Maxis

Maxis
Biography
    Maxis software is a video game company founded in the United States. Maxis were acquired by Electronic Arts in 1998. Now it is under the EA Company. Maxis is called “The father of simulation”, it have some famous game such as The Sims series, Sim City series and Spore.
    In the year of 1987, Jeff Braun and Will Wright created a new type of game. Two years later, Maixs became the top of simulation games. The sales of the series of The Sims reached nearly 10 million sets. It is the oldest and most dazzling star in the history of game. After that, they named all of their games “Sim”. They are called the series of Sims.
    Maxis have a unique understanding of the simulation game. The essence of it is not in the business but in the simulation. The concept of this game is published with SimCity. Maxis established its position of video games and started a revolution of games. After that, many of works were affected by it, even many famous games in them.
Historical journey development:
After the success of ‘SimCity’, they have published ‘Sim Earth’, ‘Sim Ant’, ‘Sim life’ and ‘Sim classic’. This series made Maxis gradually better.
‘Sim Earth’ is an obviously copy game from ‘SimCity’, because it only enlarges the stage from city to earth. ‘Sim Ant’ has made a great update in technology, e.g. game screen tended to be more finely and rich. The idea of this game is also very different; player’s role is an ant, they need to build their colony underground, Feeding and fight with enemies. Even so Maxis didn’t continue to develop the game. But a game named ‘Rmpire of The Ants by Microid’ seems to have inherited his soul. ‘Sim Life’ just is a first game of feeding animals in game. Also the games not successful are ‘Sim Park’ and ‘Sim safari’.
    
The best game of the same period is ‘Sim Farm’. This is a game of a Farm Business. In which you have to feed animals and plant plants etc. And necessitate expansion of the farm. The development of farm could stimulate the development of nearby city, and it will give the products a better market. The game screen is of very high quality. Game operation is also very smooth. Its operation is the very popular multi windows just like the Desktop of Windows operation system. Sim Farm accumulated the experience of almost all the technical of Sim City 2000 (except tilt camera because Sim Farm used a vertical view). At the same time of developing other games, Maxis never forgot Sim City that brought their fame and status. In other words developing other games was accumulation of experience for Sim City. In the year of 1993, Sim City 2000 was born and famous over the world. The name of the game is very predictable; because it is the top game of simulation games in 2000.
     
    Sim City 2000 is the first game introduced water as a resource to game. In Sim City 2000, players could keep competition and cooperation with nearby cities. There are a variety of natural disasters to test the ability of player’s management. And Maxis gave players more choices in government decision and so on. These changes are perfect for all Maxis’ creative inspiration. In other words, Sim City 2000 is the game Jeff Braun and Will Wright really wanted. It not only realized the perfect combination of the game and the art, Sim City 2000 also made its sales reached an incredible 6 million sets. From then on, Maxis became the top one of simulation games. And for the simulation game industry, the success of Sim City 2000 showed that this kind of game not only have different ideas, but also could be gorgeous and fun that made all of players crazy.
    At the same time of the publishment of Sim City 2000, Bullfrog Company published a game named Theme Park (1994), started of the game series of Theme. Impressions Company also published a game named Caesar (1993). These two series are the most powerful opponent for Sim City before the year of 1998. The crazy imagination of Bullfrog and precisely painting of Impression gave them great sensation. But as Bullfrog close down in 1998. Sim City is the first simulation game, and it’s near real simulation and open game, the content is unmatched by any other games. They had strong professionalism is the basis of all.
    Maxis’ creation is in a slump on a long time after Sim City 2000. In addition to publish a variety of derivatives of Sim City 2000, Maxis also developed a lot of games named by Sim, but they were all not ideal. Among them, Sim Health allowed us to see the business philosophy of Maxis was too professional and their psychological impatience at the time. Sim Isle made the same mistake as Sim Earth. No breakthrough of ideas, just move the stage from earth to the sea. Sim Tower is the first game Maxis made for Windows. From version 1.0 to version 1.2, added many stages for players’ entertainment, but the whole game is a little stingy. Sim Isle, Sim Park and Sim Safari were repeating the stories of human and animals. Their picture is getting more and more beautiful but the game is not much improved. It is worth mentioning that Maxis had already begun to design the details of plants and animals from these games. For example, the lawn will wither; animals will be in the flood because of improper collocation. These details reflect the true and careful observation of the position of Maxis.
