Last night we attended a BAFTA ‘A life in Pixels’ event in LA celebrating the SIM series creator Will Wright.
Hosted by BAFTA and presented in an interview format with IGN’s Tal Blevins as host, Will revealed his inspirations for such games as SimCity, SimAnt, The Sims, and Spore. It was truly fascinating stuff and he seems to be somewhat of a genius. At one point he described his fascination with simulation as somewhat of an affliction, citing that he finds himself deconstructing everyday situations from towns and cities he visits, down to social meetings such as parties into simulations in his head.
During the interview and in a Q&A session afterwards, he told of his affinity for his iPad. Originally bought with the assumption that he would soon bore of it and put it in the cupboard with other tech, he was surprised to find that it actually fit with his life far better than expected. And that he prefers using it for many tasks that he could do on a PC. Let’s hope he’s inspired enough to create a game specifically for the system.
He also touched upon the emerging shift towards indy development and how he knows people who have moved from the studio system back to the indy system. And that he sees that the console cycle of the last decade is now over, and that while there will be more consoles, the shift towards social gaming and mobile gaming will change the landscape of gaming as we know it.
