Interview with Will Wright, co-designer of SimCity 2000

Q: How did you ever get the idea for the original SimCity 
  (now SimCity Classic)?

A: I started working on SimCity back in 1985, when I was designing 
   a landscape for another game I was working on. The idea was to blow 
   up the landscape - cities, roads, islands. But I had more fun creating 
   the landscape than blowing it up, so I thought I would work on a city 
   building game.


Q: How does SimCity 2000 differ from SimCity Classic?

A: SimCity 2000 has all the things we wanted to put in SimCity 
   Classic when it came out in 1989, but couldn't because computers weren't 
   sophisticated enough. We also have four years' worth of customer 
   suggestions of the things they want to see in SimCity 2000. A lot of 
   those suggestions are being incorporated into the game.


Q: What customer suggestions have you incorporated into SimCity 2000?

A: A lot of people wanted more precise control over zoning, so we've 
   made the unit squares much smaller. You also have the option to create 
   low- or high-density zonesin residential, commercial, and industrial areas.
   Another common suggestion was expanding the types of power sources 
   beyond the original coal and nuclear plants. So we've added gas, oil, 
   solar, wind, hydroelectric, microwave, and fusion power. All of them 
   have advantages and drawbacks, depending on how you build your city.  
   Then there's a whole collection of new structures and city services 
   that people aksed for, to make their cities more realistic-schools, 
   universities, libraries, museums, hospitals, prisons, marinas, zoos, 
   freeways, subways, bridges, and train stations.


Q: How are the graphics of SimCity 2000 different?

A: We've made incredible improvements to the graphics! To start with, 
   they're three-dimensional, with mountains, foothills, valleys, lakes, 
   streams, and waterfalls. You can zoom into the landscape at three 
   levels of magnification, and rotate the landscape 360 degrees to see 
   "behind" mountains and buildings.


Q: How is gameplay different in SimCity 2000?

A: As we've made the game more realistic, it's become more "personal" 
   to play. You really feel that you are responsible for this city full 
   of demanding, opinionated people. For instance, there's an on-screen 
   newspaper to tell you what's going on and what people think of you. 
   As mayor, you'll have advisors to help you make decisions about running 
   the city. There's also more of a competitive element in SimCity 2000. 
   If you're a successful mayor, you're rewarded with a mansion and a 
   statue dedicated to your genius. But you also have to compete with four 
   "neighboring" cities - they're actually off-screen, but they affect the 
   game. If the city's business environment and quality of life decline, 
   the neighboring cities will lure your citizens and industries away. 


Q: Is SimCity 2000 hard to learn?

A: We hope not, because one of our main goals in designing SimCity 
   2000 was adding all the new features while keeping the game as easy to 
   learn as the original SimCity. So we took the additional complexity 
   and hid it beneath the surface. You can start playing SimCity 2000 
   just like you would play the original SimCity, and you can dive down 
   into the complexity when you're ready for it.  An example of hidden 
   complexity is SimCity 2000's new water system. There's a whole underground 
   level where you can lay pipe for transporting water to different areas of 
   the city. When you first start to play SimCity 2000, you can ignore the 
   water system - pipe will automatically be laid under buildings as they 
   develop. But the city population won't get really big until you optimize 
   the water system. You do that by placing pumps, main pipes, storage tanks 
   and desalinization plants so that water is distributed efficiently. In 
   general, we've designed SimCity 2000 so that you can start playing 
   immediately, learn the new features as you go, and be rewarded for 
   learning with a better city.


This interview was conducted by Sally Vandershaf with Will Wright, while Will 
was slaving away at his Mac and programming his eyeballs out.  It was edited
by two slobbering tech support goons who hadn't had their cup of coffee yet.