WillWright
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SimCity, as it was never meant to be
It's doubtful that when Will Wright birthed SimCity he imagined the game one day playable in the palm of the hand, using a cell phone keypad. Nevertheless, EA Mobile Games has made it happen.For $1.99, SimCity will surely attract some impulse buys, but perhaps its legacy -- as the starting block for the Sim phenomenon -- is best kept with fond memories; or at least, a better suited platform. As with Geometry Wars, we just can't imagine that mobile SimCity is any good.
The New Yorker on Will Wright (in 10,000 words or less)
Will Wright is the ultimate spokesperson for gaming. The same way Bill Gates made being a nerd not only acceptable, but desirable, Wright embodies everything that can be great about video games. Writers find in him a sort of mad scientist, with an impish grin and a clever streak running through him a mile long (he's done the calculations to determine how many stars have received radio broadcasts of The Dukes of Hazzard). He's the "god of God games," an innovator, a risk-taker, a rainmaker. He's a "genius," with the backstory and the charisma to make it palatable to the masses. And that's who his story is being told to.Rarely do we see the sort of long thoughtful hagiography in the enthusiast press that we often find about Wright in the mainstream press. A recent New York Times Magazine piece revered him as "the most famous and most critically acclaimed designer in the young medium's history." This week's The New Yorker dedicates an incredible 10,000 words to the "game master," covering everything from the history of Electronic Arts to panspermia to his affinity for dueling robots (seriously) to the negative impressions of video games that Wright himself, as a personality, does so much to disassemble. How much can you really criticize a game whose primary influence is the convergence of Drake's equation and The Powers of Ten?And that's why every time Wright is put on a pedestal -- as a creator, as an artist, and as a genius -- it advances the acceptance and appreciation of video games far more rapidly than the industry's ballooning profits ever have. [Thanks, Andrew]
Will Wright makes "Digital 50" Top 5, beats out Google & YouTube founders
The Producers' Guild of America has recognized the achievements of Will Wright (The Sims), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), and Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez & Lumines), naming the three luminaries to the Guild's current list of 50 most innovative producers in the field of Digital Entertainment. Wright even landed in the number 5 position, besting big-name contributors like Google's Larry Page and Sergei Brin (#9), and YouTube's Chad Hurley and Chris Chen (#23). Kojima and Mizuguchi made the list at numbers 38 and 50 respectively.Brain Age's Dr. Ryuta Kawashima also made the list, popping up -- surprisingly -- at number 16. Anyways, a round of applause for the 'three gaming gods' and the talking head. Congrats, gentlemen.Who should the PGA elect next year?
Sunday NY Times says Spore is special
Steven Johnson, Colbert Report guest and author of Everything Bad is Good for You, wrote a thoughtful piece on Will Wright's Spore in yesterday's widely read New York Times Magazine entitled, "The Long Zoom." Like any writeup of Wright's simeverything, Johnson's includes equal parts hagiography, history, and hype, imbuing Wright's unreleased masterpiece with transcendental potential.Johnson's title refers to Spore's ability to zoom from the microscopic level all the way out to the galactic level, recalling the Eames' influential Powers of Ten (video embedded above). Wright's collaborative presentation with musician Brian Eno on "generative art," arranged by the long-term thinkers at the Long Now Foundation, also suggested a more cerebral sophistication than we're used to seeing, and reading about, in video games. If you think the hype for Gears of War may be hard to live up to, consider Spore, a game that is beginning to more resemble a panacea for all the gaming industry's myriad ills than a clever expansion of the Sim- series.[A faux pas, and a personal pet peeve: Charles and Ray Eames were not, in fact, "brothers" as Johnson writes, but an enormously successful husband-and-wife design team, responsible for everything from the aforementioned Powers of Ten film, to their famous molded plywood Eames Lounge Chair.]See also: Spore figurines!
