EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: willwright

This weekend, the inaugural BAFTA ‘Brits to Watch’ gala event and dinner took place at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles to honour 42 emerging talents in film, TV and videogames, each of whom was hand-picked by a panel of industry experts.

According to the event’s website, honourees were selected “based on extraordinary potential displayed in their craft. From on-screen performance, to cinematography and games development, the achievements of these individuals highlights the breadth and depth of creativity emerging from today’s British talent.”

Other than A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Hanks, who else was present at the Brits to Watch event? Videogame legends, including Will Wright, Tim Schafer and John Romero.

Post continues, click to read more…

Videogame industry legend, programming technology guru and id Software (DOOM, Quake) co-founder John Carmack is set to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards for his outstanding contributions to the art and science of games, following in the footsteps of prolific industry stars Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima and Richard Garriott.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises “the career and achievements of developers who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development,” and with Carmack’s more than two decade history of making games, working on breakthrough technology and his contributions to popularising the first-person shooter genre with titles such as Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake, as well as his efforts in continually pushing the bounds of graphics technology, you could say he’s made an “indelible impact” on game development.

Event Director of the Game Developers Conference Meggan Scavio said of Carmack and the award:

Post continues, click to read more…

This February at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, videogame industry legend Mark Cerny will be formally inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining the likes of luminaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto, John Carmack, Will Wright and Sid Meier.

Mark Cerny has made major contributions to videogame technologies and numerous titles throughout the years, some of which you may not even realise he had a hand in, including Marble Madness way back in 1984, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Heart of Darkness, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Uncharted, MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword, inFamous and Killzone 2, with many more to come in the future through his consultation company, Cerny Games.

Post continues, click to read more…

On the back of the news that Wolfenstein developer Raven Software has been hit with a round of layoffs, it’s also been revealed that The Sims and Spore developer, and internal studio at EA, Maxis, has also been forced to reduce its staff in order to respond to “business conditions,” says a statement from EA.

The exact number of staff affected by the cut is unknown, but internet rumblings post the figure in the dozens, as opposed to lesser measurements. The full statement from EA regarding the Maxis layoffs reads:

Post continues, click to read more…

Will Wright, one of the most notable thinkers working in the field of game development today, and creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore (amongst others) has left the company he co-founded, Maxis, and the company’s publisher, EA, to work full time at an ‘entertainment think tank’ called The Stupid Fun Club.

The Stupid Fun Club, which Wright has been financing for the last ten years and operating out of a warehouse in Berkley, California, has thus far focussed its energy on the areas of robotics and human interaction with robots.

Now Wright, working with EA which now co-owns the venture, will begin work on exploring new possibilities in the lucrative area of cross-media, developing new intellectual property (IP) for games, TV, toys and movies.

EA will have the right of first refusal on all IP developed at the think tank, at which time Wright and co. will be free to shop their ideas to other publishers and companies.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Lucy Bradshaw, a colleague of Wright’s for twelve years, said; “It really is a partnership, where Will is going to be investing his time in Stupid Fun Club incubating new IP… [while] Maxis will continue to develop its own IP, and clearly we’re very focused on Spore.

“It’s exciting - I’d like to see where he’s going to branch out to. There are areas of IP that really don’t fit within EA’s portfolio that he does want to pursue.

CEO at EA, John Riccitiello, also weighed in on the matter, saying; “We believe in Will’s vision for Stupid Fun Club and we’re looking forward to partnering with Will and his team long into the future.”

Will Wright, in his usual prophetic way, said in a statement; “The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change. Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos, and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms.”

Source: Gamasutra

“It’s blasphemy, brilliance or both to take the entire evolution of a species — from a single-celled animalcule in a drop of water to a space-faring, galaxy-exploring sentient being — and turn it into a video game.”

So says Time, who have bestowed upon Spore, the game/toy about evolution from the mind of Will Wright, with the honour of being called 2008’s greatest invention. They continue the praise:

“But that’s exactly what Will Wright has done. Wright is the man who created The Sims, a game about everyday life in suburbia, but apparently he found the vast panorama of human experience too confining, because he then spent seven years creating Spore, in which players design their own life-form and then manage every aspect of its progress through the centuries, from savagery to civilization.”

You can check out the rest of the greatest invention list over here.

Will Wright, creator of and lead developer on such hits as SimCity, SimAnt, SimCopter, The Sims and now more recently, Spore, is widely regarded as one of the most prolific game designers and creators in the industry, while his games have inspired the imagination of millions of players throughout the world.

While Will Wright’s games are sure to appear on many a gamers’ ‘favourites list’, what are Will Wright’s top five favourite games? You may or may not be surprised to discover that his 5th favourite game is Civilisation. Wright says; “I think the strategic diversity of ‘Civilization’ always interested me. There’s just so many different strategic approaches to playing the game.”

The rest of the list can be found on MSNBC.