10 April 2009

Will Wright forms his own think tank, the Stupid Fun Club

A Forbes article points us to an interesting bit of news for star game designer (and TED speaker) Will Wright:

[Will Wright] is leaving EA to go hang out with robots. Wright will run a former side project called Stupid Fun Club. EA said it is making an equity investment in the venture and Wright, and EA will own equal portions of the company.

Says its website: "The Stupid Fun Club is an entertainment development studio. The ideas developed here can be manifested in video games, online environments, storytelling media and fine home care products."

The site also includes a fairly cryptic flash toy -- or is it a game? -- that we'd love to hear your thoughts on.

Watch Will Wright's 2007 TEDTalk >>

Posted by Matthew Trost | Permalink

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09 November 2007

SimCity plays with One Laptop per Child

Game publisher Electronic Arts has donated the original SimCity, Will Wright's groundbreaking 1989 computer game, to Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child initiative.

It's a wonderful example of using games as tools for learning. As EA's Steve Seabolt said in yesterday's press announcement, "SimCity is entertainment that’s unintentionally educational." Back in March, OLPC's SJ Klein talked to game developers about how important games are to the OLPC platform:

"Kids without games can certainly learn," confessed Klein, "but the first way children learn is through gaming... by seeing how things work and remaking their world... Let's give them useful worlds to make."

For more on the vision behind One Laptop per Child, watch Nicholas Negroponte's TEDTalk, given in the days after he stepped down as chair of MIT's Media Lab to work on OLPC "for the rest of my life."

Contact One Laptop per Child here >>

Watch SimCity designer Will Wright's 2007 TEDTalk to see a preview of his next game, Spore. Fresh details on Spore emerged in the UK press late last month, while Wright was in London accepting his BAFTA Fellowship: On the BBC's Radio 5 Live, he said that Spore is now fully playable, and a release is only six months out.

Image is borrowed from the unofficial OLPC news blog, One Laptop Per Child News.

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13 October 2007

Will Wright will be named a BAFTA Fellow

Game designer Will Wright (watch his TEDTalk) will become a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) this month -- one of only 67 ever named, and the first video game designer, reports Variety. A few other BAFTA Fellows: Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Elizabeth Taylor ...

Since 2006, BAFTA -- essentially the UK equivalent of the American Oscars and Emmies combined -- has been honoring video games on an equal footing with film and television, even down to having a glossy award show. Becoming the "third arm" of BAFTA (which may explain Will's appearance in his TEDTalk) is a significant step for an expanding industry full of innovative minds. This year's nominated games can be seen on the BAFTA site; the awards will be given on October 23.

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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17 July 2007

Will Wright previews his new game, Spore, on TED.com

A technical virtuoso with boundless imagination, Will Wright has created a style of computer gaming unlike any that came before, emphasizing learning more than losing, invention more than sport. With his hit game SimCity, he spurred players to make predictions, take risks, and sometimes fail miserably, as they built their own virtual urban worlds. With his follow-up hit, The Sims, he encouraged the same creativity toward building a household, all the while preserving the addictive fun of ordinary video games. His next game, Spore, which he previews here, evolves an entire universe from a single-celled creature. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 16:49.)

New: Download this talk in high resolution (480p) >>

Watch Will Wright's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.

Read more about Will Wright on TED.com.

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