Will Wright is a pioneer in gaming and the gaming industry for the past 20 years. Wright was born in 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from high school at the age of 16. After high school, Wright continued to further his education at Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech, and New School University, where for five years he studied architecture, mechanical engineering, and aviation. What did this future pioneer get after five years at three institutions of higher learning? No degree, although five years of experience which would be crucial later.
At age 20, Wright became heavily involved in gaming and became addicted to computer games. Later that year, he taught himself how to program on his Apple II. In 1984, the then unknown Will Wright released his first game, Raid On Bungeling Bay, published by Broderbund for the Commodore 64. Raid On Bungling Bay was a scrolling shooting game. While developing Raid On Bungling Bay, Wright discovered placing roads and populating the map using his building utility for the game was fun in itself.
Hence, Wright began to expand on his roads and buildings utility and transformed it into a unique game of its own. Sim City, as it would become known, was an entirely unique simulation game unlike no game before it. After developing the game solely for a year, Wright started to look for a publisher. No publisher would accept the game due to its unheard of and unproven concept -- a decision some still likely regret today. Even Broderbund didn’t want Wright’s latest game and believed that “without clear winners and losers, the idea would be a commercial flop.” With no publisher, the game was left unreleased for four years. Finally, Wright created Sim City on the 
Commodore 64 in 1985 on his own without a publisher. With no publisher, the game was left unfinished for years., but sold only a few copies. However, all would soon realize Broderbund could not have been further from the truth with Sim City.
In 1987, Wright was, still unable to find a publisher for Sim City and, teamed up with Jeff Braun, a businessman who wanted to enter the gaming market. Together they formed Maxis; Wright and their small team of developers started to work on improving Sim City, readying it for release. Finally, in 1989, the idea with which Wright had been spinning in his head and slowly making headway on since 1984 was released. Sim City became a best-seller video game by the end of the year, and was even distributed to over 5,000 public schools to teach children about the infrastructure of cities.
Wright soon began co-designing Sim Earth: The Living Planet with Fred Haslem. The game was released through Maxis in 1990 and at the time was considered to have unlimited potential, although sales were not as high as that of Sim City. At this stage of his career, Wright was also working on a new game with Justin McCormick, Sim Ant: The Electronic Ant Colony. It was released shortly after Sim Earth in 1991. It never gained much popularity at that time, but is considered today to be one of Will Wright’s best games to date by game critics.
Sim Life, released by Maxis in 1992, was the next major game to add to Wright’s resume. The game was often referred to as “The Genetic Playground,” in which players had the ability to modify the genetics and DNA of species in order to alter the outcome of the planet. Sim Life was certainly ahead of its time and never really got the praise it deserved.
A Train, a train simulation by Japanese company Artdink, was released by Maxis in the USA in 1993. Also out in 1993 was SimFarm, which you either loved or loathed. There is only one word capable of describing Sim Farm: “Classic.”
Ever since Raid On Bungeling Bay and then Sim City, Wright had been fascinated by architecture and the construction of dwellings. His latest project at that time had the working titles of Dollhouse and Home Tactics: The Experimental Domestic Simulator. It was 1993 when Wright started to become serious about an architecture simulation and developed a playable game. Although being the pioneer Wright has always been, he decided to take the game one step further. The aim of the game was to create an architecturally good house however; he had no way to score players. That is where little ‘sims’ entered the architecture game. The characters would live in the house and evaluate the quality of the dwelling. This small addition changed the game and Will Wright’s career drastically.
Wright began developing small sims to live in the game, and in doing so, created interactions for the sims, such as having a shower or cooking a meal. Gradually, the focal point of the game shifted from an architecture and building sim to a full blown life simulator. Interestingly enough, Maxis executives failed to see Wright’s vision and the project was shelved.
With a Sim City sequel desired by many and Wright wanting no part of it, Fred Haslem set to work on Sim City 2000, when Wright wanted no part of it. However good a designer Fred Haslem was, it was decided during development that the game wasn’t working out. That is when Wright was called back in and spent the next year working on Sim City 2000. Sim City 2000 was released in Q1, 1994.
