Will Wright Interview at E3

An interview with Will Wright

Will Wright is the creator of cornerstone gaming environments SimCity
and the Sims through his company Maxis. His most recent creation is a
game called "Spore" that takes the user's exploration of simulated
environments beginning at the micro and through to the macro level.
In this presentation he spoke about gaming trends and the future of
user created content.

Will is trying to create a synergy of biology, chemistry, physics and
astrophysics in a single title. This game focuses on the immersion
experience and plays with a huge set of variables to provide the
level of randomness and chaos that represents the forces of nature we
experience in the real world. Will's experience with game creation
has spanned every level of macro and micro environments ranging from
SimEearth to SimAnts. These titles were true open-ended experiences
that allowed the users to impose their own desire to construct or
destroy the world they created.

Part of the challenge that Wright has faced over the years is
ensuring that the user's mental model of what the game is and how it
should work was consistent and congruent. "The user immediately
develops an expectation of what the game will do and the world they
will experience when they pick that box up off the shelf," says
Wright. The game experience begins well before the game is ever played.

The interview shifted to a production overview and a question of the
optimal development team size came up. The largest team that Will has
work with was around 120 to 140. At this size, many compromises were
made and the effectiveness of the team was questionable. As a result,
the peak optimal team size for Will is about 70 to 75 people. 25% or
less of this team size is associated with content development.

Some points of wisdom that Will shared included (I summarize these
ideas):
- In the absence of good design is bad design, not no design. This
applies the design of game.
- games, like cars, should be designed AND engineered. Don't expect
the player to be willing to learn a whole new set of controls just
for your game.