try something where you
were doing a 3D game
inside ofSimCity. So that
was the original premise
forSimCopter. They asked
me: “Can you design a
game where you’re doing
something in 3D in
SimCity? Whatever it is,
driving around, flying
around, whatever.” So
SimCopterwas the design
I came up with. It was the
first 3D game I ever did,
and actually the first 3D
game a lot of our team
ever did as well. So we
were definitely going up a learning curve a couple of years behind a lot of other people.
The biggest problem withSimCopterI don’t think was in the game design, it was in the
graphics. They were really substandard for when it came out.
Did you like the way it turned out? Or did you not care so much since you were
more interested in working onThe Sims?
Well, I was actually concentrating onSimCopter. We didn’t have a big enough team on it,
we basically had four people doing it. And to do a 3D product at that point in time, that
was just not enough at all. So I felt like I was really resource constrained on the product,
plus we had this hard schedule that we absolutely had to make. For various reasons we
could not miss Christmas, which meant we really couldn’t aim too high. Had we had
another six to eight months to work on it, graphically I think it would have turned out
much, much better. The gameplay and tuning I’m still pretty happy with. It could have
used a few more missions. But there was something really neat about having a city that
you’d built inSimCityover many hours, and then all of a sudden being in it in 3D and
seeing the people and the cars and flying around it. There was a real eerie quality to
that. It worked well.
Now, you weren’t involved at all withSimCity 3000. Were you just burned out on
the whole idea of doing another city simulator?
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You hit the nail on the head with that. It was a running joke
around Maxis that whenever theSimCityteam would come to ask me for advice I would
go running. They finally gave up. You know, the day they shippedSimCity 3000was one
of the happiest days of my life. They proved that we have a team within Maxis that
knows how to buildSimCitywithout my involvement. And before, when 2000 came
around, there was just nobody else to turn to. I had to work on it or it just wasn’t going
to happen. Whereas now we have the expertise in-house to doSimCity, a really great,
talented team. The franchise is in good hands from my point of view.
422 Chapter 22: Interview: Will Wright
SimCopter