Wii-DS link-play confirmed for Spore, plus new Wii info in latest NGamer
GoNintendo.com spreads word that NGamer, a new UK publication, has confirmed Spore for Wii -- of course, Will Wright essentially did the same back in May. According to an article in the new issue, Spore for Wii is scheduled for release in Spring 2007 and will feature some level of data sharing functionality with the DS version, "so you can deform your species on the fly."NGamer also reports that the Wii sensor bar is now "50% smaller ... a little bigger than a couple of pencils glued together" and tosses in a few tidbits about the Wiimote, including its 30–60 hour battery life (with AAs) and ability to store a small amount of data, roughly 6KB, internally. One sour detail reveals that Virtual Console's DRM will prevent gamers from playing their downloaded titles on a friend's Wii.
VG Cats' Spore creatures brought to life
Will Wright, Inc. have a giant man-crush on VG Cats. It all started after the webcomic made a strip about the worst-case scenarios of Spore's creature-making system, entitled "Wright to Life." The folks at Maxis caught wind of the comic and revised the comic, replacing every hand-drawn creature with accurate depictions made in-game.If that was not awesome enough, Maxis this week sent VG Cats author Scott Ramsoomair Spore figurines identical to his creations. You can view pictures (compliments of Scott's mom) here. How's that for customer service?See Also:Our one of a kind Spore figurineValve lets fan tour studio, play Portal[Thanks, Sam and Kyle!]
Will Wright in Sim City DS? [Update 1]
Either this is a caricature of the infamous Will Wright, or it really is him helping players out in Sim City DS. We would love to have a Mr. Right Will Wright pop up in a game to give helpful advice. We really would like to see more famous game industry people appear in games. Couldn't you just see Miyamoto doing the Tingle dance with Tingle?[Via Go Nintendo][Update: Fixed typo, enlarged graphic.]
More on Wii's Spore potential
We already know that Spore is a possibility for the Wii, but in an interview with IGN, SimPapa Will Wright had a little more to say about the upcoming console as it relates to the evolutionary sim he's developing. Wright told IGN they were "messing around with the Wii dev kit." Considering that the PC release of Spore isn't scheduled until next year, mucking about with the dev kit for the Wii seems like a very good sign that the Nintendo console will get a little evolutionary love. Wright also stressed the importance of designing games for each platform, which Wii love! Down with bland ports, up with games that make sense.[Thanks, vidGuy!]
DS is "interesting" for Spore
IGN has an interview with SimPapa Will Wright about his plans for Spore, the universe-creation sim scheduled for PC next year. While Wright says that right now, they're focused on creating Spore for the PC, he would like to see it become a full-fledged power franchise, and he points right at the DS as a possibility.Wright, who recently pointed to the lack of a mouse for consoles as a problem for simulation games, said, "the DS is also very interesting to us, as its control scheme could be very manageable for the game." While the stylus is no mouse, it can certainly provide similar functionality and perhaps even more precision in some cases. Sadly, Wright's comments on Spore beyond the PC make any possible plans sound very long range ....[Thanks, vidGuy!]
PS3, too, can lose player's souls to Spore
Spore, the hotly anticipated title from Sims creator Will Wright, has been announced to arrive on every system possible (speaking in terms of next-gen, of course). Some things will be tweaked -- sized down for handhelds, altered methods of controlling the pointer for consoles (unless you want a mouse add-on), et cetera. What's the catch? This is crazy, that's a lot of Spore. There's got to be a catch.Yeah. Out of context interpretation. There was no denial in these rumors as EA is indeed looking into console versions, but they did not say that all consoles are indeed getting some Spore action. You can check out the supposed interview that the quotes were taken out of context at SPOnG. Our good friends at IGN followed through with a call to an EA representative who partially debunked the interview. But it would be good news, right? Having Spore on all systems may spawn a sense of friendship between competing consoles. Or incite actual planetary wars, which is also way cool.
Spore to hit the Wii?
While a lot of people are actively wondering where EA's sprawling Spore won't turn up, we can tell you where it is likely to appear: on the Wii! Color us unsurprised that Will Wright wants to turn Spore into a franchise powerhouse; we all know what happened with The Sims. With the evolutionary sim, however, Wright intends to focus on the differences of each platform, and he's pointing specifcally to the Wii. Or should that be with the Wii ... mote?In comments this week, Wright let two very telling details drop. First, he lauded the Wii in its creative potential, mentioning specifically the controller (of course). He went on the decry the lack of a mouse for consoles, pointing out that this was something of a limiting factor when dealing with games for both the PC and consoles. The Wiimote, however, can point and click with the best of them. We're betting that we'll be getting ready to guide our own species next year on the Wii.
