Maxis visit - impressions

[Zelgadis 638]

Better late than never, as they say. My original intention was to write up my own thoughts on the visit without reading Dirk’s write up. Well, I read it anyway, which was probably for the best. Bottom line, this wasn’t Dirk’s first rodeo and he had a better idea of what to expect and a better sense of how to communicate in this context than I did. He’s the one who asked the toughest questions and he pretty much covered everything I had in mind anyway. I, of course, asked questions too, so don’t think that I just stood there acting like a lump. Still, Dirk covered most things already and there’s really no need for me to rehash everything he said. It’s not that I have less to say, but more that Dirk has already said most of it. This write-up will be shorter and will focus mostly on my own impressions.

The visit opened up with a tour of the studio. We briefly visited the various departments, the largest of which appeared to be transit. This turned out to be unsurprising as it was impressed upon us on multiple occasions that it is the transit networks that are, by far, the most difficult parts of the game to program. One long-time employee said that when she was in her first week on the job, Will Wright, who was sitting at another desk, leaned back and simply said to her, “Roads are hard.”

During this tour, we also saw posters hanging everywhere with reference photos of buildings (not all of which we were permitted to take pictures of). Rounding out the list of things we couldn’t take pictures of were posters of the various types of zones and the formulas used to calculate what grows where.

Music

Our next visit was to the sound room, where the music for the game was being made. The depth and breadth of the music in this game is surprisingly vast. This is definitely not a case where someone has written a couple of little tunes and set them on a loop. There are different layers of the music depending on what you’re working with, what zoom level you are on, and what menus you are browsing.

Roads

Next was a chat with Ocean Quigley, a man who I can certainly say has the most epic mustache I’ve ever seen in real life. Dirk has written at length about the transit and I see no need to duplicate entirely what he said. I will say that road geeks will have lots to play with. The grid, as you know, is gone and free-form roads will be the norm. The extent to which you can create a unique, interesting road system is mind-bendingly insane. Ocean loaded up his personal test region for us and it looked like everyone’s first custom Excitebike level. Oh, don’t look at me like that. You know what you did the first time you created your first custom level. You went into the editor and crammed in as many jumps and lumps as the level editor would allow. This is what his custom region looked like.

We watched as Ocean effortlessly drew a road network on this craggy mass of steep cliffs. His roads twisted and turned generating curved bridges as he went and the game gave no complaint as he did so. Unlike SC4, where getting roads to do what you want can lead to fits of insanity, this was a simple draw and done situation.

One of the highlights of the visit, for me, was viewing one of the developer’s test regions. As he panned around, I noticed one of the bridges he had built over a river. This bridge curved very elegantly across the water in a graceful S-bend. Even though the pylons of the bridge were still bugging a little, it was a sight that got my attention for sure.

Speaking of roads leads me to the issue of terraforming. My personal impression is that omitting terraforming from player tools removes an essential gameplay element. This is, after all, a city simulator, and in real life, construction crews and city planners remake the landscape in order to accomplish what is necessary. I can live without macro-terraforming, but micro-terraforming seems that it should be an essential part of a city simulator.

Gameplay

There’s not much that can be said about this part. We had a chance to play a demo that they had set up for us. It was, essentially, a tutorial, but I often deviated from the tutorial’s instructions in order to look around and familiarize myself with the controls. The control layout is very intuitive and veteran SimCity players should have no trouble with them at all. For a pre-alpha, most things ran quite smoothly. Zones placed well and I didn’t find anything particularly cartoony, which is a concern I’ve heard before.

Zones

Zones are easy to draw and place, though, from what we experienced, it seems as though there is little in the player’s control over the size of the zones themselves. As we move into the next SimCity era, I was hoping for more variation on zone sizes and it seems to have moved backwards a bit. There’s no mixed zoning (residential/commercial combinations) and density is now dependent on the size of the roads. I can understand where Maxis is coming from on this decision, but I’m not really convinced that this is a good direction. Living in Toronto, one of the top five largest urban areas of North America, I see a lot of very tall skyscrapers on all sorts of road sizes. Our city is even in the midst of a debate right now as to whether or not it’s a good idea to put more high rise condominiums on our major avenues and instead leave those roads for low and mid-rise commercial.

Other Transit

No subways. We know that. We also asked about that. The response was that they had actually worked on subways a little, but backed off when it turned out their complexity was far too great to meet deadlines. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that this may be something to expect in a future expansion pack.

