Each of us has only one life, but how we wish we had several. In one, you could try to become famous; in another, study to be a pilot; in a third, travel the world non-stop without being tied to one place. Someone might dream of following the classic scenario: build a house, plant a tree, raise children, and create a cozy home. And it was this very opportunity that game developer Will Wright once gave to people.
In the late 1990s, the gaming industry was focused on something entirely different: shooters, racing games, strategy — genres that offered players power, speed, and adrenaline. It was in this direction that young game designer Will Wright initially moved. In 1984, the 24-year-old American developed the helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay. In this “shooter,” you had to fly over islands and drop bombs on enemy strongholds.
The game quickly became a hit, especially popular in Japan, where cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System were sold. However, during the game’s development, Wright realized something for himself: he wasn’t interested in bombing, shooting, or destroying. What fascinated him far more was writing the code for constructing buildings.
This first gave him the idea of creating a simulator where you could erect buildings and then entire cities. Incidentally, after high school, Wright spent a couple of years at Louisiana State University’s architecture faculty. Later, things didn’t quite work out, and he transferred to another institute to study mechanical engineering, but those two years apparently left their mark on him.
SimCity: For Those Who Want to Try Their Hand at Being an Urban Planner
Will finished working on the new project in 1986. The new game visually resembled its predecessor: the same colors, the same 2D graphics, and the same top-down view. However, here the player’s main task was building roads, constructing schools and other public buildings, and worrying about the crime rate in the town they created.
To keep the game from being too boring, Wright equipped it with surprises: sometimes a meteor shower could hit the city, or an earthquake might suddenly start, potentially disrupting the civilization’s normal development rhythm.
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Initially, no one wanted to release the simulator. Many companies wanted to sell games where you could win, as that’s what motivates most users. But a year later, Wright happened to meet entrepreneur Jeff Braun, who was creating his own font software and wanted to enter the video game industry. The two men started talking at a party, found common ground, and then decided to become co-founders of the software development company Maxis. In 1989, they released SimCity — from the words simulator and city.
The simulator’s success was mainly due to word-of-mouth. But when it reached the hands of a New York Times editor who described his experience on the newspaper’s pages, sales began to skyrocket. By 1992, about 1 million copies had been sold.
Lose Everything to Gain More, or How The Sims Came to Be
Wright didn’t stop at SimCity alone; he began working on numerous spin-offs for Maxis: SimEarth, SimAnt (yes, about ant colonies). After those, a game called Doll House was supposed to come out, which focused not on the whole city but on a specific house. It was already very similar to The Sims.
Then tragedy struck. One morning in 1991, Will Wright woke up in his house because of a strange smell. It turned out that a forest was burning right near the house; he had to run immediately. Taking his wife, daughter, and neighbors (whose child was visiting), the game designer hastily left his home, making his way through the already wildly raging flames. Wright was only able to approach the house a few days later — or rather, what was left of it. Everything burned down: the furniture, the garage, the second car.
An optimist by nature, Will managed to extract two positive points from this situation. First, two weeks before the incident, he had moved the code for SimAnt from home to the office, thus protecting the game from destruction. Second, during the renovation and furnishing of his new home, he began to realize that nothing is more important than family. Plates, mugs, sofas, beds — all of that can be bought again, but people cannot.
The development of the new game, whose working title changed from Doll House to The Toilet Game, took a long time, as Wright was still working on the next SimCity spin-offs simultaneously. On top of that, he had to spend a long time convincing his colleagues at Maxis that a game where you choose kitchen wallpaper, arrange flowers on shelves, and hang out at home was a great idea.
Colossal Success
The first The Sims was released in February 2000 and immediately turned the industry upside down. It was a game with no ending, no goal, and no victory — but with an infinite number of stories. Its mechanics proved hypnotic. In the four years following its release, 16 million copies were sold; it was only overshadowed by its sequel, The Sims 2, released in 2004.
With the release of the second part, Wright wanted to attract more of a male audience. And it became a technological marvel of its time: characters for the first time received genuine personal depth. Instead of simple “dolls,” small family sagas emerged, featuring genetics, personalities, fears, and desires. The game was entirely rendered in 3D graphics and became more detailed.
