Will Wright’s new game Proxi is a memory-driven life sim where players collaboratively create memories for their avatars. A game centered around memories? It could only come from the legendary game designer!
Last month, Maxis founder, The Sims creator, and one of the great elders of PC gaming, released a teaser trailer for his new game Proxi. The game could be described as a memory-focused life sim, where you build the inner lives of your avatars (Proxies) by typing up their memories, which you can then play out in animated scenes within your “mind world.”
Wright revealed more about the game in a stream on BreakthroughT1D’s Twitch channel, partially covered yesterday, and expanded on the intriguing scenarios possible in Proxi. He shared examples of what the game’s memory creation system could enable, stating: “I could have an amazing dinner party between Cleopatra, Napoleon, and Da Vinci, or I could have a cage match between Cleopatra and my grandmother.”
The idea is that players will create vast, community-built entries for their Proxies, almost like Wikipedia pages, to expand the characters’ memory banks and shape their behavior in the game world. “There might be 100 people building the Wikipedia entries for Cleopatra… and have Cleopatra as a character in the game,” Wright explained. A slide describing the game noted: “Trained with your memories, expanded with AI,” suggesting some degree of AI learning will be integrated to bring each Proxy’s personality to life.
Proxies can be entirely fictional, based on historical figures, or even modeled after family members. One co-host discussed researching their late grandmother’s life with family members and imagined how fascinating it would’ve been to gather that person’s memories and stories, then apply them to a Proxy in the game. “That, to me, becomes almost like a software heirloom, something you treasure like an old box of photos,” said Wright.
What players will do in Proxi is still somewhat mysterious. It seems Proxies interact with each other in a hex-based world, allowing players to create mini-games and even export Proxies to other games, but how it all ties together remains unclear. However, this is coming from the creator of a compelling ant simulator and Spore, a game where players evolve a species from a single-cell organism to a spacefaring super race. High-concept simulations are Wright’s forte, and he has never disappointed us yet.
Source: PC Gamer
