Where are the developers The Sims, Fable, Tetris, Prince of Persia and other classics?

Once they gave the press of the sensation, industry the future, publishers millions, and players-happy memories for life. But a dozen or two years passed, and many Gamdev legends disappeared from radars. What the creators are doing today Doom, We have already told. The turn of the rest came.

Will Wright, Father The Sims

More than $ 5 billion – so much Electronic Arts I earned on the "puppet houses" Willa Wright, series The Sims. But at the start, the company did not believe in them from the word at all, even despite the previous bestseller of the gameplay, Simcity 1989 (it's funny that publishers also did not believe in this designer at first). One way or another, The Sims (2000) became a hit and gave rise to a successful franchise, and EA bosses had no doubt about Wright’s ideas, so they approved after SPORE – a grand simulator is no longer a human life, but evolution in general.

Although the start of sales after the release in 2008 passed well, the novelty no longer brought the golden mountains, as the Sims once. And soon the founder Maxis He moved to a startup Stupid Fun Club. There he suddenly decided to launch the television series – Bar Karma. But not simple, but interactive: viewers themselves offered ideas for scenes and plot turns online. Alas, no one appreciated this approach, the project was closed, and Wright himself went to the dusk for almost ten years.

The game designer returned only in 2018 with the announcement Proxi – Mobile game about knowing your hidden "I". It works like this: you build a world from memoirs on the basis of which the application generates the model of your personality, that is, this very proxy. You need to play and communicate with her-at this time, AI personality will study at you. You can also visit the proxies of your friends. In addition, avatars of both historical personalities and fictional characters are waiting for us. More details Will Wright and Gallium Studios Promise this year.

Will Wright about Proxi

Peter Molino, a pathological liar

The first game Molnieo is a businessman's textual simulator The Entrepreneur (1984) – bought only two people. On this, the history of the game designer could end if it https://sister-site.org/jinx-casino/ were not for his unique talent for deception. One day Commodore I wanted to porten one of the network programs for my new systems Amiga and confused two companies. The order was received not by the developer, but the company of the seller of beans with a similar name – guess who worked there. Enterprising Molinjo did not show that an error occurred; He was a dozen Amiga computers for “porting” for free, and he sat down for work. But, we must pay tribute to him, the Briton returned to Commodore not empty -handed, but with a new database program, which he developed specifically for Amiga. After Molinjo clarified all the misunderstandings with the customer, the program even brought a small profit – it was possible to establish a studio to the rescue Bullfrog. Her efforts in 1989 appeared Populous: the first (and very successful) simulator of God in a prayer career. For the 1990s, the game designer gave us iconic Theme Park, Theme Hospital And Dungeon Keeper, Having earned the name of a brilliant creator.

But at the beginning of the two thousandth, the first alarming calls were heard: Black & White And Fable. The games themselves, of course, were a success, but Molinya went too far with promises. So, in Black & White gamers did not see dynamic weather, which was supposed to synchronize with the weather outside the player himself. In Fable there was no promised opportunity to poison the rivers and have children, the trees also did not grow in real time – in a word, it was possible to remove noodles from his ears for a long time. Later, Molinjo admitted: they say, yes, he chased at least ten times, but solely to make the journalists get bored.

Meet: Project Milo – Emotional AI, who never saw the light

Such a love for fairy tales went to the British with the hands until he left in 2012 Microsoft and did not go on free swimming, founding the studio 22cans. First of all, they launched there … a very primitive clique Curiosity: What’s Inside The Cube? However, in words everything was given grandiose: a social experiment, where millions of people together had to disassemble a huge cube to discover an incredibly valuable secret. According to Molinjo, the life of the one who destroys the last block was supposed to change forever. As it turned out, the cube hid the announcement Godus – Heiresses Populous, and the winner of the experiment was waiting for the title of God inside the game (with the opportunity to influence the sessions of the players) and the percentage of profit. It sounded too sweet, but people believed.