Will Wright releases Spores onto the 360
Supposedly speaking to SPOnG, Will Wright revealed the possibility of a console release of the game that people just won't shut up about, Spore. More specifically, he indicated the possibility of a 360 release (and Wii and PS3, blah, blah)."We're looking at all the platforms for Spore, because we're thinking about Spore as a franchise, not as a PC game. We're going to do the PC game first, but really, what we're trying to launch is an entire franchise that will be all across platforms."It wouldn't be a huge stretch to believe that EA wants to spread one of the most hyped games in recent memory as far as possible. Perhaps we'll be ordering our own custom critters from Xbox Live Marketplace?
Will Wright is a pr0n star, blogs lowly game designer
Derek Daniels, a low-ranking designer on the God of War team, recently broke the industry down like this:"In the videogame design world you have Miyamoto, Kojima, Will Wright, David Jaffe, and a handful of others that have risen to the top that have a little more control of their future. Then you have the other faceless designers that no one knows working on games doing some downright nasty things that I'm sure their mothers do not want to hear."Sounds like the porn industry, right? Well, that's Daniels' point at least. He reckons that videogame design is a young man's gamble, with a lifespan about as long as a girl doing porn. And when you finally burn out and leave the game behind, you're left with "a skillset that cannot be applied to anything else in life." [Thanks, Art]
European Game Convention gets geared up
Wedged in between E3 and the Tokyo Game Show is the less known, but still demanding respect, European Game Convention. Even though it's not the largest event in the gaming industry, it ranks as the top European event. Here's a sample of how a typical EuroGaCon goes (sure, EGC would be easier but far less nerdy). The day begins with a sold out concert of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra playing your favorite videogame tunes (Final Fantasy, Shinobi, Castlevania). You can then peruse the game booths or check out the sprawling art gallery or watch some mini-movies created with game engines.The main speaker will be Will Wright, creator of the Sims games, not to mention the upcoming Spore title. He'll spread some of his ideas about the future of the industry and hopefully a demo of Spore! No solid guest list has been confirmed yet, but there will be approximately 367 names throughout the event. Maybe a couple of PS3 games will pop up that slipped past our radar. While this is nice, PS3's best moment may certainly come at Japan's Tokyo Game Show. JaToGaShow? Let's keep it to TGS.
MI6 teaser: World of ColbertCraft?
Stephen Colbert (the 't' is silent) has made a minor contribution to the MI6 conference, taking place June 27th and 28th in San Francisco, Ca. In the teaser, Colbert announces the release of World of ColbertCraft. The game promises to be more popular that his last title, Stephen Colbert's Escape from Skateboard Mountain. However, as Colbert explains, "for cost reasons, [WoCC] also takes place on Skateboard Mountain." Colbert adds that "on the Nintendo Wii, you can use the controller to wag my finger." All the clips seem to have been spliced together quickly; 1UP asserts that the full video will be up on Monday. The MI6 conference is a game marketing event. It has no relation, unfortunately, to the United Kingdom secret service agency formerly known as MI6.See Also:Jon Stewart blasts Congress' ignorance towards video games
Wright rocks out with the mainstream media
Will Wright has had a very busy month thanks to his upcoming game, Spore. Everyone that saw the gameplay video from GDC '05 knew that the real highlight of this May's E3 would be Wright's presentation. Although his presentation at E3 didn't reveal too much that we didn't already know about Spore, the slightly more mainstream appeal of E3 has resulted in some well deserved coverage from the mainstream media. The positive endorsement by Robin "Sniper" Williams can't have hurt either.The two most notable examples of MSM picking up this story are featured in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and the BBC. The Beeb covered Spore and Wright from an angle of user generated content, comparing it to current and past titles that have popularized the concept (e.g. Second Life, The Sims and the popularity of mods like Counter-Strike). The quirky video interview with Wright that runs alongside the article also gives a good idea of how much Wright values user generated content (i.e. a lot). The WSJ picked up the story from a more general "profile of Wright" viewpoint, although it was displayed very prominently. If you picked up last Saturday's edition of the paper it's possibly the first article you would have seen, it being on the front page and all. One of the world's most recognizable and respected business publications profiling a game developer on the front page: they've finally wised up!Read - BBC video interview with WrightRead - Wall Street Journal Spore article
