|
|
 |
Success Begets Success
That young designer was Sid Meier, and SimCity changed his perception of computer gaming. "SimCity was a revelation to most of us game designers," admits Meier almost a decade later. "The idea that players enjoyed a game that was open-ended, noncombative, and emphasized construction over destruction opened up many new avenues and possibilities for game concepts." Meier says that in truth, "SimCity served in many ways as an inspiration for my game Railroad Tycoon and, subsequently, the Civilization series."
Legendary game designer Sid Meier was impressed with Wright's design paradigm for SimCity.
|
Beyond designers like Meier, SimCity also had a broad appeal among new computer users, tapping into the mass market in way few games have before or since. "I was in a cab in New York a few months ago," says Lucy Bradshaw, the executive producer of SimCity 3000, "and the cab driver actually knew about SimCity. It just blew me away." From New York to Tokyo to Australia, SimCity made its mark as a realistic city system simulator
Perhaps it was too realistic. All of the sudden, Maxis was besieged with letters requesting them to simulate everything imaginable. "The CIA, Defense Department, Canadian Lumber Association, and the Australian Tax Board, among others, all contacted us," recalls Wright.
All across the world SimCity was making its mark.
|
Educators also latched onto the SimCity concept, adapting the program as a teaching tool in some 10,000 classrooms. SimCity was having a measurable impact on society.
With a reach like that, it's no wonder that Maxis was suddenly one of the hottest design studios in the world. "Maxis has always had this cache about it," says Bradshaw, who at the time, was at LucasArts. "They were always this cool little studio in the East Bay, and everyone just loved working with Will."
Wright's ant colony simulator SimAnt.
|
Everyone was dying to know what Wright would do next. Not one to glory grab, he quickly set to work on two new sims: SimEarth (based on James Lovelock's Gaia theory of planet evolution) and SimAnt, a realistic simulation of, you guessed it, an ant colony. And although both games sold well, everyone knew it was a forgone conclusion that a sequel to SimCity would eventually be in the cards. The only problem? Wright really wasn't interested in going back to do a new SimCity. So the project landed on the lap of Fred Haslem, the man who co-developed SimEarth with Wright. Making a sequel worthy of the SimCity name was an enviable yet challenging task. It would take Maxis more than one attempt to get it right.
Next:
The Inevitable Follow-Up
|
