Official Maxis website reveals that “Project Dolores” is in the works!
EA and Maxis are picking up the pace with running multiple franchises. According to their Maxis Careers website, a brand new game is in the works – codenamed Project Dolores.
Here’s everything we know so far about this standalone IP and what the new game could entail:
Table of Contents
First listing of Project Dolores
Step aside Project Rene – there’s another Maxis video game waiting to be announced! The first listing of Project Dolores has appeared on a job listing for a Technical Director on the official Maxis careers website.
The job position mentions a new video game title called “Project Dolores” as of now. Here’s what the listing has mentioned in regards to the game and what they’re looking for in the next Technical Director:
Role Expectations
Lead the technology strategy, development and live operations of Project Dolores by working with the GM, Tech Art Director, TDs, Creative director & engineers.
Partner with engineering people managers to guide and nurture growth of engineers in the team.
Partner with the game’s Technical Leadership group to define and implement strategic goals and milestones, establish best practices, and promote the core development values of the engineering team.
Work with Production, Development Directors, and other disciplines leads to scope tasks and input requirements.
Work with EA central teams to adopt shared technology and influence their roadmaps with Dolores’ needs.
Create and adjust technical decisions and roadmap priorities for the game, using your technical expertise to draw out not only the WHAT & WHEN, but the WHY for the roadmap.
Provide technical mentorship and guidance to the engineering team.
Be a hands-on participant in architecture/design for our hardest technical challenges.
Review completed engineering deliverables before release.
Collaborate with broader team partners (design, art, XD, and so on) to ensure that engineering interests and values are represented and maintained through the course of development, and that features are being developed with Tech capabilities and performance limitations in mind.
Identify, manage, and drive to completion, risks and mitigations for the various game systems and backend services on the project.
Perform research to acquire new knowledge necessary to perform assigned tasks and maintain the technological evolution of the project.
Gain depth of knowledge of The Sims and EA’s current game technology.
Own the hiring process for the game’s engineering team by identifying skill gaps and work with talent acquisition and people managers to find and recruit candidates.
What does this mean?
It’s been mentioned a couple of times within this job listing that Project Dolores is ramping up development through a new team including a General Manager, Art Director, Engineers and more.
It hasn’t been clarified whether or not Project Dolores is related to The Sims Franchise at all or not. Among the last points in the listing is a mention of gaining “depth of knowledge of The Sims and EA’s current game technology”. Meaning that the game could either be inspired by The Sims in game mechanisms, have similar life simulation aspects or just be a completely different game.
We first reported in September of 2021 about a new game called “Lost Astral”. A video game name under the Maxis game publisher that accidentally got leaked during the Nvidia hack that year. On top of that one of the developers accidentally revealed some first details about this game they worked on, which looked quite similar to Lost Astral.
Now, is Project Dolores just Lost Astral in disguise or a completely different game? Time will tell, and hopefully EA will make a similar announcement with this game like they did with Project Rene.
Current Projects at Maxis
Maxis has expanded over the last few years, covering new offices across the globe that employ people both remotely and in-office. There are currently multiple teams working on several different games, including:
The Sims 4 – United States, Canada, Europe
Project Rene / The Sims 5 – United States, Canada, Europe
Project Dolores – United States, Canada
The Sims 4 series seems to have picked up with game production thanks to the team from Maxis Europe. Project Rene seems to have gone quiet for a few months when it comes to official development news.
Meanwhile, Project Dolores is waiting to be uncovered. If anything, we certainly know that this new game is going to be a simulation.
What do you think the next game from EA and Maxis is all about? Let us know your guesses in the comments down below!
Reticulating splines as a webmaster for Sims Community over the last 11 years. You can find me here writing articles and doing reports on your favorite life sim games, among other things!
