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The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 1: SimEverything

Part 1 of a series on the history of Maxis covers the early life and career of founder Will Wright, from his childhood influences and early game concepts for the Commodore 64 to the development of SimCity.

Background

- Maxis was the studio founded by Will Wright and Jeff Braun (1987), later famous for *The Sims*. This article is from *The Digital Antiquarian* (filfre.net), Jimmy Maher's acclaimed blog documenting classic game history. - It covers the development of Maxis's first game, *SimCity* (1989) — a radically open-ended city-building "software toy" with no win/lose condition, inspired by Wright's observations of urban dynamics while making an earlier helicopter game. - Major publishers rejected *SimCity* as unsellable. Brøderbund eventually published it; it became a hit and launched the simulation-game genre. - Key context: in the late-80s PC market, almost all games were action or adventure titles with clear goals. An open-ended, non-violent simulation was unprecedented.

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The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 1: SimEverything

Background

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