Source: http://www.gamebreaker.tv/pc-games/director-of-simcity-leaves-maxis-to-start-jellygrade/
Ocean Quigley Says Goodbye to Maxis and Hello to Jellygrade
EA is out and Jellygrade is in! The creative director of SimCity has announced plans to leave Maxis and he is taking his team with him. Lead architect Andrew Willmott and lead gameplay engineer Dan Moskowitz have ventured into indie territory with him in hopes of cracking into the mobile market. Their new company is called Jellygrade.
These are the guys that are responsible for SimCity, SimCity 4, Spore and The Sims2. So what kind of game do you think they will make? A sim game, of course! This time they are reaching way, way back to the literal dawn of time… Earth time anyway. “We’re making a simulation about the dawn of life on earth; about lava, water, rock and the emergence of the first primordial creatures.”
The Jellygrade guys have set up a tumblr page with a few samples of concept art. In case there were any doubts, this game seems pretty far away from being released. The official Jellgrade web site doesn’t have much more than a logo and a greeting: “Hi there! We’re a few recovering ex-AAA game developers, now looking to make the kinds of games we love on mobile…We’re hard at work on our first project, and should have something to show soon.”
Quigley has been all over twitter answering as many questions as he can about the separation and his upcoming game. I know you guys love your PC games but you might need to bust out the iPad for the Jellygrade joint. “We’re starting off on the iPad with a fundamentally new simulation engine – I can’t wait to start showing it off.”
Though everything he has said publicly has been very kind about Maxis and EA, it’s hard to think of SimCity without remembering the mess that happened at launch regarding DRM. When asked, he is quick to point out that his affiliation with the gaming behemoth has been severed:
The mobile market is hot hot hot right now and Jellygrade is composed of very talented sim game makers. This could be the start of something pretty cool.