Published on: 30/09/2021

Creator of the Sims uses blockchain tech to power in-game AI in new game

While perhaps not many people know Will Wright’s Gallium Studios by name, his and their work is more than famous – the game designer of the incredibly successful Sims franchise. Now he’s on to other projects – specifically, a game where players get to meet their inner self, their id. Now the studio has entered a new partnership with gaming platform Forte Labs Inc.

Their brainchild will be called Proxi – and it will let players to create and interact with their own content, complete with AI and blockchain elements. The ‘goal’ is self-discovery, in that players are supposed to learn about themselves and create proxies, in the form of visualized memories, either as photos, 3D drawings, or even audio. The memories are then turned into snow globes, and eventually, create an entire mind.

How does Proxi work?

Proxi collects information based on how a player arranges their creations, in order to determine what makes the person unique and how they think. A map is built on what players associate with, well, other things. The Proxi is built based on the memories assembled and then interacts with other Proxis.

“I think that self-discovery is scary,” creator Will Wright said in an interview. “Learning about the world is not as scary as learning about yourself,” he said. In Proxi, the player is forced to start with blank space and fill it with recollections.”

Given the personal nature of the memories created, Wright decided there should be an element of due ownership – so the memory snow globes that are created by players are then preserved as NFTs, meaning that the players actually own them, rather than the game creators.

This NFT-based approach is an increasingly popular element of crypto gaming, with plenty new projects relying on player-owned assets for their games to give the players both more incentives to play and more ownership of their own work and purchases.

See also: Top Play2Earn Crypto Games & Gaming Studios

A vibrant market

As with almost any NFT project though, Proxi isn’t limited to users creating NFTs – they can also share, trade, buy and sell them. If a user wants to buy other globes from other players, they can use US dollars to buy them.

Naturally, the first release of Proxi will only contain content created by the game’s creators – it’s up to the community to then create more and populate their Proxis and online marketplace alike. In the upcoming week, those who participated in the game’s creation will be able to buy their own special NFT packages to use in the game – this sale is limited to those who helped build and test the game, however. Public access and sales will happen later!

As is often the case, these early versions of NFT games will likely end up somewhat more valuable in the marketplace later – first editions of NFT projects often achieve higher prices than later editions and releases.