For the past six years, Wright has been working on a new game, which will be released in 2007. It is anticipated with something like the interest with which writers in Paris in the early twenties awaited Joyce’s “Ulysses.” At first, Wright called the project Sim Everything, but a few years ago he settled on the name Spore. The game draws on the theory of natural selection. It seeks to replicate algorithmically the conditions by which evolution works, and render the process as a game.
Covering briefly the start of videogaming and the god-game concept, this New Yorker article about Will Wright has information about how Wright works, what meeting with him is like, what he does to get creative, and so on. Anyone who has interest in the backgrounds of gaming’s better known creators will probably like this, long though the article is.
There is also some information on Wright’s new game, Spore, and its published, Electronic Arts, but for me, the real interest to the story is Will Wright himself. Beware – this is a long one, running 4 pages and many thousands of words.
[tags]Will Wright – game god, The New Yorker on Will Wright and Spore[/tags]