Will Wright, considered one of the greatest game designers of all time with titles like Sim City and The Sims, is now working on his next game title. However this project isn"t for the PC platform, unlike his previous games, but instead is targeting the smartphone and tablet platforms along with social networking sites. Eurogamer reports that Wright"s main inspiration for the game will be from a short story from famed science fiction writer Bruce Sterling.
The short story is called Maneki Neko and according to Wright, "He describes a karmic computer that"s keeping a balance of payments between different people, and causing them to interact with each other in interesting ways to improve their lives even though they"re strangers." He added, "They earn karmic points that are redeemed by having somebody else help them." Wright hopes to release the new game within a year. Having such a quick turnaround for a game compared to years of development for his earlier project is a change for Wright. He states, "Almost any project I want to work on is going to be something I can at least get some version out there in about a year and then iterate from there." He"s also working on other games that are being made for game console platforms.
Wright"s last major game project was the 2008 PC game Spore. The game itself was heavily hyped beforehand but fell somewhat flat as a game even though it had an innovative creature creation feature. Wright left his long time publisher Electronic Arts in 2009 to form his own company, Super Fun Club.