E3 2011: Will Wright's next game to have a cyberpunk vibe?

By Will Porter for computerandvideogames.com

Gaming's great and good were out in force last night in Hollywood, where industry luminary Will Wright spoke about his career, his games and his inspirations.

Called 'A Life in Pixels' Wright's informal chat covered such diverse topics as his first game Raid on Bungeling Bay, how SimCopter was a forerunner to the modern GTA games and an in-depth discussion about Igor Sikorsky - the inventor of the helicopter.

He also briefly (very briefly) mentioned "one of the game projects" he's currently working on is inspired by science-fiction author Bruce Sterling. Who hell Bruce Sterling? Well, only one of the founders of cyberpunk. The story in question, 'Maneki Neko', deals with a futuristic economy where the exchange of cold-hard cash is replaced by people doing favours for each other - which could play out nicely on social networks don't you think?

Will the game ever see the light of day? Who can say. Then again, given that SimCity was similarly based on a hard science fiction story ('The 7th Sally' by Stanislaw Lem, who also wrote Solaris) perhaps this won't be the last we hear of it...

For a the full run-down on Wright's BAFTA talk visit our good friends over at PCGamer.com.