In November 2021, I wrote a piece called Legendary Creator of The Sims, Sim City, and Spore, Is Working on an NFT Game, where I waxed lyrical about Will Wright. As you can probably guess, Wright is the creator of seminal titles such as The Sims. Now, his studio, Gallium Studios, has raised $6m for its Web3 game, Proxi.

Wright has an innovation pedigree like few others have in the space, if any at all. He has not only created some of the most successful and iconic games in gaming history, but those games have all been beacons of innovation. His last game, back in 2008, was Spore, a multi-award-winning title that continued Wright’s appetite for god games. Although it had its critics, it was heralded for its unique design and procedural generation.

I regularly harp on about how I tend to follow and invest in Web3 games based on the people behind it, rather than the concept (indeed, I did just that back in November if you click the above article!) There are few better examples of this than Proxi, which I have been closely following since its announcement exclusively because of Wright, thought the concept — as you might expect — is fascinating.

What Is Proxi?

Proxi is an AI simulation game based on memories using NFTs and blockchain technology. Here is how Will Wright described it:

This is in some sense a game of self-discovery, a game where we actually uncover the hidden you – your subconscious, your inner ID, and bring it to the surface, bring it to life so you can interact with it, you can play with it, you can learn from it and it can learn about you.

— Will Wright, Gallium Studios

There isn’t a great deal to go on — there wasn’t in November 2021, and there isn’t now — but the concept grabs me. Not only is it a creation of someone who likes to experiment with novel gameplay loops and unique design, but it’s still within his wheelhouse of success. That is, Wright isn’t trying to create something a far cry from the genres he has pioneered and found success.

Now, with proper funding, we will hopefully see Proxi’s development accelerate and new information and content released. I also dearly hope that Wright continues his penchant for effectively exploring technology in games and that the NFTs and use of blockchain are valuable to the game’s premise. For now, however, I’ll end this piece as I ended the one 10 months ago:

“Memories lead to worlds, memory worlds lead to minds, and then minds appear to be a Proxi that can interact with others. If it weren’t the etchings of Will Wright, I would chalk this project up as a madman’s stream of consciousness. But, it is Wright, and therefore I am fizzing with anticipation.”