The Sims 4 Creator Kits – Offical Info
Difference between Sims 4 Kits and Creator Kits
What’s the difference between these Creator Kits and the kits you’ve collaborated on with creators in the past?
The Sims Team : The Sims 4 Creator Kits mark the first time that a full collection of in-game assets have been crafted by a creator and officially published by The Sims development team.
This new type of official kit partners with creators from the custom content community to lead the creation and design of new in-game content. Creators have the freedom to pitch kit themes and create items that speak to what they want to see in-game. This content will be distributed via official channels and available to all players, including Simmers on console! This approach will allow all players to add even more variety to their game, and console players to enjoy new content from creators previously limited to PC and Mac players.
We know there may be some confusion between previous kits featuring community collaborations and this new process. Previous kits, like our most recent Storybook Nursery with Sixam, start with outreach to the potential collaborator, who then pitches their idea for their potential kit, and works with the The Sims team to finalize the design and theme. The Sims team then creates the items in-game to bring the vision to life.
We understand that not everyone may be familiar with–or interested in–creating in-game items, so collaborative opportunities will continue to exist as an avenue to work with Simmers who may have exciting ideas that reflect communal interests, but may not have the technical ability to see these ideas realized on their own.
The process of making The Sims 4 Creator Kits
The Sims Team: Each item that is created for a Creator Kit has a unique set of parts depending on whether it lives in the Create a Sim (CAS) or Build/Buy (BB) game mode. The inspiration for each item comes from the initial pitch, where our creators introduce their vision in the form of a mood board that tells the story, tone, and vision for a cohesive kit. This helps the The Sims team understand what the creator is trying to achieve, and what it would take to successfully support the creator’s vision.
After the pitch, creators submit a comprehensive list of all the items they want in this kit, and The Sims team then evaluates if each item can be supported within our current toolset. A template is then created from the The Sims team’s catalog of assets that serves as the foundation for the creator to build upon.
The creators are then able to use this template to create a 3D model, colors, textures, and swatches for their item, with the help of documentation and guidelines provided by The Sims team. These guidelines are more about performance functionality and less about artistic style, so players can use the items in the ways they would expect to in-game. For example, if there is a bookcase, Sims can pick a book from it and read, and that CAS clothing will support a variety of body types.
Once a creator submits all of these parts for each item, The Sims team carry out a series of tasks and tests with Quality Verification that helps us catch any issues before the item is ready to be released. This also allows The Sims team to maintain compatibility with all other content releases.
For BB assets, creators have to additionally write a description for each asset, which is eventually added to the game catalog and translated by EA into the 18 different languages TS4 supports.
The final step is prepping for publishing. The creators name their kit, write the descriptions for store pages, use an early build to capture screenshots, and create renders of objects that will end up on the front of the kit art (packaging). The Sims team works with the creator to ensure everything is approved, then polishes, localizes, and delivers the final artwork–fully bringing the creator’s vision to The Sims community. We’re continuously improving and refining our process based on feedback from our creators and collaborators to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience. The details of this process may look different in the future.
How much creative freedom does the creator have?
The Sims Team: Creator Kits are a partnership between the community creator and The Sims team. The idea and decision-making behind what to create, how it will look, and how to go about authoring it comes from the creators themselves. Creators propose and refine the idea for their kit, select the clothing and objects they want to create and what they’ll look like, and come up with the names and descriptions that you’ll read in-game. That creative freedom even extends to areas you might not expect, such as capturing the screenshots for their kit, arranging the cover art, and writing the description of the kit that appears in the marketplace.
Because we see Creator Kits as part of our overall kits lineup, The Sims team does help set certain standards and expectations with the intent of preserving creative freedom. For example, we do ask creators to regulate the volume of content they include, and we share performance criteria their items must meet to maintain the game’s stability for all players. We’re learning and growing from our experience with creators to refine the process for greater accessibility.
Our goal is to empower more creators to unleash their creativity and bring new ideas and styles to The Sims 4, including things that we at The Sims may have never chosen to create ourselves. Embracing those creative differences creates a clear path to more choice and new experiences for everyone who plays The Sims 4!
Creator Pick and Compensation
The Sims Team: The Sims community and our custom content creators are exceptionally talented – choosing who to work with was an incredibly difficult decision!
As integrating assets that are made outside of The Sims team is such a new process for us, we treated this first wave of Creator Kits as a pilot. We’ve been working with a pool of custom content creators who are known in The Sims community for their high quality creations, responsiveness to community reported issues, and who are in good standing with official current Mods and Game Updates Policy, which can be found here.
This group has been instrumental throughout the pilot to inform a creator-first strategy and allow our team to adapt to their feedback and continue to refine the experience. We wanted to understand their typical process of creation, while also ensuring that this experience would be valuable and rewarding for them to take part in. Throughout this process, all creators have been fairly financially compensated according to competitive market standards at every stage for their time, input, and expertise. This has been integral to this pilot program and reflects our values of ensuring equitable compensation as part of The Sims Creator Program.
The future of Sims 4 Creator Kits
Looking to the future, we’re excited to continue to explore new ways to work together with the community to shape the game into something that speaks to players across all walks of life! We’re hopeful that The Sims 4 Creator Kits will serve as another way to uplift the amazing work being done in our communities and let their creators reach a wider audience.
Don’t forget to check out The Sims 4 Sweet Slumber Party and Cozy Kitsch Creator Kits when they go live on November 14th.
