Blog Post

Wow, what an amazing couple of weeks! E3 is always a crazy time for us in The Sims Studio – but with a game as big as The Sims 4, that week in Los Angeles was an absolute blur. Over the last 7 years working in The Sims Studio, I can safely say that I’ve never had so much fun showing people a game as I just did with The Sims 4! The Sims demos are always a unique experience – because it’s a real live simulation – and we never quite know exactly how our Sims will react to the stories we’re telling. And this is even more true with our all new Sims in The Sims 4 – their unique personalities and rich emotions produced some absolutely hilarious, sad, and wild moments at E3 that were, quite frankly, unexpected and unplanned. Whether it was when a stinky Sim knocked over the trashcan and started rummaging through the trash while we were trying to show off one of our new Neighborhoods, or when a bride-to-be came into the gym absolutely distressed and crying while we we’re talking about the new Fitness Skill, the game itself showed off its magic without us prompting it.

And to be totally honest, this is why I am so excited about The Sims 4. For me, playing The Sims has always been about those special moments where something unexpected – something sad, hilarious, or intriguing – just happens. In The Sims 4, these moments have been taken to a whole new level! I’ve never felt so compelled to just sit back and watch what Sims are doing out in the neighborhood – they’re extremely expressive and I can’t help but wonder what each of their stories are. Did that bride in the gym get left at the altar? Was the stinky Sim looking for lost treasure in the garbage can? I cannot wait to see the stories you guys tell and encounter when the game launches in September.

Now I know you guys still have TONS of questions, and a few concerns as well, about this brand new Sims experience. I totally get it! Many of you have committed countless hours and feelings to your Sims over the last 14 years and you have the right to feel anxious about how this new game is different. So I wanted to spend some time clarifying some of the smaller (yet still important) details about the game – things that don’t often come out in big interviews or demos, but are still significant to any Sims experience:

•   First and foremost, you the player have complete control over your Sims – and now their emotions. Just like in previous Sims games, you’ll have the ability to select different levels of autonomy for your Sims so you get the level of control you’re most comfortable with. And rest assured, we’re doing an absolutely massive amount of tuning to make sure emotion gameplay enhances the experience for you storytellers and machinima artists, rather than creating a new obstacle.

•   Build Mode truly is the most powerful, and fun, Build Mode we’ve ever created. While it’s not possible for us to include every single feature and piece of content we added to The Sims 3 over the last 5 years, we’ve added features that you’ve asked for and that offer a whole new intuitive and fun way to build. These are features like Wall Height Adjustment, Dynamic Foundation Sizing, and Smart Windows! And though pool building won’t be available in September, we do have a new Fountain Tool so you can create sophisticated landscapes. Whether you were a novice builder in The Sims 3, or an experienced pro, I really think you’re going to love The Sims 4’s build mode.

•   When it comes to connecting with other players online – The Sims 4 is the game you want it to be. You can browse other players’ creations or share your own directly from the game to the all new Gallery, or you can turn it off with a click of a button. While we’d love for you to check out what the world of The Sims community has to offer (you make amazing things!), making the game that you want to play and giving you control is our priority.

•   We are also very excited about our new Create A Sim! You probably guess this since we’ve been showing it off everywhere. We’re particularly proud of our new Genetics system, where you can create relatives from any other Sim. It’s like a game in itself! As for ages, we have babies, children, teens, young adults, adults and elders. With our new personalities, you can really feel how their individuality plays out in the gameplay. We can’t wait for you to try it.

•   We also have beautiful Neighborhoods! Did you know that for the first time ever in The Sims, your Sims will be able to not only travel between Neighborhoods, but also between entire Worlds without having to start a new game!? This is something that I always wanted in The Sims 3, and I’m so excited to finally have it in The Sims 4. Neighborhoods and Worlds will be separated by a short load screen, but for the first time you’ll be able to live in one world and work (or play) in another! All of your Sim’s personality, accomplishments, and relationships stay with them as they travel around the best play-space we’ve ever created in a The Sims game.

I know that this quick blog can’t possibly answer all of your questions about TS4, but I hope it fills in some of the areas you’ve been wondering about. You can see we’ve made some key decisions to focus on new aspects of the game – things like our all new Sims, vibrant neighborhoods, and powerful creative tools – just a to name a few. And while we recognize that some of you will be disappointed that pools and toddlers won’t be available when The Sims 4 Base Game launches in September, you should know that we’re building an incredibly strong foundation that is capable of fulfilling every one of your desires in the years to come. The future of The Sims 4 is bright!