They also sponsored the future Godus. Having collected half a million pounds on Kickstarter , The authors promised the release after 9 months, by September 2013-this did not happen. They deceived even especially generous investors (they paid from 5 thousand. pounds!): They did not receive any VIP trips to E3 and meetings with moist. Not to mention the winner of Curiosity – neither the role of the deity, nor part of the profit, he never saw. The game itself was stuck in early access, choked in angry reviews and provoked a grandiose scandal. In the press, Molinya was branded with a “pathological liar”, and the remnants of his reputation rolled into asphalt.

Followed by Godus and no less failure Godus Wars In 2016, much more modest in the idea came out The Trail. The game of tourists – of course, is not the level of moistan, but accepted it unexpectedly warm. By the way, this time the Briton was silent to the release: apparently, finally learned the lesson.

The Legacy

Now an inglorious genius is preparing business sym The Legacy – The successor of the very The Entrepreneur, sold by two copies. In the "Heritage" we will be able to invent a dream product, in order to establish production, grow into a business imperial, put factories and capture the market. And along the way, moral dilemmas should wait for us.

Empty words again? Show the release. True, there are few reasons for optimism: the release date has not yet been announced, and at the beginning of the year the studio left part of the employees.

Hironobo Sakaguti, the author of the cult jrpg

In the late 80s "Last fantasy" Not just saved Square From bankruptcy: Contrary to the name, the path of the famous franchise and its main game designer only began with it. Today, the Japanese has more than forty projects behind the development of which he took part in one way or another. Among them are cult Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Kingdom Hearts And even the film adaptation of Final Fantasy. Another game with the speaking name did not set the point in the history of the game designer – The Last Story, published in 2011. Soon Sakaguti presented a simple arcade about surfing Party Wave – However, this is not at all what they expected from the visionary.

A few more years after that, the Japanese promoted mobile RPG from the series Terra Battle, But he really returned only this year. True, his new jrpg Fantasian – Exclusive for iOS. Sakaguti came up with a world where a terrible virus turns everything that he will get to. The end of the world comes to the music of Nobuo Wematsu – fans of the “finals” (and not only they) will appreciate. In addition, the mobile project is impressive with its locations: artists from the cinema and anime are manually created 150 dioram. And the developers, in turn, were digitized and settled by three -dimensional characters.

Want to just walk and enjoy locations? Please! Fantasian battles can be postponed for later

By the way, recently Hironobu Sagakudi admitted that this was his last full-fledged project-somewhere we already heard it ..

Alexey Pazhitnov, creator of Tetrisa

In 1985, the Soviet scientist from the Academy of Sciences wrote " Tetris"And did not do much – revolution. The cult puzzle captured the whole world, it was recognized as a work of art and the best -selling game of all times. Which provided the creator … an apartment and a computer from the state.

But only at first: from the mid -nineties, Pazhitnov still began to earn on his brainchild, founding The Tetris Company. Around the same time, the programmer was hired at Microsoft, where he worked on Hexic, Pandora’s Box and other puzzles before leaving the company in the middle of zero. Alas, these titles did not find great popularity.

Today the eminent developer lives quietly in America, gives out an interview, rides on Tesla with Tetris numbers and even occasionally releases games in the App Store with old acquaintances.

Pazhitnov always dreamed of Tetris with a solid multiplayer. The 2019 version for Nintendo Switch (in the format of the Royal Battle!) came to Alexei to the taste

Hollywood could not ignore the colossal success of Tetris. At the end of 2020, the filming of Bayopic started. We are waiting for the tape about the struggle for the rights to the puzzle, which is close to the mood "Social network". Alexei Pazhitnova will play Nikita Efremov (" Quiet Don "), And his partner Henka Rogers – Teron Edgerton (" Kingsman: Secret Service "). In the role of Soviet Moscow – Scottish Glasgow.

Richard Garriot, Lord British

“Lord British” is a joke pseudonym Garriot, under which he appears in his projects as an “invulnerable” character (though gamers still find ways to kill him). And the developer himself is happy to support this image on the conventions

At the dawn of the 80s, the world saw Ultima – RPG classics by Richard Garriot. Subsequently, it became multi -part, and thanks to the success of the first parts, the game designer opened Origin Systems – And now he is his own publisher. Independence lasted nine years until in 1992 the studio absorbed Electronic Arts. Already under the wing of the "older brother" Garriot released Ultima Online (1997) is another fundamental thing, but now in the MMORPG genre. The game collected so many people and profit that as a result of Garriot's studio, they instructed to engage exclusively with MMO. Started projects on the universal Ultima, Wing Commander And Harry Potter. But not even a year has passed since the corporation canceled each. The departure of the designer from the company was not long in coming.

