SimCity Creative Director Says He Didn't 'Rage Quit' EA

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By Chelsea Stark2013-07-17 20:52:13 UTC

SimCity creative director Ocean Quigley said he didn't leave Electronic Arts' studio Maxis because of any creative differences, but because it was time to do something different with his career.

Quigley announced via Twitter Tuesday that he, Maxis Gameplay Lead Dan Moskowitz, and Lead Architect Andrew Willmott all left to found Jellygrade Studios.

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"We all realized it [was] time to go out and do some of the stuff we wanted to do personally that didn't fit in the larger context of the corporate environment," Quigley told Mashable.

The trio is working on a yet-to-be-titled simulation game that focuses on the earth, pre-life. Gamers must focus on shaping the world, transforming it from a sea of lava into a real crust. They will then be challenged to bring life into that world.

Quigley said that bringing life into the world will be based on Charles Darwin's theory of how life sprung up on earth, "that there was a warm little pond somewhere with high concentrations of salts and phosphorous, and life was sparked by lightning or ultraviolet light."

"It's not the most in-favor theory right now with the scientific community, but when making a game about this subject you have to find a theory that you can hang a gameplay mechanic on," Quigley said.

The title is being developed for mobile first. Quigley said he's been impressed by the improvements in mobile hardware in the last two years that should make a large-scale simulation like this game possible.

The trio will finance their project independently from their savings, Quigley said.

"We've got the wherewithal to spend the next chunk of developing without worrying about capital, which is a huge luxury we're lucky to have," Quigley said. "If you have to worry about capital, you spend the time courting venture capitalists and not making a game."

Quigley said he spent the last 18 years at Maxis, where he started his career as a 3D artist. He worked on three different SimCity titles, as well as The Sims 2 and Spore, moving up from artist to art director to finally creative director on the recently released SimCity game.

SimCity was plagued by problems at its launch, after the game's online-only play requirement caused the servers to be flooded during its first week out, rending the game unplayable for many.

"It was upsetting to have the launch of a game I'd spent three years working on obscured by all those problems." Quigley said. "But this was the third SimCity game I'd worked on, and there comes a time in your life as a creator when you say 'Am I going to repeat the stuff I've already done, or am I going to step out into the world to do something new'? I was planning on doing this move regardless. It's definitely not a case of rage quitting EA at all."

You can follow the updates on the title at Jellygrade's Tumblr, where there are already early gameplay videos.

Image: EA/Maxis

Topics: EA, Entertainment, Gaming, Maxis, simcity