Maxis has made the same types of games for years, particularly since being acquired by EA. It’s all about the Sim – SimCity and The Sims – or the Spore. But now they’re getting ready to make a new title, and it could just be even weirder than those games.
Over on the Maxis career site, they’ve started looking for a Senior Designer to work on a new, unannounced Maxis product in creation at EA’s Redwood Shores, California Studio. The duties and responsibilities are what you might expect from a Senior Designer, but the requirements show some strange things are afoot in California. The include things such as:
- The unique nature of this product requires prior experience in deeply social multiplayer games such as MMOs.
- Deep understanding of principles of game progression design, crafting trees, technology trees, character RPG-style leveling design and mathematical loot progression modeling (i.e. spreadsheet design skills needed)
- Deep understanding of simulation game design, including simulation loops, wants and needs driven behaviors, and systemic pushback.
- Ability to weave Free-to-Play game mechanics with monetization in simple, natural, respectful ways (i.e. design monetization that players respect and feel adds a great deal of value for their money).
- Solid understanding of popular games, their gameplay, and their art direction.
- Understanding of Maxis creativity and simulation games, including SimCity, The Sims, and Spore.
- Understanding playing and understanding other games in the creativity space, including Little Big Planet, Minecraft and its popular mods, Roblox, Disney Infinity, Project Spark, and other upcoming efforts.
What on earth is this game going to be? A popular, Free-to-Play MMO with RPG and Simulation elements in it, plus plenty of “creativity space” ideas? I get so worried when I read “Free-to-Play”, although it certainly is better than a subscription model when it comes to MMOs. Could we see some sort of world creation, RPG-Simulator game in the future? So basically Godus from Maxis?
Last Updated: July 22, 2014
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 22, 2014 at 11:41
What sorcery is this?
Unavengedavo
July 22, 2014 at 11:55
Dammit, you beat me to it O_o
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 22, 2014 at 12:11
You sound just like her 🙁
Admiral Chief Saxon
July 22, 2014 at 11:44
Did you hear that? Did you?
IT’S THE SOUND OF NO ONE CARING!!!!
Stupid blerrie EA
Hammersteyn
July 22, 2014 at 11:50
Maxis presenting the idea to EA
http://d3dsacqprgcsqh.cloudfront.net/photo/ajr2mL8_460sa_v1.gif
Dutch Matrix
July 22, 2014 at 12:06
Full marks for The Gentlemen reference. One of the best Buffy episodes ever!
VampyreSquirrel
July 22, 2014 at 11:55
Ummmmm… no… I’d rather play Planets-cubed.
Unavengedavo
July 22, 2014 at 11:57
But wasn’t the mobile Dungeon Keeper also “Free to play?
Hammersteyn
July 22, 2014 at 12:03
LOL!
Kensei Seraph
July 22, 2014 at 12:03
Hey, I fit those criteria perfectly.