Maxis job mentions "triple-A simulation" game
Spore-ing.
Spore and Darkspore developer Maxis has advertised for help building an "upcoming triple-A simulation-style game".
"Good knowledge" of PS3 and Xbox 360 rendering architectures is considered a "plus". Creating graphics that work on a "wide variety of PCs" is considered a "duty".
Those are the clues gleaned from a Graphics Engineer job advert on Gamasutra (spotted by Superannuation).
Maxis dropped off the radar after delivering Darkspore for PC in April last year. Darkspore was an action RPG like Diablo, welded with the dizzying character customisation of Spore.
Eurogamer's Darkspore review dished out 5/10, our autopsy concluding that the game "felt like it had its heart surgically removed". And not in a cool way like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
A console version of Darkspore was whispered about in the earlier half of 2011, but nothing ever materialised.
Maxis' credits stretch further back than Spore, of course - to the glory days of SimCity and The Sims. (Development of The Sims was handed to a dedicated studio in 2006.)
Maxis founder and iconic video game maker Will Wright left the studio in 2009 - Spore being his last major work.
Wright now runs Stupid Fun Club - a company that conjures new ideas for entertainment.
