Simcity 4 The First One

Will Wright at BAFTA: the creator of The Sims on his influences and hints to ...

BAFTA have been supporting computer games for years, but they’re now making efforts to expand their membership and visibility into America. Which is weird, for an organisation with “British Academy of” in its name.

But their first step is a series of profiles called A Life In Pixels, looking at some of the people most important to the development of videogames. The first, with Will Wright, just took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood this Sunday evening. I was there, listening to creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore talk about the power of obsession, the wisdom of ants, his love of hard science fiction, and just a single hint on what his next game project might be. Read on for a full report.

The interview began with Wright talking about his early life and how it led him to become a game developer. He explained that, growing up, every 6 months or so he would get obsessed with a new topic: from Houdini’s lockpicking to World War 2, some of the subjects were narrow and some were broad. He’s continued doing the same thing his whole life.

“When I enter a new place or see a new thing, my first question is, ‘How does this work?’”, eplains Wright. He begins reverse engineering the world around him – a habit which he refers to as a kind of affliction. “It’s very distracting.”

But it also gives him enormous curiosity. At university, Wright studied architecture, aviation, mechanical engeering and psychology, and although he eventually dropped out without a degree, the breadth of his interests has served him well as a game designer.

It wasn’t until he bought an Apple II in college that he became interested in programming, but his desire wasn’t to program games, but to control the robots he wanted to design. He taught himself how to program over a year and a half, and it was only later, when he started buying games from a store in New York, that he became hooked on “these little worlds that exist inside the computer.” Eventually, his interest in robots was put to one side, and he became fascinated by the potential of artificial intelligence and simulations.

Raid on Bungeling Bay

Wright came to the conclusion that he could probably write one of these games for himself, but rather than compete with Apple II programmers who were, by that point, experts with the machine, he decided to level the playing field. He bought a brand new machine – the Commodore 64 – and spent two months learning everything about it. When he was done, he deisgned Raid on Bungeling Bay , his first published game. At this point, footage of the game plays on a big screen in the conference hall. As it starts, Wright says, “I warn you, it’s stupid.” He’s kind of consistently down on it through the rest of the talk.

Gaming Superstar » Will Wright at BAFTA: the creator of The Sims ...

BAFTA have been supporting computer games for years, but they’re now making efforts to expand their membership and visibility into America. Which is weird, for an organisation with “British Academy of” in its name.

But their first step is a series of profiles called A Life In Pixels, looking at some of the people most important to the development of videogames. The first, with Will Wright, just took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood this Sunday evening. I was there, listening to creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore talk about the power of obsession, the wisdom of ants, his love of hard science fiction, and just a single hint on what his next game project might be. Read on for a full report.

The interview began with Wright talking about his early life and how it led him to become a game developer. He explained that, growing up, every 6 months or so he would get obsessed with a new topic: from Houdini’s lockpicking to World War 2, some of the subjects were narrow and some were broad. He’s continued doing the same thing his whole life.

“When I enter a new place or see a new thing, my first question is, ‘How does this work?’”, eplains Wright. He begins reverse engineering the world around him – a habit which he refers to as a kind of affliction. “It’s very distracting.”

But it also gives him enormous curiosity. At university, Wright studied architecture, aviation, mechanical engeering and psychology, and although he eventually dropped out without a degree, the breadth of his interests has served him well as a game designer.

It wasn’t until he bought an Apple II in college that he became interested in programming, but his desire wasn’t to program games, but to control the robots he wanted to design. He taught himself how to program over a year and a half, and it was only later, when he started buying games from a store in New York, that he became hooked on “these little worlds that exist inside the computer.” Eventually, his interest in robots was put to one side, and he became fascinated by the potential of artificial intelligence and simulations.

Raid on Bungeling Bay

Wright came to the conclusion that he could probably write one of these games for himself, but rather than compete with Apple II programmers who were, by that point, experts with the machine, he decided to level the playing field. He bought a brand new machine – the Commodore 64 – and spent two months learning everything about it. When he was done, he deisgned Raid on Bungeling Bay , his first published game. At this point, footage of the game plays on a big screen in the conference hall. As it starts, Wright says, “I warn you, it’s stupid.” He’s kind of consistently down on it through the rest of the talk.

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