Will Wright

Will Wright (born 1960 in Georgia, USA) is the designer of the SimCity and Sims series, as well as forthcoming production Spore, developed by Maxis (which Wright co-founded with Jeff Braun). It is said that Wright devised the basic idea of The Sims after a fire, when he had to move into a new home, and re-create everything in his life.

Will Wright's first game, SimCity, was created in Wright's early days as a programmer -- he was hired as a level-designer for a game called Raid on Bungling Bay. Eventually, Wright realized that he had much more fun creating the cities than he did playing the game itself, and he spent several months turning the concept into what would later become SimCity Classic.