In addition to these, Sim Town’s orientation was similar to Caesar. Sim Classic and Sim Golf were failed. They couldn’t leave a deep impression on people. Maybe the source of the crisis was they want to create another game type like creating the simulation game in that years. They added the business part which is players need to collect money by completing many missions to the race game, but his production is not very good. The business part did not bring vitality to the game, so the sole game was very rough. But its creative ideas were still being followed by many of race game.
     
In the year of 1998, Maxis officially joined Electronic Arts, and brought the series of Sim to EA. A year later, Maxis finally published the last work of the series of Sim City: Sim City 3000.
Game mode and ideas were not many changes. They improved any details to make game elements more balanced. E.g. the adjustment of the land price system, the introduction of the four seasons change, the improvement of the transportation system, the creation of the concept of garbage disposal, as well as all kinds of harm caused by environmental pollution and so on. They are very serious on the scenes; more than 400 different buildings were designed, every building carried out of four kinds of rotation, five kinds of scaling, a total of twenty different rendering by using 3D Studio MAX. At the same time in order to ensure the authenticity of the architectural, the original stuffs are produced in double size. In order to show the people on the road, Maxis designed thousands of 20 pixel people and connect them with the nearby building. For example the couple appeared near the park and the nurse wandered around the hospital. We could notice these details only when we blow up the game several times, but Maxis do them very carefully.
 This tremendous progress makes us aware of their meticulous attitude to their work. By this time the glory of Sim City series has played to the extreme. They think it's perfectly interpreted. And the architectural design software was presented to their supporters.
     
The series of SimCity came to the end and then The Sims was born! The Sims is a different game looks on the surface; this makes it difficult for people to categorize it with the existing type of game. But in fact The Sims did not have any new content of games; the operation of characters obviously had reference from some adventure game; building construction was appeared in Sim City 2000 (1994), the many kinds of training to enhance the properties and work to earn money are usually used in education simulation game.
Maybe one of the highlights of the game is the 3D performance of the character and the scene. But it certainly couldn’t make such a big impact. So why the game to the peak of the game industry? It’s the idea and the atmosphere of the game with creative ideas. Actually, this concept had begun to grow from Sim City, they abbreviated simulation to Sim. Then how to be a good simulation game? Maxis tried many kinds of methods: kinds of angles, from the city to the earth, from music to animals, and even racing, flying. Finally Maxis thought the most difficult simulation is life, behavior and psychological. Other ways just are kinds of surface. Made the real performance of our world is the ultimate goal of every game; it is the representation of our own mind.
    In The Sims, we’ve found what we always dreamed of. A living character, have name, gender, personality and the passions. A complete person, His (Her) everything will be decided by us. This thing itself is what players are ready to have. Think of a few years ago, the popularity of electronic pets, any strange of the successful of "simulation life"? Some of these problems are subject to technical limitations, others are not allowed to practice. After all, there is often a conflict between reality and game play.
    For the problems in The Sims, Maxis has its own understanding. So Maxis has launched three data disk of The Sims. They try to add some differences. But the speed mode, the details of the action figures, the time distribution of all kinds of behavior, the mode of operation has not changed. There is a change of: Added props and types of work (this is just a little thing, and there already has a large number of plug-ins online), Added a few blocks, social was more important. And you can talk over the phone to maintain friendship and eliminate loneliness. It can be said that most of the shortcomings did not carry out any improvement. Instead, there is an increase in the events which is players did not put forward.