In the short time between now and September, I look forward to talking to you more and answering as many questions about The Sims 4 as possible. More importantly, I sincerely can’t wait for you to try what we’ve built and play out your stories in this brand new Sims universe.

ShackNews interviewed SimGuruAzure during E3. She revealed some cool new info and shared a really funny story that happened to her sims in The Sims 4!

Facts from the interview:

• Players can create memories by taking screenshots and their Sims can then go back and reminisce on them causing them to feel the same emotions as they did at the time 
• Sims uploaded to The Gallery will not keep memories but will keep careers and skills
• There is a music related skill.
• A smelly room/Sim can cause a moodlet that pushes your Sim to an uncomfortable emotion
• If good Sims are around evil Sims, it can make the good Sim feel sad
• Evil Sims get positive emotions from things that normal Sims would get negative emotions from
• The Grim Reaper can catch on fire, but cannot die

Thanks SimNation for collecting the facts!

IGN recently released a video with @Leahbjackson  interviewing @SimGuruGraham about the genetics tool in CAS.

In CAS the genetics tool is located under Add A Sim>Genetics Tool.

The genetics panel is very simple to use. Everything is in plain view and easy to maneuver.

First and for most, we have 3 choices on how we want to play with genetics. Do we want to make a child or children? Maybe we would rather have our parents join our family! Or, we could add a sibling or two, maybe even a twin? Making any of these sims is as easy as choosing the correct selection from the drop down menu.

When making a child for your current sim you can choose to make a child or a teen sim.

Creating a child from your current sim can happen many ways. You can choose to use only your sim, you can add in another sim, whether it be from your family or another sim in the game, or you can have the game randomize an unknown sim. No matter which way you choose to make a child sim, it will retain the aspects of your current sim.

Another piece of info about retaining aspects is, if you choose to work on a legacy family, you will continuously see aspects from sims in your family moving down the line of new sims. Graham says they really focused on the legacy part of the game for the genetics, as well as having babies in-game.

Aside from making a child sim you can make sibling sims, as noted above. I really enjoyed this option because, it makes CAS a lot faster when making a sibling only household. You don’t have to go in and add a copy and then tweak to your desire. You can simply click Add Sim> genetics Tool> Sibling.

Here in the sibling choice you have many options. Child sibling, elder sibling, same age sibling… But what stood out to me the most was making a twin sibling. You simply click “Randomize Twin” and the game generates a sim that looks very similar to your sim with very little effort of your part!

Of course with all of these choices you can go in and randomize to your hearts content. You can randomize all parts of a sim, or only a few.

You also have the freedom to go in and customize your sim the same way you would if you created him or her from scratch.

So, now that you have created these new sims, what happens to them? They enter your household, like any other sim you create. You are free to do with them as you please….within reason, of course.

So, the genetics tool has a lot to offer, and will make from some great and diverse game play. You might want to start planning simmers!

(IGNs Interview)

Here is a list of responses from @SimGuruGraham on Twitter about The Sims 4.

• There are loading screens between lots and neighborhoods.
• Your sims will be able to visit any lot at any time.
• As for right now, NPC jobs will only be available to NPC’s. E.G: Maid, mailman, gardener, etc.
• The action queue will stay the same but some actions can happen at the same time as others. (Multitasking).
• Colors will not affect emotions, as it always has been.
• There is absolutely NO monthly subscription.
• You will be able to change between multiple outfits as well as go back into CAS at any time.

• Are teens the same height as adults??

o   Yes. Teens have thinner frames than their adult self, less curves on their body, and a bit of youthful pudge on their face.

• Beside tablets, are desktop and laptops be appearing in The Sims 4? Also can you name a cool interaction with it?

o    Desktop computers are in the game as well. It has a TON of interactions with different fun videos. I personally enjoy trolling other Sims by sending them chain letters.

• Please can you tell us whether mirrors have realistic reflections in #TheSims4 ?

o    Yup, nice reflections on the mirrors. Also has graphics options to adjust the reflection quality as well.

• From the prints I saw, is there reflections on Water? It feels very clay on your prints, is it really it?

o    Oh no, we absolutely have real reflections.

• Do windows have the same reflection?

o    Windows have more basic reflections since you’re looking through them.

