Interview with Will Wright

Illustration by Tara Sinn

WILL WRIGHT, INVENTOR OF SIMCITY, THE SIMS, AND NOW SPORE

Not only is Will Wright one of the most prominent game designers out there, but he’s also been prominent for a length of time seldom found in the game industry. His latest game,

, allows players to explore life—like, ALL of life, from single-cell organisms to galactic empires. It was originally going to be released under the title

. It’s been in development for eight years and was initially slated for release in 2006, but the team elected to keep it in testing for an extra two years to ensure the correct level of polish.

I’ve been watching

since its media debut. I’ve always liked Wright’s games, and the idea of one game with so many different play modes has always intrigued me, but it’s not just the game’s premise that holds my attention.

makes heavy use of procedural content, a relatively new approach to gaming that’s been picking up steam for the past few years—the Havok physics engine’s procedural methods of determining the behavior of objects in space has been wowing gamers since

’s first previews hit the internet. But

uses procedural content for far more than just animation. I’m not normally one to say a particular game will change everything, but with luck, a lot of other games will take cues from the way

handles itself.

I caught up with Will Wright over the phone recently to hear his thoughts on

, procedural content, and a bit of the future of the game industry.

Vice: Could you talk a little bit about Spore?

Will Wright:

This is what you’ve been calling pollinated content, right?

Now, this is a very broad game in terms of the number of platforms it’s appearing on. It’s just starting on the PC, but you’ve also got versions for Mac, Wii, iPhone, and DS. Does pollinated content work across platforms?

We’re seeing a lot of procedural content in video games recently. Obviously everything uses Havok physics nowadays. Grand Theft Auto 4 uses Euphoria for animation, The Force Unleashed uses that plus Digital Molecular Matter for terrain deformation. And Spore is based entirely on procedural content. How far do you see this going? What do you think is the future of procedural content? You’ve been up to your elbows in it for seven years now.

Spore

Spore

Spore

Spore

On the topic of player creativity, the Spore Creature Creator has been out for two months now, so you’re starting to see the sort of things players are creating. Have they done anything that’s surprised you?

So as inspirations for Spore, you’ve talked about Powers of 10 and the Drake equation, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the SETI program. Are there any inspirations for the game that you haven’t really talked about in the media yet?

What other recent games have you seen that seem innovative to you?

Brain Age.

Yeah, Brain Age actually got my mother into gaming, which I thought was impossible.

What influence do you think Spore will have on the game industry?

Spore

Spore