SimCity leads leave Maxis to form new independent studio

Three of SimCity's lead developers — creative director Ocean Quigley, lead architect Andrew Willmott, and lead gameplay engineer Dan Moskowitz — have left Electronic Arts and Maxis to form their own independent studio called Jellygrade.

"We were lead developers on SimCity, SimCity 4, Spore and The Sims 2. We love making simulations," Quigley said on Twitter. "We're making a simulation about the dawn of life on earth; about lava, water, rock and the emergence of the first primordial creatures."

Concept images of the new game have been posted at the new studio's Tumblr page. Quigley said it's of a "similar subject matter" as SimLife but that it's a "radically different simulation." The trio is first focusing on building a new simulation engine for doing "physical simulation of elements and objects."

As for platforms, Jellygrade will first start out on tablets, "but we're hoping to be on PC in time," Quigley left off.

[Twitter]