Christian Stratton, Game Designer and User Interface Director of The Sims 2 also worked on SimCity 3000, SimMars, SimCity 4, Spore and SimCity 2013.
SimCity 3000: UI Designer, Technical Artist
1997 – 1999
Maxis, Walnut Creek, CA
My previous architectural illustration experience was put to immediate use at Maxis/EA. I started out by revamping the art pipeline and improving the art style for the franchise. the EP, Lucy Bradshaw, tapped me to do the user interface. The move transformed my career! A year later, Bing Gordon credited the huge success of SimCity 3000 to my interface design. In those days, most games still used the basic Microsoft UI framework so this marked a huge moment for the studio.
SimMars: Art Director
1999 – 2001
Maxis, Walnut Creek, CA
Art Directed SimMars - a game that never shipped but has been better known for the concept work that came of it. I honed my illustration and infographic chops with this project and garnered fame among execs for creating a gameplay chart that showed how the game couldn't succeed. We luckily closed it down before doing any major investments. Several of my SimMars illustrations have been featured in the Smithsonian magazine.
SimCity4: Technical Artist and UI Designer
2000 – 2002
Maxis, Walnut Creek, CA
Ocean Quigley, Andrew Willmott and I teamed up to create what is considered the best of the early SimCity games. This was an iterative game release that improved on the successes of SimCity 3000.
I had studied Edward Tufte's books and was ready to apply his design guidelines to the SimCity franchise. Initially, I helped the Art Director create a greater realism using incrementally better tools than we had in the previous production. I then moved on to UI design and came up with the game's "God Mode" interface. The concept of "God Game" was just taking hold in the industry and I decided to give the concept it's own button.
The Sims 2: Game Designer and User Interface Director
2002 – 2004
Maxis Studio, Electronic Arts, Redwood Shores, CA
Working on The Sims 2 was an incredible experience. The original release, The Sims, was a runaway success and we had a big task to address fundamental issues with that game while introducing some very ambitious new gameplay. Development had fits and starts but we ultimately delivered what is considered the best version of this successful franchise.
In addition to directing the UI design, I directed an enormous and elaborate iconography for the game.
I designed the core gameplay features that marked a huge expansion of gameplay possibilities.
The sims in the original release had no expressions and no internal will - just rigid faces and a uniform, mathematical response to the activities they were directed to do. There was a big desire to give the sims some autonomy and to give them enough AI smarts that they could react emotionally to their experiences. The design leadership wanted to be able to perform a Shakespeare play in the game!
Ultimately, I came up with a system of aspirations, wants and fears that gave sims an individual set of things they avoided and things they loved. Each sim was different and some of these "Wants & Fears" would be learned from previous interactions. Additionally, each sim would have one of a handful of "Ambitions" that would give them a pre determined life goal. Achieving milestones along that preferred goal would increase a sim's satisfaction more than the same achievement might for another sim.
SPORE: Planet Designer, Technical Artist
2005 – 2009
Maxis, Emeryville
After the enormous success of The Sims2, I joined Will Wright's secret lab to work the high-concept game, SPORE. The game garnered enormous media attention for its scope and underlying technology. There, I designed a system of algorithmically generated planets and flora using a proprietary scripting system. I taught and lead a team of technical artists in creating the game's environments.
After Spore shipped in 2008, I spent a couple years working on add on releases.
I designed the "creepy and cute" procedural skins for the expansion pack of that name.
I designed a terrain editing engine for the "Galactic Adventures" expansion pack that allowed game players to create their own planets from scratch.
SimCity (2013): UX and UI Designer Director
2009 – june 2013
Maxis, Emeryville, CA
After Spore and its expansion packs were complete, I joined a tiny exploratory team to build out a "reboot" of the SimCity franchise. We worked secretly to design a new game from the ground up. We started from basic principles and completely rethought the technology, the look and feel and the way players would interact with the game.
As the concepts solidified the team grew, I took on the role of UX Director and ultimately lead a team of about five UI designers and five javascript programmers.
I design of the data visualization system that is tightly integrated in the game experience. The result was highly praised in the game press.
Source: his LinkedIn profile.
