The Sims creator insists developers need to embrace ‘narcissism of their players’

‘The Sims’ creator Will Wright insists game designers should never underestimate “the narcissism of their players”.

‘The Sims’ creator Will Wright insists game designers should never underestimate “the narcissism of their players”.

The video game developer – who created the iconic simulation series – is currently working on AI life sim ‘Proxi’, which was first announced in 2018 and uses players’ memories and dreams to create their own worlds.

Explaining his outlook on the ‘BreakthroughT1D’ Twitch stream, he said: “I found myself getting continuously closer and closer to the player.

“Kind of a saying I’ve lived by, which is that no game designer has ever gone wrong by overestimating the narcissism of their players.”

The game interprets its players text of their memories – known as a ‘mem’ – and translates them into animated scenes which the players can than edit and tweak.

Players then “train” their Proxi’s mind “with each new memory” on a timeline and map.

They can also put these memories into a private world, with sentiment analysis being used to alter that world in line with the emotions of the memories.

Wright laughed: “It goes to figure that the more I can make a game about you, the more you’ll like it.”

Gallium Studios website doesn’t list any platforms for the game, but simply says it’s “coming soon”.

Wright originally launched ‘The Sims’ in 2000, which has spawned multiple sequels and expansions.