#vertexnormal

also why do you personally think the tone and vibe was never like that generation again? it seemed like they were going for a soap opera ish story - Answer by Michael Long (vertexnormal)

The Sims 2 was just an evolution of The Sims 1, same lead character artist. It was cartoony because we added Create A Sim that allowed for editing sims and the technology and techniques at the time were pretty limited. It was also just the art style and direction. EDIT: In general it because more cartoony because we went full 3D and texture memory was our biggest graphical constraint.

The Sims 1 was meant, or ended up, being a critique on consumer culture. It was pretty silly, but the idea of buying a bigger TV so you would be happier was kindof the point/joke. The Sims 2 lost that critique and became more about enabling people to tell the stories they wanted to tell, and people wanted/liked strange and funny stuff.

I don't think the Sims 3 really had any strong identity, the weight of the franchise just meant we all wanted to iterate on 2 and make something bigger and better.

By the time Sims 4 rolled around I think they lost the plot entirely and in some ways it was driven by it needing to make money. Mind you the people working on it love the franchise and the players, it's more of the vibe coming from new management and EA.

I always liked to add references to tv and movies I loved but I never really got to do it in the Sims 1. I'm the guy who added the Pink Floyd pig to the Sims 2 neighborhood though, I think that was my favorite. There are lots of references in SimCity 4k and 2013 though.

I can't remember the expansion pack but I remember we added these flame jets on the ground, maybe it was TS2 Night Life? We were doing a gameplay review and it was our first time seeing them in action. The first pass they were not properly tuned - they were literal death machines. A whole room full of sims charred in seconds. It was carnage, it was hilarious, it was obviously inappropriate and I was sad when they fixed them.

☁️ too much clouds is never enough ☁️

Answer by Michael Long:

It didn't happen as much on Sims 1 but on Sims 2 and Sims 3 a lot of this stuff we just made up because we felt like it.

Yes. I made that. I was the sole artist responsible. It was always fun picking which items show up in neighborhood view and those that don’t. That deck chair took 20 minutes of my life 20 years ago.

I was a 25 year old with the best job in the world working with my heroes. Now I'm almost 50 and looking back wistfully.

My favorite thing is that when people ask what I do for a living the conversations goL

Me: I make (or used to make) video games

Them: I don't play video games, what did you work on?

Me: The Sims and SimCity

Them: Omg! I spent hours of my life playing that game or alternately, Them: Omg! My daughter plays that game you would be her hero.

There is a huge population of GenX where going to the 'computer lab' at school meant playing computer games and the ones we all played were SimCity and Oregon Trail because they were about the only school approved games out there.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/sims2help/s/hccqEik4JG

If the game weren't such a christmas tree of engineering compromises and hacked together bits the neighborhoods would be HUGELY improved if they ever remastered the game.

We had the guy from Oingo Boingo in the office all the time, you might know him as Danny Elfman... he went on to be really famous for working with Tim Burton and a bunch of other movie stuff.

The first time I actually played it was in my cubicle at Maxis in 2000, I had to research it for a new game we were working on SimsVille.