    I think Maxis is intended to improve the fun of the game by open and gamer elements rather than working in details. Maxis used its mind to develop the game. It let the players experience the game instead of letting the game takes the players’ fancy. On the other hand, Maxis known the real pinch of "The Sims" is that it is too close to some of our daily lives. After all, players open the computer to enter the game every day not to experience the boredom of daily life. So in the added contents of The Sims, Maxis was in an effort to create something that is more exciting than the real "life". By the way, Maxis was originally planned to launch this in Sim Ville in the earlier year of 2001, in the scene of a simulated city, it is known as "a mixture of The Sims and Sim City". But then Maxis found that all the games ideas had already have a better expression in The Sims, so they canceled the sale it.
Present situation and future development:
http://jumpyepicurean623.snack.ws/on-with-simcity-buildit-the-excellent-free.html
    In recent years, a new game of Sim City series named SimCity: Buildlt. It is not the product of Maxis, but from the Trackwenty studio of Finland. In addition, this game removed RCI (i.e. residential area, business district and industrial zone) the most iconic play mode, and made many players difficult to accept. Also I found some blame on the player’s evolution, for example it copied the old materials, and it didn’t take much thought.
    However, SimCity: BuildIt has received a lot of calls. Recently, EA proved the mobile game SimCity: Buildlt is popular through a large data: There are more than 40 million players to download the game; the game has been ranked in the top five in more than 100 countries in the iOS download; currently in China iOS free game list within 20, The United States iOS game best-selling list of less than 25; In addition, Mobile EA as an independent sector, 2015 first quarter revenue of 5 hundreds million $, increase of 16% in 2014.
In the year of 1989, Will Wright and his work partner Jeff Braun built Maxis. At first they published SimCity on Mac. The inspiration for this game comes from the FC game On Bungeling Bay Raid. In the development of this game, Wright Will Surprisingly found that it seems that the urban design in map level is more interesting. It was the idea that gave him the idea of developing a "simulated city".
The first SimCity on Mac is very similar with Raid on Bungeling Bay. Two make the same use of the overlooking angle. By the way, the first Macintosh computer SimCity is "black and white". Later on the other platform they added color to SimCity, but not much difference between the operation interfaces. From a certain point of view, other works of SimCity are supplement to the original works. The core of the game - the simulation based on the construction and operation of auxiliary has not changed. And this led to the rise and fall of the Maxis twenty-six years of design concept. The whole game series and the future development of Maxis is a blessing. There was no concern at that time. What people were seeing was a legend - SimCity.
    This is a paragraph when Will Wright accepted Game Horizon’s interview in 2014. At this time, Game Horizon Game asked such a question: "Do you think there are differences between designers and the player's attitude towards the game?”. Maxis seem to drill into the simulation which cannot extricate them; too complex simulation is simply not possible for the players to understand. Even difficult for players to detect. This is the answer of the father of simulation - Wright Will. It happened a similar case which is Maxis developed Sim Health because of the excessive focus on the simulation so they lost the fun of game.
The pursuit of "simulation" of the Maxis in the game to make such a complex design is not difficult to understand. Most of the players said, in reality, we have a commuter guide to tell which road is congested; in reality there are traffic limits to ease the flow of people. And SimCity 4 is just a game, it is obviously impossible to completely simulate the real world. Since so, why not made simplify the design more than "burn the brain" design? Because Wright Will said before: Sometimes the game designer is designed to play the game. Sometimes they design games for themselves.
 Indeed, efforts deserve praise, but the market will be able to get widely recognized it? No, the game players are almost chilling.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/youll-regret-this-simcity-developer-maxis-is-closing-down
    In recent years. EA has confirmed that Maxis studio headquarters has been officially closed, this is very sad news. And currently they open to the local staff to turn any other EA studio opportunities. The news from the SimCity series chief game script division Pierre’s Twitter: "Well, it's a very interesting 12 years, but now it's time to turn off the lights, and then leave the door lock.” At the end of the text marked #RIPMaxisEmeryville announced that this home has more than 20 years old studio announced the end. But a statement issued by the EA inside, stressed that the series of SimCity will continue to be in the city of California coast, Saline Lake City, Helsinki, Melbourne, Australia and other EA's studios to develop; EA more agreed to the future that they will continue to maintain the development of Sim series.
