Building SimCity

“In his new book Building SimCity, Gingold meticulously describes the history of the people and ideas that shaped simulation games. Gingold’s book recognizes that games are rarely the result of a single person’s efforts. Building SimCity includes the collaborators—programmers, artists, interface designers, writers, and business partners—who helped make the game an unlikely commercial success. It also situates SimCity in the wider context of 20th-century computing, design, and education.”—Los Angeles Review of Books“The triumph of Building SimCity is that it lays bare the illusive nature of simulation: that although many small parts make up a simulation, once we are through its portal, the simulation of these many different parts takes on a cultural life and reality of its own.”—Technology and Culture

Chaim Gingold is a designer and theorist whose work has been featured in Wired, CNN, and the New York Times. He worked closely with Will Wright on Spore and designed the Spore Creature Creator.