Ultima Online, which will soon turn a quarter of a century, and now it lives quite

The new game of Lord British – Tabula rasa – I saw the light only in 2007. Cosmic MMO failed with a bang: the servers closed without working out for two years. Competitions with superpopular World of Warcraft The project could not withstand the project, and Tabula Rasa was created in conditions of uncertainty, constant conflicts, shifting personnel and other unpleasant circumstances. For this failure of the Korean publisher NCSOFT He fired Garriot, setting up everything as if he had left. But the developer went to court and received as much as $ 28 million of compensation – which, by the way, paid off his flight into space. NCSoft tried to appeal, but it was rejected – moreover, the amount of payments increased to $ 32 million.

Garriot is known not only by games: he is the first person who visited space, the Mariana hollow and on both poles

In 2013, the game designer announced MMORPG in the spirit of an old school- Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. The game on Kickstarter was financed: they requested a million dollars from fans, and they even listed two. The heiress of Ultima reached the release only five years later, received mixed reviews, and soon became conditionally paid. But, contrary to all failures, the creators continue to develop the game. If a fan of old RPG, hardcore and paintings of the text (deep, by the way) – try.

Jordan Mesner, author of the Prince of Persia

The maintenance list of the coecon is not replete with dozens of titles, but the American trace in the game industry left a noticeable. Already in the 80s his fighting Karateka He showed the players “living” animations-everything is thanks to the Rotoscoping method, the forerunner of Motion-Capture. To do this, the designer scanned the movements of his relatives and acquaintances, shot on the film, and on this basis created springs. He used the same technique in a more advanced performance in his cult platformer Prince of Persia 1989.

Prince of Persia: How did it all begin

The novelty scattered in a circulation of two million copies and provided the life of Sikvel, but he no longer received high sales. As a result, the developer switched to the detective The Last Express In the style of Agatha Christie's novels. The 1997 Visual Novels brought critics in delight, but because of weak advertising, almost no one bought it. In the same year, the development of the notorious Prince of Persia 3D, where Mesner acted as a consultant and co -author of the script. Already in the process, he realized that the studio rinses a mediocre clone of popular then Tomb Raider. The release turned into a collapse: this time even the press did not like the game, and the franchise licensed for a penny Ubisoft.

Nevertheless, the rights to the IP remained with the Mekner, and without his consent, the company could not release new parts – the game designer had to be convinced. However, the concept of restart was so amazed at Jordan that he was happy to join Ubisoft. So they received a recognized masterpiece for everyone – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Soon after the release of the game in 2003, the designer went to a big movie, where he was always pulled. Together with Disney Mesner enthusiastically worked on the adaptation of the "prince". Today "Sands of time" with Jake Gyllenchol, the best gaming film adaptations often flash in the tops, despite the cool technique from critics in 2010. At about the same time, Jordan was hired by the screenwriter of the comic book adaptation Fathom , But there are no news about her for ten years.

In subsequent years, they slipped almost imperceptibly Karateka remake, Several graphic novels of Mekner and memoirs about the everyday life of a game designer. And this year, the creator of the Prince released the translation of the adaptation of the book saga about Samak-the adventures of the Persian Robin Hood came out in English for the first time.

Jordan Mesner also advises Ubisoft in work on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – According to him, he likes the project (but not very fans).

The first trailer of the remake was filled up by diesella: it looked too cheap. Ubisoft assured that she would correct the picture and showed shots from the current build

If you believe the rumors, another “prince” is now being created-two-dimensional, as once in 1989. And the development is involved in none other than the father of the series, and not just like a consultant.

Of course, this is far from all the famous game designers, about which there have been few news in recent years. And who would you like to know about next time? Write in the comments!