world ahead of its early September debut.

Spore allows players to take control of a single-celled organism and lead that creature through evolutionary phases until it can walk on land, communicate, build up an empire, and ultimately, travel the cosmos. The ambitious project has received a great deal of media attention, as well as substantial public buzz.

Not long ago, Wright and his Maxis team released the Spore Creature Creator, software which allowed users to create their own Spore characters and upload them into the "Sporepedia" for possible inclusion in the game’s final release. While Wright and his team were hoping for a couple hundred thousand entries, they have received well over a million critters, with more rolling in every day. If this level of excitement carries over into the full retail release, then Spore is likely to earn a spot as a bona fide hit, and will likely keep gamers coming back to their PCs for this unique experience.

All that’s left now is to keep making creatures in anticipation of the game’s release on September 7th (September 5th in Europe) and continue to let the excitement build for the impending release. Let’s see how many more penis- and boob- shaped creatures you can create and upload before we all switch over to playing the real thing.