TITLE
The Philosophy of SimCity: An Interview With the Game’s Lead Designer
AUTHOR
Geoff Manaugh
Nicola Twilley
PUBLICATION
Venue
YEAR
2013
ARTICLE TYPE
Interview
FROM THE ARTICLE
A few weeks before the launch, Venue had the opportunity to play the new SimCity at its Manhattan premiere, during which time we feverishly laid out curving roads and parks, drilled for oil while installing a token wind turbine, and tried to ignore our city’s residents’ — known as Sims — complaints as their homes burned before we could afford to build a fire station.We emerged three hours later, blinking and dazed, into the gleaming white and purple lights of Times Square, and were immediately struck by the abstractions required to translate such a complex, dynamic environment into a coherent game structure, and the assumptions and values embedded in that translation.
Fortunately, the game’s lead designer, Stone Librande, was happy to talk with us further about his research and decision-making process, as well as some of the ways in which real-world players have already surprised him. We spoke to him both in person and by telephone, and our conversation appears below.
GAMES MENTIONED
SimCity (2013)
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Stone Librande
ALTERNATE LINK
Reprint @ The Atlantic