Gamasutra – SIGGRAPH: Wright Talks Perception And ‘Entertaining The Hive Mind’

Of course, Maxis’ experience with The Sims and Spore back this up. User created content was not core to The Sims, but it was useful. “We had 100,000 user created assets in a few years,” said Wright. “So for Spore, we decided to look at how of the artistic process can be automated and then use the technology to make (content creation) more fun and improve our content overall.”

The success of this strategy was immediately clear after the release of the Spore Creature Creator before the game was even released. The Sims‘ high water mark of 100,000 assets after several years was beaten in 22 hours, and a million assets were created in a week.

“This proved that the value point was in the data,” said Wright. “The goal became to move that data into different directions” These directions included opening up the Spore API and allowing creators to move their models out of the game via Maya format export.

“The data becomes the hub for other experiences,” he added. “The IP sits on the data model and the community a data hub for entertainment moving forward. The game becomes a tool set for creativity.” Says Wright.

Gamasutra – SIGGRAPH: Wright Talks Perception And ‘Entertaining The Hive Mind’