So, for now, that leaves us with heavy rail, light rail, and buses. There’s not much that I could say that hasn’t been written about these ad nauseum. What is interesting to note, however, is that the developers cited the NAM specifically as a major influence on their decision to include light rail and streetcars.

SimCity on Mac

The best news for the forthcoming Mac version is that Maxis is doing the porting this time. After the disaster that was the SC4 port for Mac, I think all Mac users can rejoice at this. Another issue I brought up is Apple’s Magic Mouse. Personally, I like this mouse, though I know not everyone does. I admit, however, that it can be wildly over-sensitive in certain contexts. Seriously, try using it with Bing or Google Maps or something. It’s impossible. When I pointed this out, the developers admitted they hadn’t considered that, but that they will look into it.

User-designed content

The developers could give us no promises on what tools we would receive or when we would receive them. There are, of course, balance issues to figure out and it’s not something they are prioritizing for the moment. After all, we didn’t get the tools for SC4 until well after the release date either. The developers were clear that they’d like to release as many tools as possible.

Lot editing, if it becomes available, seemed to be a fairly intuitive affair. Building models can be made with snap points, which basically turns parts of the buildings into invisible Lego studs. These studs can be placed anywhere at any time and make adding to buildings quick and easy.

We also saw a little bit about the making of a building in general. There’s no question that it will require at least as much skill as current software requires. Assuming it’s released, of course.

Live webcast

As Dirk has said in his own write-up, one of our goals was to balance asking the questions we wanted to ask while remaining respectful to the developers. I believe we achieved that. For the live broadcast, I do want to note that the questions selected were really actual questions submitted by the community and also reflected the sorts of questions that we were hoping would be asked.

Final Thoughts

It’s important to remember that what we’re going to ultimately receive is a vanilla. If you wish to be reminded of what this is like, install SC4 into your computer without the Deluxe package if you can. We are all spoiled by expansion packs, downloads, and ten years worth of custom content.

So, now we’re starting at the beginning again. I believe there is much to be, at least, cautiously optimistic about what’s to come. Do I agree with every decision that has been made? Well, no, of course not. I don’t expect to be 100% pleased and it would be foolish of anyone to try. As a teacher, I know that trying to please everyone leads to a watered-down, ineffective classroom experience, and I’m sure the same is true with video games.

A side story

On the day of the broadcast, there was a dress rehearsal, a short break, and then the live broadcast. During the break, we were able to go out of the auditorium and partake in refreshments and snacks. Very shortly before the broadcast was to begin, I decided that I needed to go to the little boy's room. Dirk and Michael, one of our guides during our stay, said that they'd wait for me.

While I was in the bathroom, I heard the door open. Another person walked in who I could see out of the corner of my eye. Naturally, focusing on my aim, I didn't get a good look at the person, but he was about the same height, build, hair color, etc. as Dirk. I figured it was him. He went into one of the stalls.

I finished and washed my hands. When I went back out to the lobby where the refreshments were, Michael was there, but Dirk was not. I asked where he was, but Michael didn't know. I said I saw him in the bathroom and we decided to wait for him. A few moments later, I got a text stating, "Get in here!"

"Oh my god," I thought, "Dirk is having a heart attack on the crapper!" All at once, I had these visions of Dirk on the throne, clutching his chest in agony. I went into the bathroom and called out his name a few times. No answer; he wasn't there. I went back out to Michael and stated as such. We decided to go back into the auditorium.

Inside was Dirk, seated in one of the auditorium chairs, and he was just fine, naturally. Obviously, whomever I saw entering the bathroom while I was in there was not him. Sometimes, I wonder if the mystery man in the stall thought that there was a crazy man in the bathroom with him that day.

More pictures.

Entrance to the building where Maxis is located:

Entrance to Maxis itself:

Dat and I in the Maxis lobby:

Me in front of EA's giant Dragon Age statue:

I was surprised to discover that EA worked on Final Fantasy IX:

Maxis has a small meeting room where they have the game boxes of every SimCity game:

Yes, they have a Llama Room:

A block away from the Maxis studio is the Pixar studio. It's a very non-descript building and you wouldn't know what it was, save for the seagull statue on the top of it.

This was our hotel. Hey, had to get the dolls in somewhere, even if I didn't take them to Maxis or EA with me.

[Cyclone Boom 16,935]

Wow this is a surprise, thanks for your insights, Zelgadis. It's always great to hear things from different perspectives.