• Can we change graphics settings on the fly without having to exit the game?

o   It depends on which setting. Some yes, some no. Certain changes to shaders require restarting to take effect.

• Do you know anything about The Sims 4 being translated to European Portuguese? If it’s not, then why?

o   Sorry, I’m not involved in localization; those decisions are made outside the dev team. We aren’t doing a Portuguese translation.

• Can you say if there is private schooling?

o   Sims go to a regular elementary and high school, similar to the way adults will go to their jobs.

• How does the process of creating life stages begin, and then result in 1 of 7 life stages incomplete? I just can’t comprehend how that happens? Shouldn’t the Sims have all been done “together” so to speak? This isn’t like leaving out pools to prioritize other stuff. This is an actual life stage that’s missing, which in *my own* opinion, feels like something that should have been completed in the early stages of development, or at least with the other life stages.Was there some kind of “technical” reasoning behind it? I’m quite curious.

o    It’s an interesting design question for sure. From my experiences on Sims 3 and now Sims 4, most of the age groups are fairly isolated from each other and are developed that way. The youngest ages require a bit more design consideration as they rely on other Sims for their care. Obviously younger ages need entirely unique animations and clothing created for them as well. We try and build a different experience for each age, while also considering how what a Sim does at a younger age contributes to the following one. On the subject of adding more ages to an established game, it’s not overly difficult, it’s just very time consuming to generate the necessary amount of content to make a compelling experience. For example, the interactions and activities of a child vs adult should all be inherently different from each other so that you have fun and relatable activities, as well as unexpected moments in each stage in life. When adding each age, you consider what the iconic moments are that define it, and translate that to fun gameplay.

• What is the main difference between the Sims 3 and the Sims 4 that allows such expansion other than the new engine? I mean, how is it different than ts3? What changes were made to the way you built the engine? Did ya learn a lot from TS3?

o    I’m not a tech guy so I’ll give a relatively un-techy answer – I wouldn’t be a good person to comment on the differences in the engine. One of the really big changes with Sims 4 and something that was an early directive for the game was to put powerful tools in designer’s hands so that they could focus on adding content and increasing the depth of the content in the game without needing an engineer to implement or iterate on new functionality and new interactions every time we wanted something. The tool they use – internally it’s called Object Editor – allows them to select from thousands of variables to piece together all of the available assets and churn out content. For example – it’s a big part of why this is easily the most in-depth socialization system in a Sims game to date.

o   Yes, there’s a robust new autosave system that functions separately from the manual saves that you’re already familiar with.  (I’m going to assume this person asked if there was going to be an autosave function).

• Will there be weather in the base game?

o   No.

• Will there be basements in base game?

o   No basements in base game. Similar to Sims 3. Nothing about foundations prevents us from adding them someday though.

• I really like to take lots of screenshots, will there be something like a scrapbook in TS4?

o   Yup. You can view your screenshots in-game (or out), you can also turn any screenshot into a memory for a Sim.

• Because of no pools, does that mean no swimwear or can sims swim in the ocean?

o   There won’t be any swimming or swimwear in the base game.

•  I got a question. I don’t know if you can answer because it’s a bit technical.

  I guess you won’t have any problem when it comes to pools. But my question is if the game is built in a way that the team would be able to add new life stages (ages) via add-ons (updates or expansion packs). I’m not asking if you’ll do so, but if that’d be technically possible for The Sims 4.

  I’ve seen many features from past base games that have never been modified, maybe because touching that thing would imply re-adjusting many other things. And that’s what worries me.

o    There’s nothing preventing adding additional ages as the game evolves. CAS is a good example of a feature that is not technically feasible to add post launch.

• Will we be able to do those “soft movements” machinists use in ts4 like in the other games? Ok, in the teaser for example, while Sims interact there’s a movement in the camera in a smooth way.

o   Those are accomplished in our trailers via pre-set camera positions – yes, Sims 4 has those.

• Is the game going to be in Hungarian language?

o   I asked around – unfortunately The Sims 4 will not be localized in Hungarian.

Please Note: This list will be updated with new facts once they are confirmed by Graham.

SimTimes.de provided 4 New Screens + a Render we saw on PC Gamer Magazine’s preview of The Sims 4. The big difference is that these screens are now in HQ!

Iraida Fustii posted a screenshot on Twitter with a caption saying:

This is the surprise my buddies sent to me, they made me in Sims4. They’re testing the game. I’m waiting for september.

