FAR OUT

How THE SIMS shaped the career of Far Cry director Alex Hutchinson

- Jeremy Peel

It’s hard to imagine a more prestigious PC gaming university than Maxis in 2008. When an industry fresher named Alex Hutchinson joined the Spore team, he was introduced to Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson, SpyParty creator Chris Hecker, and producer extraordinaire Lucy Bradshaw—who Fortune would later name one of the ten most powerful women in gaming. Presiding over it all was SimCity genius and walking TED talk Will Wright.

“It was a very big learning curve, working with some of the smartest people I’ve even seen,” Hutchinson recalls. “There were all these luminaries from the business, which for a 20-something Australian was pretty exciting.”

As it turned out, Maxis was a better environment for learning than for building games. Despite its acquisition by EA, the success of The Sims insulated it from influence that might have given it tighter structure and goals.

“There were endless fascinating discussions with people about the role of videogames and the purpose of mechanics,” Hutchinson says. “I was exposed to all kinds of new ways to think about games. The downside was that getting through those debates was time-consuming and exhausting— everyone had strong opinions, and a forceful idea of where Spore should go and how it should be.”