Why, Maxis & EA, why?!?! We know why, so you could go on to create the blockbuster hit: The Sims…and you know what, I thank you for that. Now just get back to work on SimMars! Reach back to your roots and work on the games you are most known for! It pains me to see we will never see the light of day…The closet thing we have is a mod for SimCity 4 but we want the real deal.
What brings this up? Well, one of the artists for the game (Ward Moore) published a few concept art pieces at his site.
SimMARS was intended as a role playing game, using KIM STANLEY ROBINSON Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) as an inspiration. The goal is to successfully colonize Mars using NASA inspired technology. The user had to creatively impliment the available martian resource and plan their living around the 6-month cycle of supply ships. (6 months being the time Earth launch to Martian arrival). Because of this premise, aesthetics revolved around the real world constraints of habitats and supplies being packaged and arriving in a chemical propelled rockets, arriving on the martian surface, after which they endure the corrosive effects of wind and radiation. Bots and Rovers are the preferred method of maintenance and travel. Coordinating assets and creatively recycling existing material creates martian civilizations.
I’d prefer a Sims Venus… far less testosterone. 😉
I wish they’d bring this and SimsVille back, or perhaps even release the source code and see what happens. Fat chance of that happening, though.
I wish there was a time limit on these things…Like in 10 years, they should be able to release the code of the game and classify it as dead, allowing those hardcore fans to mod it. I believe the source code is out there for the original SimCity – Don Hopkins released it under the name Micropolis
Wow. I want to play that real bad. Something other than just a suburban neighborhood would be so interesting.