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Will Wright's Current TV show shooting pilot this week
Will Wright and his Stupid Fun Club have a handful of projects in the works -- this much we know. And today, one of those projects became a bit more official: a television show for Current TV. According to a Current TV representative, Wright is working on "an original show" for the network. The pilot is being filmed this week just across the East River in Brooklyn (if you also happen to be in Manhattan). The show is presumably the not so well-guarded project that was detailed earlier this year, "The Creation Project," which reportedly relies on user-created storylines. (Wright has at least one more TV project in the pipeline.) We invite you to tell your own stories from the set photos seen in the gallery below. %Gallery-99976%
Will Wright to produce Science Channel programming
Following the reveal of Will Wright's reported, user-generated television venture with Current TV, the sporadic game designer has signed a deal with Science Channel, part of the Discovery network, to create original programming with interactive online elements. The Hollywood Reporter describes the partnership as encompassing series and specials for Science covering stupid fun topics like time travel, other worlds and the future. "I want to take the way he engages an audience in gaming and bring that into a show," Science Channel GM Debbie Myers said. "Gaming is a rich and compelling way to tell a great story," Wright added. "I am so excited to bring that mindset to TV projects." With that mindset could come Wright's tendency to incubate his projects for prolonged development cycles. Luckily, the proposed topics for his Science shows fit right in with this strategy. Should he ever get that time machine running, Wright could journey back to our time and tell us all about the future. We'd watch that. [Via Gamasutra]
Will Wright on the Wii's toy-like sensibilities
Speaking to IndustryGamers in a pre-GDC interview, industry veteran Will Wright shared his thoughts on the Wii and where it fits in the current video game market. According to Wright, the Wii offers an experience that is "clearly different than the Xbox or the PlayStation." Specifically, he stated that the Wii differs from its console brothers in that it doesn't generally cater to long, in depth experiences. Rather, said Wright, the Wii offers "fun toys to pick up and start playing in five minutes." He added, "It really is more into what I would call the toy market." Elaborating, Wright said that all consoles will have a "specifically defined niche" and that Nintendo actively decided to approach the Wii in a different way. He stated that Nintendo opted not to directly compete with the hardcore sensibilities of FPS-heavy consoles like the Xbox 360. "I think it's kind of cool that they decided to go off and find a different sandbox to play in," said Wright, "I think it's been very good for the industry." Hit the source link for more excerpts from the interview.
Survey: Developers still worship Miyamoto, Blow too
Luminary Shigeru Miyamoto hasn't lost his shimmer in the eyes of game developers, with a recent industry poll finding the Nintendo icon to be without equal. The survey, commissioned by organizers of next month's Develop Conference, asked 9,000 devs to name their game development hero, with nearly a third of respondents pointing to Miyamoto as the man with the plan. The popularity contest also named id Software's John Carmack as the next most idealized developer, followed by Maxis and now Stupid Fun Club brainpan Will Wright. The top ten list of industry highlights was rounded out by Braid dev Jonathan Blow, who's likely too busy rewinding time (to see if he can somehow land higher on the ballot) to care.
Will Wright involved in the future of Spore, consoles a possibility
Ex-EA employee and enormously popular developer Will Wright is apparently only halfway out of EA's doors. Talking with GameDaily, Wright confirmed his intention to stay on as a consultant for EA Maxis (the development team behind Spore). Saying, "I'm spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions," Wright (seemingly for the first time) announced his plans beyond his work with upcoming venture, the Stupid Fun Club. Additionally, Wright commented on the possibility of console iterations of Spore, frankly stating, "For us it's really an opportunity/cost issue ... we either do that [consoles] or we continue creating new applications on the PC or we kind of go into the handheld arena." Guess he forgot about that upcoming Wii title, Spore Hero! While we're looking forward to what Wright's next move is with SFC, it's good to hear the man behind Spore is still helping to develop the game moving forward. The money problem doesn't hurt either, eh?
Maxis talks about Wright's departure; Will talks Stupid Fun Club
Will Wright's announcement that he was kind of leaving EA this week took the gaming community by surprise. Unsurprisingly though, Wright says the move was planned over the course of the last year with EA. "It's something that we've been in talks with EA for almost a year ... it's kind of a long-term plan and I was just in no hurry to do it," he told GameSpot. Lucy Bradshaw, VP and general manager at EA Maxis, echoed Wright's statements, telling GameDaily it's been a "life-long dream [for Wright to have a] small nucleus think tank."Funded by EA and venture capitalists, Stupid Fun Club is setting out not to develop just new games but to develop new IP across multiple mediums. Wright calls his vision of the club the "evolution of the entertainment industry," using Marvel and LucasArts as reference points and saying, "If I'm into Star Wars or Lost, I might go to the website or buy the toys .... It's the IP that really matters, that strand of consistency and quality through it." We've certainly heard this tune before, though never from such an acclaimed developer. It remains to be seen just how "stupid fun" Mr. Wright's club actually is, but we'll remain hopeful for now.Source 1 - GameDailySource 2 - GameSpot
Will Wright leaves EA, mostly
Legendary game designer Will Wright is leaving his position as the head of EA-owned Maxis, to do what most people at his level of success do: whatever he wants. Wright will be focusing on his Stupid Fun Club think tank, working to develop new IPs across multiple media -- IPs which EA will then have the option to pay him for."The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," Wright said. "Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms."EA has a share in Stupid Fun Club equal to Wright's, while a third, unnamed investor has a smaller stake in the company. EA has the first rights to anything Stupid Fun Club comes up with. The new organization has yet to announce any projects.Source - GameDailySource - MTV Multiplayer
