Will Wright is one heck of a guy… It’s hard to believe but him and I share a lot in common. We both like similiar games, are nerds, and we are extremely brilliant (okay, so I don’t share that with him).
But to be honest, according to his recently announced Top 8 Games that will be showcased at the Vancouver Art Gallery, it seems we do enjoy the same games. I mean come on…Super Mario World? That has to be the best in the franchise (although IMO it is tied with Super Mario Bros. 3). Wind Waker? Heck yeah!
Even though he was suppose to pick from other developers, he had to include The Sims and Spore on the list. I don’t see any problem with that…as those games should be on everybody’s top 8 list!
Spore will be an ‘every game,’ with elements borrowed from various genres and a design that encourages players to create a universe of their own. While speaking about Spore at past press conferences, Wright isn’t shy to credit other games for inspiration. In fact, it’s telling that many of the games and elements of design he’s associated with each of Spore’s various phases are present in his section of the exhibit at KRAZY!. And this makes it seem like a fitting way to wrap things up.
Pac-Man, Diablo, Populous, Civilization, SimCity, Destroy All Humans!, and others have all been credited as influences on various aspects of Spore’s design. “In a sense Spore is establishing a trend line for the future, in which the player is directly involved in building the game at a deeper and deeper level. We want to provide the player with very simple tools that he or she can use to build anything; we want to make every aspect of the world malleable so that the player creates everything, from microscopic cells to entire planets,” explains Wright.