Will Wright

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Wright's first computer game was the helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984) for the Commodore 64. He found he had more fun creating the islands with his level editor than playing the game, which evolved into SimCity. After struggling to find a publisher, he met Jeff Braun at what he called 'the world's most important pizza party' in 1986, and they formed Maxis the following year in Orinda, California. SimCity (1989) became a hit and is credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made. Wright followed with SimEarth (1990) and SimAnt (1991), and co-designed SimCity 2000 (1993) with Fred Haslam. His games are inspired by complex adaptive systems: SimAnt by E.O. Wilson's The Ants, SimEarth by James Lovelock's Gaia Theory, SimCity by Jay Forrester's Urban Dynamics, and Spore by Drake's Equation and Powers of Ten. Wright describes his design principle as creating 'possibility spaces'—simple rules that combine with game elements to form complex designs.

In Their Own Story

After losing his home in the Oakland firestorm of 1991, Wright was inspired to turn the experience of rebuilding his life into a game. He began developing an idea of a virtual doll house, similar to SimCity but focused on individual people. This became The Sims, originally conceived as an architectural design game called Home Tactics. The board at Maxis was not interested, but Electronic Arts was impressed by Wright's work on SimCity and saw potential. EA published The Sims in February 2000, and it became Wright's biggest success, eventually surpassing Myst as the best-selling computer game of all time. By November 2006, the Sims franchise had earned EA more than a billion dollars. Wright announced his latest game, Spore, at the Game Developers Conference on March 11, 2005. Released in September 2008, Spore features gameplay based on the model of evolution and scientific advancement, selling 406,000 copies within three weeks.

Reader's Guide

Wright's design philosophy centers on simulations as 'software toys'—games that cannot be won or lost but played indefinitely. SimCity (1989) introduced players to urban dynamics inspired by Jay Forrester's work, letting them zone land, manage budgets, and respond to disasters. SimEarth (1990) expanded to planetary-scale ecology, while SimAnt (1991) simulated ant colony behavior based on E.O. Wilson's research. SimCity 2000 (1993), co-designed with Fred Haslam, added underground layers and advanced infrastructure. The Sims (2000) shifted focus to individual lives, letting players build homes and control virtual people's daily activities. Spore (2008) took players from single-cell organisms to space-faring civilizations, using procedural generation to reduce developer-created content. Wright left Maxis in April 2009 to run Stupid Fun Club Camp, an entertainment think tank. In October 2011, he joined the board of directors of Linden Lab, creators of Second Life. At the Game Developers Conference in March 2018, he announced a new project called Proxi. On December 11, 2021, he announced VoxVerse, a blockchain game developed by Gallium Games using the Unity engine.

Did You Know?

• Wright studied at three different colleges—Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech, and The New School—over five years without earning a degree.
• His first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984), was a helicopter action game for the Commodore 64.
• Wright met Maxis co-founder Jeff Braun at what he called 'the world's most important pizza party' in 1986.
• The Sims was inspired by Wright's experience rebuilding his home after losing it in the 1991 Oakland firestorm.
• In 2007, Wright became the first game designer to receive the BAFTA Fellowship, previously only given to film and television professionals.