“Spore” is still a work in progress, but a key component, the Creature Creator, has become available for download.

Four years in the making, “Spore” lets players shepherd a living three-dimensional being of their own design from creation through evolution, while being careful to not run afoul of other beings roaming around. The Creature Creator serves as a work bench of sorts to get that organism organized.

Electronic Arts released a demo version of Creature Creator for free today. (A more complete version, for PC or Mac, costs $9.95.) “Spore” itself won’t be ready for another three months.

But Spore.com already provides many “Spore” details and even tips off budding gods on what might survive best in the game’s wacky environment.

And only the best beasties will make it from one-celled start-up to the ultimate “Spore” goal: a level of intelligence and complexity that allows mastery of space flight and interaction with organisms from other galaxies.

The makers of “Spore” say they released Creature Creator separately so gamers could build a population that would be ready for the game’s release. Creature Creator includes a testing environment and links to a reference manual called a “Sporepedia,” where gamers can glean clues for building their perfect beasts.

Creature Creator even has tools to export creations onto MySpace and Facebook — because what self-respecting creature on Earth today doesn’t already have a page on one of those sites?