MTV hosts game designers roundtable
MTV News' Stephen Totilo somehow managed the Herculean task of getting four major game designers -- Harvey Smith (aka Witchboy; Deus Ex), Will Wright (The Sims), David Jaffe (God of War), and Cliff Bleszinski (aka CliffyB; Gears of War) -- to sit down and talk to each other ... during the week of E3. The roundtable took place at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight amidst the backdrop of their currently running I AM 8-BIT art show. Though it begins with more input from host Gideon Yago, it quickly evolves into a conversation between the four designers, running the gaming gamut from design to violence in games to the art question, all with a healthy sprinkling of (the outspoken) David Jaffe's trademark pottymouth.While MTV only ran an edited version, MTV's online-only Overdrive channel is hosting the whole shebang. It's unfortunate that MTV decided this didn't deserve to be aired on television even though they've managed to make room for another half-dozen airings of the Gears of War promotional special. But seriously, if MTV's doing this, what does G4 do nowadays?[Warning: Ever attuned to the pulse of the younger generation, MTV had the foresight to recognize that nobody under the age of 34 uses Mac OS and, accordingly, they've made their Overdrive site only compatible with Internet Explorer running on Windows.]
Spore confirmed for Wii, sorta [update 1]
Speaking with GameSpy during E3, Will Wright confirmed that Spore will be available "on all platforms," including cell phones - and presumably Wii. While Wright did not specifically name-drop "Wii," we must assume that "all platforms" includes Wii. In addition, Wright, by his own admission, is a bit of a Nintendo fanboy: "I'm rooting for Nintendo," he told GameSpy. Despite this statement, Wright was critical of the Wiimote, observing "the way the Wii controller works depends a lot on how close you are to your TV."Interestingly enough, Wright currently favors the DS as his platform of choice. Any chance Spore will end up on Nintendo's handheld? [Update: Spore has been confirmed for the DS. Thanks, Sense.]Spore is tentatively set to debut on the PC early next year (April/March 2007).[Thanks, Vik]
OMG SPORE R0X0Rz!!!1!
While I was busy banging out uber sweet videos, a lot of people were standing in lines at E3. Two main groups camped out for hours just to get a glimpse of the future of gaming: in one, the line stretched the length of the entire hall, brimming with gamers eager to get their hands on the Wii; meanwhile, at EA's booth, eager gamers had a chance to see Spore played by the designer himself, Will Wright.While you may have seen our demo video earlier -- which it turns out is virtually the same demo shown on the show floor -- I didn't get a chance to post my perspective until now. It may sound hyperbolic to say that Spore will change gaming forever and surpass Wright's other franchise, The Sims, to become biggest selling PC game of all time, but once you look at the video for yourself and get to actually, y'know, play the game, you may feel the same way.
Joystiq Video: Wired Spore Event, featuring Will Wright and Robin Williams [update 3]
Last night, Randall Bennett and I had the good fortune to attend a special Wired event featuring Will Wright showing off his next masterpiece, Spore, with a wonderful guest appearance by Robin Williams. We managed to get footage of the entire event and we even scored interviews with both Wright and Williams. Thanks to everyone over at Wired for inviting us! In the interest of getting this to you as soon as possible, we've uploaded the full 40 minute, 420MB file, which you can access via this link: [link]. Please right-click and save the file locally before viewing. It's 480x360 3ivx wrapped in Quicktime and should play nicely on your video-capable iPod, should you own one. If you feel like waiting a bit and think that 420MBs is ginormous, then give us about an hour and we'll update this post with some separate chapter-sized versions of the video. Enjoy!Get the video[Huge] Get the full enchilada[Cutdown1] Get the first 10 minutes (Will Wright introducing character creation) [Cutdown2] Get the next 10. [Cutdown3] Get the following 10. [Cutdown4] Get the final 10. Update: Someone was kind enough to make a torrent: [link].
