EA might bring Cinematic Storytelling to The Sims

The Sims is working on adding significant new Cinematic Story aspects!

Now, before we begin with this post let me state the obvious – nothing is officially confirmed and it could take some time before we see the development of these features come to life.

The official EA Careers website has published a new Career Opportunity for the Maxis Studio. The latest published opportunity is looking for a Storyboard Artist who will help visualize everyday life moments into a video game. We of course presume it’s for The Sims considering that described scenarios that they’re looking for fit perfectly into gameplay and features that you would expect from The Sims.

The initial description of this job opportunity requires for a Storyboard Artist to visualize body language, relationship dynamics and timing and spacing between important characters.

Check out the full description below:

We’re looking for a gifted visual storyteller to help us visualize our designs, gameplay experiences, and technology solutions through animatics and storytelling. Maxis creates life simulations that tell stories through characters in every-day or extravagant situations. As such, we need someone who can help us explore body language, visualize relationship dynamics and play with timing and spacing between characters.

We’re interested to know:

• How do a couple watch a romantic movie together when one is upset with the other?
• How does a husband engage in a conversation with his wife, while he almost breaks a new record on his favorite video game?
• How does a family cook together in the same kitchen while carrying out a conversation?

Our ideal candidate is someone who is thrilled to contribute visually and share ideas, in a collaborative environment with several disciplines, and who loves telling stories about every-day life.

The responsibilities for this opportunity share more about the potential Story-driven features for The Sims. The Storyboard Artist will have to bring to life characters with emotion, humor and dynamic actions and gestures for each character. Check out the full list of responsibilities below:

Responsibilities:

• Creatively tackle challenges in story and explore ways in which to bring characters to life, visualize game dynamics and support story expectations.
• Brainstorm and create storyboard panels against a specified vision or problem space.
• Produce illustrations and sketches evoking the project’s style and aesthetic.
• Apply emotion and humor to characters.
• Apply dynamic action and exaggerated gestures.
• Work within staging and composition of the scene.
• Emulate character designs, from our character team, within boards.
• Bring life to each character and emphasize on their personas.
• Translate storyboards into Animatic sequences that highlight and bring the characters to life.
• Edit and refine the timing of Animatic sequences to maximize emotional impact and convey appropriate audience response.
• Partner with peers from different disciplines to understand challenges and suggest improvements.
• Team up with creative supervisors on deliverable goals within the limitations of the story/script.

The Storyboard Artist will also have to bring in some examples and sketches of given scenarios, including:

Qualifications:

• Excellent foundation in art production, and experienced in developing drawings and sketches that demonstrate:
• Characters that portray emotion, humor, and appeal.
• Clear storytelling with action, mechanics, and interaction.
• Expert sense of camera, staging, perspective, and composition skills.
• Expert sense of anatomy, dynamic motion posing and exaggerated gestures.
• A high level of experience with digital editing software
• Experience in hands-on timing and editing of focused animatics to create lively and dynamic story sequences that inspire gameplay implementation. For example:
• A conversation between multiple characters
• A dinner sequence involving an extended family
• A lively sidewalk scene outside a store

So, what does this all mean for The Sims?

Last year in March we published an article how EA is planning Story-driven and Narrative Features for The Sims. Their job opportunity looking for a Senior Narrative Designer described that The Sims project that they’re working on is going to have a “narrative” aspect.

It’s been a while since this job opportunity was published and Maxis now finally has its Senior Narrative Designer, considering they now want to visualize and bring these Story-Driven aspects of the game to life.

This part is purely speculative as we don’t have any official information or confirmation yet – but all this preparation and development hints to features and game modes that we could expect from the next Generation Sims Game. Or as we call it (at least for now) – The Sims 5.

The Sims 4 already has its Scenarios which, compared to what EA is working on here, is nothing alike. Of course keep in mind that there are multiple studios within EA and Maxis working on multiple projects. The Sims 4 still has years of content planned out!

We’ve published plenty of news findings and reports on the next Generation Sims Game, including an official confirmation from EA’s CEO that the game is in the works. For more information catch up on all The Sims 5 News!