It'll be really interesting how modding is implemented in the game, and how it will integrate with the multiplayer aspects. This is the key to the game's long-term success I feel. It is therefore important that the 'vanilla' game lays a solid foundation for the later development of custom content. This means the game shouldn't be dependent on custom content to make it playable. Like with SimCity 4, it should allow the game to be expanded, adding variety to the core gameplay.

[Mithrik 562]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Zelgadis.

I completely agree with you that it's almost impossible to please everyone. And I know that the vanilla release cannot even come close to SC4 at its current stage, so accept the current situation of the new SimCity.

I am sure that given the time it can grow, Maxis is known for having their games be easily mod-able for their fans. SC4 isn't the only proof, SC2K, SC3K, and the Sims 2 all had their own custom content, so I expect there to be at least some kind of Lot Editor.

[tSlater 134]

I wonder what's in the llama room.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

I wonder what's in the llama room.

Llamas?

[Bazkur 34]

Anyone has a link to Dirk's review? Good job btw, this is great insight!

[Cyclone Boom 16,935]

Anyone has a link to Dirk's review? Good job btw, this is great insight!

Here it is:

[macvirt 361]

User-designed content

The developers could give us no promises on what tools we would receive or when we would receive them. There are, of course, balance issues to figure out and it’s not something they are prioritizing for the moment. After all, we didn’t get the tools for SC4 until well after the release date either. The developers were clear that they’d like to release as many tools as possible.

Lot editing, if it becomes available, seemed to be a fairly intuitive affair. Building models can be made with snap points, which basically turns parts of the buildings into invisible Lego studs. These studs can be placed anywhere at any time and make adding to buildings quick and easy.

We also saw a little bit about the making of a building in general. There’s no question that it will require at least as much skill as current software requires. Assuming it’s released, of course.

You know, that is pretty much identical to statements and orientation by Firaxis where it came to the divide between the presented "heavy value" placed on modding and the realities of the game in focus and production on the topic of Civ V, back in the day. It is a bit disheartening to see the same studio divide between realisations, wants and actual resource allocation.

It does fall in line though with the presented marketing information sofar. In terms of commercial considerations it is also in line with the sense & sensibility of using "modding" as part of the sales pitch but not of the priorities for the first release cycle. Same for the fine line of "how do you do DLC and not engage in competition with the user, but still use the user to generate exposure for you. It would make sense for Maxis to enable modding and a limited exchange for lots, definately. But anything beyond that .... doubtful. At least the first release cycle.

[Bazkur 34]

Thanks!

Anyone has a link to Dirk's review? Good job btw, this is great insight!

Here it is:

[Benedict 3,119]

Good report, thank you. I was disappointed that subway wasn't going to be in the first release (and who knows if it ever will be completed for release) but having seen the trams/GLR I understand why they went in that direction - they make a city look even more alive in above ground view.

[Azurespecter 506]

Thanks for the review!

From your discussions and visit with Maxis, would you say that modding and user-designed content is a low priority currently? or just lower than other priorities? or not a priority at all? It appears that they are at least important enough to Maxis to warrant a discussion during your visit, but I may have misinterpreted.

[MaxisGuillaume 289]

I wonder what's in the llama room.

Llamas?

It does smells like llamas in it, it's very weird...

[Zelgadis 638]

Thanks for the review!

From your discussions and visit with Maxis, would you say that modding and user-designed content is a low priority currently? or just lower than other priorities? or not a priority at all? It appears that they are at least important enough to Maxis to warrant a discussion during your visit, but I may have misinterpreted.

I can't speak for the developers, so I don't know where, exactly, I'd say their priorities are vis a vis custom content. It is, at least, most definitely a consideration with them, however. Ultimately, I believe a lot is going to depend on what the higher-ups at Maxis and EA have to say about it after the game is released.

[Haljackey 17,322]

Enjoyed the review Zel, thanks for sharing!

[JakeMD 107]

I wonder if "Dwight Stunt Double" is one of your hobbies...

Glad you got to share the opportunity to meet the folks at Maxis.

[jigsaw 227]

I can't speak for the developers, so I don't know where, exactly, I'd say their priorities are vis a vis custom content. It is, at least, most definitely a consideration with them, however. Ultimately, I believe a lot is going to depend on what the higher-ups at Maxis and EA have to say about it after the game is released.

i hear ya, but sadly they must realise in this world: modability = success

[MrCinatit 30]

Very good review, Zel. Maybe the guy in the bathroom was Will!

[Hoipus 292]

Very good review, Zel. Maybe the guy in the bathroom was Will!

Will Wright? I'm pretty sure he doesn't work at Maxis these days.