Bumped intoWill Wright yesterday just after the great SXSW presentation on his eagerly anticipated next project, Spore. Wright broke his left arm (a clean break of the humerus) a month ago skiing and is sporting a cast. He was standing outside the Austin Convention Center, having a smoke and holding a coffee with his one free hand. I told him I would shake his hand, but seeing how he was sort of incapacitated...he laughed and immediately started shuffling his load. One thing's clear, nothing can slow down this frantic genius.
He'll wear the cast for a few more weeks, and Spore will be released sometime in the fall. Wright demoed some really cool creature-building components, noting that it will take milliseconds to create what it usually takes Pixar textural artists weeks to accomplish. He also flew a spaceship to a distant planet to demonstrate some pretty compelling terra-forming tools and generative aspects.
All I can say is that I shudder at the thought of this release. I was never such a big fan of The Sims but SimCity caused me to lose many a night of sleep obsessively building, maintaining and destroying my cities. Designing single-cell species, watching them grow to form civilizations, then head off to the far reaches of the universe to mold other planets will no doubt be like entering a major time hole, but a brilliantly entertaining one at that.
Related Story:
Dream Machine, Will Wright guest edits Wired issue 14.04 and writes on how games unleash the human imagination.