The tweet got quickly deleted, but people over at Mod the Sims were quick enough to save the screenshot and the caption!

After reading yesterdays post from arstechnica.com, I have learned a few new things about what we can expect from The Sims 4. The major thing that stood out to me was the new building options. Remember how in The Sims 3 you have to go to a separate window to download houses or lots built by other players, known as The Exchange? Well, according to arstechnica.com there will be an in-game browser that will allow the player to search for player made content and the drag and drop into the game. The user will also have the option to choose single rooms, furnished and unfurnished, instead of the whole lot. This greatly intrigues me as an avid builder in The Sims games.

Of course, there is the previously stated news that you can grab, drag, and drop whole rooms. Instead of the more unconventional choice of destroying and rebuilding option.

I am greatly looking forward to building in The Sims 4. It seems as though the creators have really upped their game and made changes that are worth it, to build mode.

Here’s a quick and dirty screenshot on my dev computer. Alice is chatting while working out at the gym.

–SimGuruGrant

Simfans.de shared with us these gorgeous Willow Creek concepts in High Quality!  🙂

Honeywell put together a list of new and interesting info from PC Games‘ Preview of The Sims 4. This preview was not made during E3, but after PC Games’ visit to Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores.

Please note that the text below was translated from Deutsch to English using Google Translate, so there may be a few grammar errors.

CONVERSATION

• Large number of topics; compared to a graphic adventure.

VENUES/NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVITIES

• Park, playground (with a pirate ship), library, gym (where an elder Sim died of a heart attack), museum and bar are all mentioned.
• You can tend the Community Garden, pick fruit trees, and fish in the canal and then use those fresh ingredients to cook meals.

SOCIAL EVENTS

• Party, Dates and Weddings
• Unlock optional goals and rewards
• In addition to guests you have the option to invite an entertainer, a catering service and a bartender.

ANIMATIONS

• 10,000 animation clips
• “There is no maximum number of concurrent actions.  Your Sims, for example, can now be in the gym running on a treadmill while talking at the same time and watch TV” —Marion Gothier

MUSIC

• 65 hours of music in 8 variants
• Aproximately 3 dozen songs
• Radio stations include:  alternative, blues, electronic and pop.

Via PC Games!

Via PCGames

Source: SimCookie

Jeux Video visited Electronic Arts in Redwood Shores to learn more about The Sims 4. Some info they mentioned are the stuff we already know, but they did include 2 new informations about in-game music of TS4:

• There are 25 music composed in Simlish.
• Music will be softer in character creation and more rhythmic when choosing clothing.

They also included this new CAS image!

Thanks SimCookie for the find!

SimGuruGraham decided to answer some questions about The Sims 4 on Twitter. We summarized all of his tweets into a bullet list:

• You can delete all the Sims living in the world. The game will continue to randomly generate other Sims that come visit though.
•  For visitors (townies), the game will first attempt to pull Sims from an editable list of Sims that don’t live in any world before it randomly generates additional Sims. Theoretically you could populate that list with a bunch of your Sims and it would never need to pull in any random Sims as visitors.
• There’s a little trick you can do in Sims 4 that lets you lock your camera to follow a NPC. It’s fun to do on occasion.
• Yup the censor grid is making a return. Just small enough to watch your Sim poop while reading their tablet if you’re into that.
• You can change between multiple outfits at any time, or take your Sim back into CAS to plan new outfits.
• There isn’t a stylist career in the base game. When you go back into CAS it’s just for changing things like clothes, makeup, etc.
• Moodlets are back – they help you understand why your Sim is in a particular emotion. They aren’t strictly positive/negative now.
• Wishes are gone. They’ve been replaced with Whims (similar concept, but a bit more fleeting and moment to moment than a wish).
•  There are no “neutral” moodlets; every moodlet contributes to an emotion. When Sims have their needs get low for example, they get moodlets that push them into the uncomfortable emotion. The traditional need bars are there as well.
• The main difference is you don’t promise a whim to a Sim. They naturally come and go based on what you’re currently doing, so they help provide some direction and give you more ideas about what additional possibilities there are for your Sim.
• And for longer term life direction, there are now aspirations instead of lifetime wishes. Aspirations provide more steps along the way rather than one ultimate goal, and you can change your aspiration to something else anytime you like.
• You can’t lock a whim.