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EA Maxis folks leave to open new indie sim studio, Jellygrade
Jellygrade, a new indie studio dedicated to creating simulation experiences on mobile platforms, has been formally announced today. Jellygrade is made up of former EA Maxis creative director Ocean Quigley, former engineering lead Andrew Willmott and former lead gameplay engineer Dan Moskowitz. In a tweet, Quigley says this first mystery project is about the dawn of life. "We're making a simulation about the dawn of life on earth; about lava, water, rock and the emergence of the first primordial creatures." Nothing else about this first project is known, though Jellygrade promises it'll have something to show soon.
SimCity will not support mods at launch
The last game EA Maxis launched in the SimCity series was SimCity 4, almost ten years ago. It's still being played today, thanks in part to a Steam launch in 2010, but mostly thanks to the modding scene. However, EA Maxis will not launch the new SimCity in 2013 with mod support.It's not entirely off the table, though. EA Maxis creative director Ocean Quigley said the ability to support mods is already built into GlassBox, the new engine powering SimCity, so there's potential for mod support down the road -- just not at launch."Right now we've got our work cut out for us to build the product up to the quality level it deserves as a SimCity," Quigley said. "Then after we ship, we'll make decisions about how we can and when exactly we'll support mods. But it's worth pointing out that the reason people are still playing SimCity 4 almost ten years later is because the modding community essentially re-created it and filled it with new content and fixed bugs and made it as much of a hobby as it is a game."We're very cognizant of that -- we're not idiots."