Comes with a mention, the Sims series development team has been split from Maxis in 2006 to become a subsidiary one, office location is divided into the city of mahogany and Saline Lake city. It’s founded in 1987, California, Maxis studio started up to 26 years of "sim series". From 1989 published the first one Sim City, they developed for different topics as Sim Life, Sim Golf, Sim park and so on, Until the year of 2000 they published another wave of hot by the publishment of The Sims and the same hot game Spore and so on.
http://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-simcity-developer-maxis-1689454903
**The following is the full text of the statement issued by the EA to close the Maxis studio:
    Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.
    These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.
All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.
Finally, I think Maxis's footsteps will not stop; Sim's legend is far from over. Be honest, a lot of design of Maxis's are all aura to overthrow and streamline the SimCity series, especially those which have continued for several generations, and made the product to be widely recognized by the market. After all these things are not easy; Developers have to face the hardware platform and the player's psychological platform; what’s the user really wants and what the game should really be expressed are presented. Although Tracktwenty's approach will let him lose some of Maxis's hardcore fans, but they make the game more popular, and SimCity continues. The result is enough to prove everything..
By the way, EA is working on SimCity: buildit's android version. They will go into Chinese market with more than 75% of the share of the Android market; this will be an important breakthrough for the future development.
Related works:
1989,Sim City
1990,Sim Earth
1991,Sim Ant
1992,Sim Life,SimCity Classic
1993,Sim Farm,SimCity 2000,SimCity 2000 Special Edition
1994,Sim Health,SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit
1995,Sim Isle,Sim Tower,SimCity 2000,SimClassics:MaxisCollections 2
1996,2000 ,SimCity 2000:CD Collection,SimClassics:3 in 1 Pack,Sim Town,Sim Tunes,Sim Golf,Sim Park
1997,My 3 Sims!,Streets of SimCity
1998,Ultimate Sim,Sim Copter,Sim Safari
1999,SimCity 3000,SimCity 3000 Unlimited,Sim ThemePark
2000,The Sims
2003,SimCity 4,SimCity:Formosa,SimCity 4：Rush Hour
2004,The Sims 2,The Urbz，GBA
2005,University,NightLife,Holiday Party Pack
2006,Open for Business,Family Fun Stuff,Glamour Life Stuff,Pets
2007,Life Stories,Seasons
2008,Spore
2009,Sims 3
2010,Galatic Adventures
2011,Dark Spore
2013,Simcity,SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow
2014,The Sims 4
Sims：
The Sims: Livin' Large,The Sims: House Party,The Sims: Hot Date,The Sims: Vacation,The Sims: Unleashed,The Sims: Superstar,The Sims: Makin' Magic.
The Sims 2: University,The Sims 2: Nightlife,The Sims 2: Open For Business,The Sims 2: Pets,The Sims 2: Seasons, The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, The Sims 2: Free Time, The Sims 2: Apartment Life, The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack, The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff, The Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff, The Sims 2: Happy Holiday Stuff The Sims 2: Celebration Stuff, the Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff, The Sims 2: Teen Style Stuff, The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff, The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff, The Sims 2: Mansion and Garden Stuff.
The Sims 3: World Adventures, The Sims 3: Ambitions, The Sims 3: Late Night, The Sims 3: Generations, The Sims 3: Pets, The Sims 3: Showtime, The Sims 3: Supernatural, The Sims 3: Seasons, The Sims 3: University Life, The Sims 3: Island Paradise, The Sims 3: Into the Future, The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff, The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff, The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff, The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff, The Sims 3: Master Suite Stuff, The Sims 3: Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, The Sims 3: Diesel Stuff, The Sims 3: 70s, 80s, & 90s Stuff, The Sims 3: Movie Stuff.
Free Download Maps: Riverview, Barnacle Bay, Hidden Springs, Lunar Lakes, Lucky Palms, Sunlit Tides, Monte Vista, Aurora Skies, Dragon Valley, Midnight Hollow, Roaring Heights.
Derivative products: The Sims Online, The Sims Stories.
GamePad: The Urbz: Sims in the City, MySims, The Sims Medieval, The Sims Social, The Sims Free Play.