sim-city posts

The man who created Sim City, The Sims and Spore says he's back making new games but is keeping specific details to himself, at least for now. Eurogamer reports that Will Wright, speaking at GDC 2011 this past week, did say that the games he is working on won't be shrink wrapped in a box.

Wright states that the unannounced game projects he is working on will be " ... a little more diffuse" using both mobile and web platforms. He also hints that the games he is making will be more than just to entertain people, saying, "I'm really interested right now in games that get people more engaged in the world around them rather than distract them from it." Wright's most recent project is the TV series Bar Karma which features audience participation in creating the show's storylines.

Will Wright may be a "god" when it comes to creating some of the most influential and best selling PC games of all time (The Sims, Sim City and Spore, among others) but that doesn't mean he thinks games have limitations. In a new article over at CNN Wright is pretty blunt when he states, "Games are not the right medium to tell stories. Video games are more about story possibilities." He pretty much slams story-heavy game like the Metal Gear Solid series with Wright saying, "That's not the kind of game I like playing."

Wright is now the producer of Bar Karma, the new sci-fi themed drama on the Current TV network that does try to tell stories, although those are based in part on suggestions made by viewers via a special web site. So does that mean Wright has abandoned games completely? Nope. According to the article, Wright says that he is "also working on new games" at his company Stupid Fun Club. We assume those games won't have stories either.

Will Wright may have left the day-to-day business of making games but the creator behind Sim City, The Sims and Spore is moving on to his upcoming interactive TV show that he and his team at Super Fun Club are making for the CurrentTV network. This week CurrentTV launched the official web site for its Creation Studios which will allow viewers to interactive and contribute content to Wright's TV series.

The series itself is called Bar Karma and Wright himself talks about both the TV and the interactive portion in a video on the site which has a 1950's retro look and feel. Wright says the show is a cross between Cheers and The Twilight Zone. The video, which has some straight-faced humor, talks about how the viewers will contribute to the game's plotlines and decide which plots will be used in upcoming episodes. Bar Karma is set to start in February 2011. You can check out the video with Wright after the jump.

Without a doubt, one of the greatest PC game creators of all time is Will Wright. His contributions to the industry include two highly popular and trend setting game series: The urban simulation Sim City and the "people" simulation The Sims. Now a collection of nine of Wright's personal design notebooks has been donated by Wright himself to a game-themed exhibition.

The International Center for the History of Electronic Games announced this week that they have acquired Wright's notebooks which contain notes and drawings for the designs of a number of games including Wright's most recent title Spore. Some of the notebooks will be put on display to the public during eGameRevolution, an exhibition that will be shown at the National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York starting on November 20.

[Via GameSpot]

It's the end of an era for publisher Electronic Arts and game designer Will Wright. After forming Maxis in 1989 (bought by EA in 1997) and helping to develop titles like Sim City, The Sims and most recently Spore, Wright is leaving the publisher to work full time at Stupid Fun Club, a company which is described as an "entertainment think tank" that will create new entertainment properties for a number of different formats.

Wright and EA aren't completely separating. Today's press release announces that EA owns the same number of shares in Stupid Fun Club that Wright does and that EA will have the rights to create any games that come out of Stupid Fun Club's ideas. In the meantime the Spore team at EA's Maxis outfit will be run by Lucy Bradshaw. Rod Humble is in charge of EA's Play unit which includes The Sims.

Update: Our sister site Game Daily has posted up a chat with Maxis head Lucy Bradshaw where she talks about Wright's new move over to Stupid Fun Club and how it will affect the Spore franchise moving forward.

Developer Tilted Mill and publisher Electronic Arts continue to add to their 2007 released city simulation game Sim City Societies via patches and the latest patch is no exception. The "Game Update 5" patch adds a number of new gameplay features to the title and we have it available to grab right here at Big Download.

The full details are in the patch notes but the highlights include six new scenarios to try out, a new maintenance system for buildings, a new policies system, improved budget graphs, a new city management screen, a new terrain leveling tool and other changes, additions and bug fixes. This certainly seems to be a "must have" download for players of the game.

Download the latest Sim City Societies patch at Big Download now.