Current TV Taps ‘SimCity’ Creator To Create Interactive ‘Bar Karma’

Current TV announced today that it is working with Will Wright, the world-renowned video game designer behind SimCity and The Sims (one of the most successful gaming franchised of all time), to produce an interactive web series that will give audiences the ability to create and control the storyline and plot development.

Bar Karma, which the series is tentatively entitled, will be created at “Current TV’s Creation Studios,” a virtual television studio where users will participate in the development of creative and technical aspects of production, and will communicate directly with the show’s producers. The series is built upon technology that Wright has developed exclusively for Current TV.

“Current is taking original programming to a new level. Bar Karma will fuse the power of television, the internet and mobile devices and provide viewers the ability to truly create and control a television series,” stated Mark Rosenthal, CEO of Current TV. Current TV has tapped some big guns for the project; Bar Karma co-creator Albie Hecht, former President of Spike TV and current President of Entertainment at Nickelodeon, will executive produce under his Wordwide Biggies digital entertainment studio. David Cohn, former General Manager of MTV2, will serve as the Executive in Charge of the network.

“I have always been excited by innovation and what we are creating is unlike anything on television,” said Hecht. “The technology that Will has invented empowers viewers to participate, but also provides direct communication to me and my production team. We will be taking our cues from the viewers, working with them and then quickly producing high quality, original content. This is truly a paradigm-changing project that will showcase the creativity of the general public in shaping a television series.”

“Bar Karma is a culmination of over a year’s work and I am very excited to see the results as we join together not only gamers and television viewers, but actually create a community that will be empowered with a professional production team,” stated Wright. “To develop and lead an initiative like this fulfills a long held passion for television, and I am thrilled that Current would provide the resources and creative support to bring this to air.”

The series is expected to premiere on Current TV in early 2011.