The Strong National Museum of Play has announced that Will Wright, who gamers no doubt know as the creator of such monumental videogame franchises as SimCity, The Sims, and Spore, has donated a large collection of his personal papers and design documents to the museum’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG).
The donation includes nine graph paper notebooks covering a large span of Wright’s career, including doodles, detailed drawings, and hand-written notes chronicling his creative process for such games as The Sims, SimCopter, SimCity 2000, and Spore. The notebooks also contain Wright’s notes and outlines regarding business matters, as well as the various presentations he’s given over the years to explain his game design methods and philosophies.
“Games do not spring out of the minds of game designers full grown, like Athena from the head of Zeus,” said ICHEG director Jon-Paul Dyson in a statement. “These papers document the creative process behind some of the most important games of our time. They have transformed our society, and we are pleased to preserve this record of how Wright created them.”
