Many of us would love to turn our passion for gaming into a full-time career. Joseph Knight, one of the lead designers of SimCity 4, did just that. Knight’s passion for playing SimCity 2000 and a whole lot of persistence paid off when he joined the Maxis team just as development of SimCity 4 began. With the game finally released, he took some time to discuss SimCity 4 with The Armchair Empire.

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Joseph Knight (SimCity 4) Q&A

Conducted by Lee Cieniawa / Omni

Your resume is pretty impressive: a Masters of Science in Architecture Studies from MIT, a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee, and a lot of heady architectural-related employment. While your background would make you a perfect candidate for a job working on SimCity games, how exactly did you find your way onto the SimCity development team?

Equal parts luck, persistence, and the good will and open-mindedness of some SimCity team members.

I had just finished a two-year stint at LEGO in Denmark and had moved to California, the land of virtual opportunity – figuring I’d land a job as a level designer for some shoot-em-up game. During that time I got heavily involved playing SimCity 2000 yet again and decided to give Maxis a try. I had to send my resume two or three times before it landed in the hands of SimCity Art Director Ocean Quigley and Executive Producer Lucy Bradshaw. They weren’t looking for a designer at the time, but I somehow managed to convince them of my potential contribution to the franchise (many of my graduate school projects resembled aspects of SimCity).

I think I had just enough 3D Studio Max experience to qualify as a CG artist, which got my foot in the door. I came in just as SC3K was wrapping up, and they needed someone to drive the Building Architect Tool design. The success of that endeavor helped get me promoted from CGA to designer, just as SimCity 4 was getting underway.

When you first joined Maxis, did you feel at all intimidated with the prospect of working alongside the game-creating legend that is Will Wright?

To some extent, yes. You couldn’t say I was thoroughly tuned into the games industry and its movers and shakers at the time, but once here it started to dawn on me just how influential Will is. By the time I got to work directly with him, I had worked myself into a state of nervousness. But within the first few minutes of our meeting, his casual and friendly manner and his interest in discussing new ideas made me feel at home.

Was there any sense of trepidation when approaching SimCity 4? After all, it has an established formula. How do you make the old seem new, and the new incorporated into the old while pleasing fans of the series and appeasing the Gods of Cynicism (read: Gaming Editors).

I didn’t really think about all that so much.

I’m not one who is easily satisfied with how things are, and even as a fan I already had a lot of ideas of what more could be done with the franchise. Remember, I also have a deep background in urban design and city history, so it was pretty easy for me to spot where the simulation could be improved.

I would wonder to myself not only what the next version could be but also what version 8 or 12 might be – you know, really dream big. In that context, SimCity 4 really represents lot of “baby steps” towards something much, much bigger.

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Not to say it wasn’t already a fantastic game! So I didn’t want to mess too much with that aspect of SimCity – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But I was concerned with making the city experience more compelling, more engaging to a wider audience – and then seek ways to leverage new game play from that.

Are there any advantages to have gameplay set in a 3D world? (Besides eye-candy, that is).

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Technically, SimCity 4 is set in a 3D world. However, the camera views are very restricted in order to keep everything looking its best. The current 3D lets us incorporate more compelling terrain and a host of special effects. I suppose that all comes down to “eye-candy,” but I just can’t imagine the game would be too impressive without good terrain and effects.

If you’re asking about game play advantages to a free camera in SimCity, able to view things from any perspective, I’ll have to admit we haven’t given it much serious thought. I can imagine it being a thrilling experience to view your city from pedestrian level, but I don’t see any immediate advantages to the current SimCity gameplay paradigm. (And I can imagine a lot of ways in which it might detract!) Not to say that such an experience wouldn’t open up new game opportunities. Who knows?

SimCity 4 requires a tremendous amount of dedication and attention to the most minute of details that a lot of today's gamers just don't seem to possess. So why do you think the SimCity series continues to be so popular?

I’d like to address your premise, first. I believe SimCity 4 is quite accessible to casual players, with a host of fun things to do and experience in even the smallest of cities. God-mode terrain and disasters, lots of automata behaviors, lots of rewards… We intend these sorts of things to “hook” a player, to raise their curiosity about what more might be in store.

We also tried to tune the game so that a city might still grow big with only minimal amenities and attention on the part of the player (but being sure to encourage starting neighbor cities). Such a city would invariably be dirty, unhealthy, and poor, but even this result would reward the player with lots of little things to enjoy and would be especially fun to inflict disasters upon.

Finally, for the serious player – or the casual player who decides to become serious – we decided to make building a “good city” a real challenge. It is only this that “requires” the dedication and detail you mention. I think our traditional fan base falls into this category, and so I believe it is these players who are the ones that are assuming SimCity 4 must be difficult. It’s only their own play style they are addressing!

How hard is it to mix fun and micro-management? Where's the line drawn between the two?

I’ve always imagined SimCity 4 to appeal to a wide range of play styles. There will be hard-core gamers who will be drawn to micro-management, to eke out the last drop of efficiency in their city. And there will be those who prefer an open-ended toy box, a place to fiddle about and try new things. The two can mix or not. I don’t believe either is required in order to enjoy SimCity 4, but both are there for the taking.

As the development of SimCity 4 began, was it always the plan to incorporate The Sims into the gameplay or did the huge popularity of that title (which everybody knows is now the biggest-selling PC title ever) dictate that no matter what, Sims had their find their way into SimCity 4?

It was never mandatory that we incorporate The Sims into SimCity, but we all recognized the potential that the My Sims feature presented, once The Sims really took off. We wanted to expand the appeal of SimCity to all types, and there are a lot of fans of The Sims who are unfamiliar with SimCity. The My Sim feature is an obvious hook.

We at Maxis are quite privileged to have such terrific franchises to work with, and as brainchilds of Will they both have a common “real-world” theme. It’s only natural that we designers would consider some eventual “convergence” between them.

What aspect of SimCity 4 did you have the most fun with? (One would assume it was the disasters).

Although there are only two people with design credits in SimCity 4, there were in fact many people with major contributions to the design – they just have other titles. And so, disasters weren’t under my purview, although I did consult on them some.

I’m a dreamer and conceptualizer. I like to jump into a design void and imagine what’s possible - gathering ideas and opinions, gauging fan interest, understanding restraints, and then reconciling things into a comprehensive plan. This is fun for me, although I don’t recommend it for everyone.

Can you ever picture yourself working on anything but a SimCity game at Maxis?

The Sims has obvious architectural components that I find very interesting. If I were invited to contribute and I had the time, I imagine I could enjoy that immensely. Anything to do with “the places people inhabit” taps into my deep interests.

SimCity 4 has more features than any previous SimCity game. You've given fans of the series more features than even they could have possibly asked for. So where is SimCity headed next? Are there future plans for any type of expansion packs as we have become used to with The Sims?

Sorry, but I can’t comment on that. Let me just say that I’m very VERY excited for the future of SimCity.

(March 5, 2003)


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