Maxis had great success with Sim City and its spin-off Sim City 2000 but unfortunately, they were quickly losing money and slowly coming to face the inevitable. Maxis executives wished for Wright and his team to produce four games by the end of 1996, a feat which many considered impossible including Wright. Wright was then working on his latest sim, SimCopter, where you would pilot various helicopters and complete rescue missions, etc. By the end of 1996, Maxis did manage to rush out SimCopter, SimPark, Full Tilt Pinball, and Sim Tunes. Although Wright and his team met the deadlines, he was not a very happy game developer; “To start off with, I didn't even have the resources I needed to do SimCopter!" The company had spread what limited resources they had across the four "must-launch" games. SimCopter was a popular game that season even though it was riddled with bugs and did not enthrall many players.
After pressure from Maxis executives to rush out yet another sequel, Wright and his team of developers immediately started to work on another Sim City iteration, Sim City 3000. Wright spent the next year working on Sim City 3000, although he was unhappy with it, and quoted, “my stress level was increasing exponentially.”
Maxis reported losses of $1.7 million in 1996, and in 1997 was acquired by EA Games for $125 million. EA Games moved Luc Barthalet to Maxis with the task of turning the company around. After seeing Sim City 3000, he was shocked and quickly brought in another EA designer, Lucy Bradshaw (who still works with Will Wright today) to help improve the game. Bradshaw decided to strip the game back to Sim City 2000’s roots and expand on that, obliterating the 3D aspect Maxis executives had previously been pushing. Sim City 3000 was released in Q1, 1999 after Bradshaw had been assisting the development of the game for more than a year.
While Bradshaw was working on Sim City 3000, Wright was still busy at work working with a single programmer, Jamie Doornbos, on creating the engine on which Dollhouse (later renamed to The Sims) was based. By 1998, the team working on Dollhouse had grown to about 12 programmers and graphic artists. Finally, EA Games saw Wright’s vision of the game, and Wright had a full team and all the resources he needed. The Sims was already highly anticipated when it was released in February, 2000. With many Sim City fans eager to get their hands on Wright’s latest creative game, The Sims went on to become one of the best selling PC games ever.
After The Sims release, the community following grew quickly and the Sims team expanded to nearly 400 staff. Wright began work on an expansion pack for The Sims titled The Sims: Livin’ Large. He slowly had less involvement in expansion packs for The Sims and began work on The Sims Online making it playable online with other players.
In 2001, Will Wright was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. After a year-and-a-half, The Sims Online was released and regrettably failed to be as successful as The Sims franchise. In total, seven expansion packs were released for The Sims. Wright only had a large involvement in Livin’ Large. He advised on The Sims: House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar and Makin’ Magic expansion packs.
The Sims had been a huge success for Maxis/EA games, and Wright was eager to do a sequel to The Sims, and in September, 2004, The Sims 2 was released on PC, although this time, Wright and Lucy Bradshaw (who is still with The Sims 2 today) had a team of nearly 400 programmers, animators, texture artists, meshers, songwriters and testers. The Sims 2 was another huge success, and like The Sims, it is sure to have a long life ahead of it. The Sims 2: University, Nightlife and Open For Business expansion packs have already been released, although without Wright’s direct involvement.
What could Wright be working on which is more of a challenge than The Sims series? The game which has been quoted as superior to The Sims series: Spore. Spore will give the player the ability to simulate life which evolves over time from microscopic cells to sentient beings capable of creating their own society with every game vastly different. It’s expected the work of the genius will be released in the second half of 2007.
Will Wright is not only a pioneer but also an inspiration. From University dropout to one of the greatest game designers in the industry, everyone can learn from Will Wright. Everyone young or old can grasp the wise words of Wright, “I think by exploring the bad side you're really just mapping the envelope of the system... you're getting a sense of how far off you can go.”
References:
http://www.gamespot.com/features/maxis/page6.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright
