ComputerAndVideoGames.com interviews The Sims 2 Associate Producer, Destry Davison.
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Sims 2: exclusive interview
EA reveals its true follow-up to the devastatingly successful series
With The Sims, EA seemed to be putting together an entertaining-if-you-like-that-sort-of-thing Little Computer People remake. Which happened to be a ridiculous amount of people's sort of thing. With The Sims 2, it's almost as if the developer has decided to do its level best to simulate a heightened version of real life. DNA, new generations, character traits - it's downright scary.
Destry Davison, associate producer on the title, tries to convince us that this is even better than the real thing...
Okay, so what have you guys done with the sequel?
Davison: First up, there's the face tool. This is what users will use to create the Sims that they want to have in their world. It's a customisation tool. You can create a huge variety of different types.
In the Sims 2 you have genetics, so traits are passed on from one generation of Sims to another. So genetic factors are things like hair colour, eye colour. You can give people different hairstyles, or you can go deeper. We have different nationalities that you can blend, or you can just select an archetype Sim and not mess with it.
But you can take it even further - maybe you don't like your model's nose, you can take that nose and change it. Or you can add more subtle changes, like the way someone's eyebrows arch. You can up them, tilt them down a little, you can lower lip thickness; you have a lot of control.
So then you can pick a male and a female Sim, pair them together and see what their offspring will look like. You can see not only what they look like as kids, but as they grow up as teens, and as adults, and you can see the way the parents' features, skin tone etc. are reflected in the child. Plus there's some fun characters in there, some of these we've drawn up resemble Spock, Mr T, etc.
Another thing we've done is added custom content. So other people can create characters and you can pull them in. So maybe someone's built an alien - you want to breed that alien with our demon figure, you're going to come up with some pretty strange offspring.
So you can see there are all sorts of possibilities; you can build a Sim take on your family, Sim takes on celebrities - we might actually ship this tool early, so people can build their Sims ahead of release, so that when they get the game they're all ready to go.
There's also going to be more customisation with what we're calling design mode, where you can select the couch that you have. Maybe you have a brown leather couch and you want a black leather one, so be it, you can change to a black leather, or maybe a corduroy [Let's not get bogged down in materials here guys]. So instead of having a brand new object, you just reupholster it.
It's a sandbox experience. We create some boundaries, but basically it's pretty much your game to play the way you want to play it.
It seems like it's becoming so sophisticated that, in a way, it's almost disturbing. Sims get old - so presumably at some stage they're going to die. There's almost room for some kind of emotional attachment...
Davison: Correct. That's a good reason to want to carry on your genes - when your Sims die you get their inheritants. We are talking about putting a mode in where you can turn that off, so that if you want to play it the old Sims way, you can.
But do that and there will be a lot of the gameplay happenings that you'll miss, taking your Sims through their career and their life.
So into the game and right off the bat you can see the new 3D engine; you have free camera, camera rotation, just a much more detailed landscape, three storeys to a house. You'll still go to downtown types of blocks to buy groceries, and other things.
The other thing that we've introduced is the idea of life-score. Sims have different life-scores where you have Marty, say, and his brother Bernie who I really didn't pay that much attention to, so he has a low life-score, sits around a lot, not very active.
Whereas Marty I paid more attention to when he was a child; I made sure he was able to walk, potty-trained him, worked him through the different life moments, so his life-score's much higher.
So if I take Marty, he has a charm interaction 'cause he's a high life-score Sim. You can match them up with these two girls at a party who also both have high life-scores, so they're more attracted to Marty - he's kind of a player. So Marty's chatting to the girls, having a fine old time, while Bernie's over here on the couch, eating pizza.
We're kind of sympathising with Bernie right now.
Davison: I like Bernie the best, too. But Bernie doesn't have too much charm, so let's see how he does with the ladies. He's kinda sleazy, it doesn't go so well.
So anyway, you can crank the party up a notch and take it outside to the hot tub - you've got Bernie and Marty in there, so now we can invite the girls to join us.
So watching this demo, you can see that Sims will look at each other, and show awareness of The Sims around them. That's one thing we've implemented, The Sims are much more aware of their environment and the people around them.
So you can try to get a little cuddle with one of the girl Sims - is Marty gonna be successful? 'Course he is. The other girl isn't too happy about that though, because she liked Marty too. We've added facial animations to the game, so you can see her glare at the other girl.
And of course, Bernie's still not a hit with the ladies; but you can take him out of the tub, back into the house, get him to do a little work-out. It's a little easier than real life; have Bernie workout for a few seconds on the mini-gym and he comes out with rippling muscles which of course the girls can't resist.
But there's all kinds of options, obviously all kinds of things you can do - you can even sit in your bed eating potato chips, watching TV.
Art imitating life. So when they kind of like... have sex, what is it, tastefully done?
Davison: You know, we have to pass the ratings board because we have such a wide audience. So we can't get too steamy. Under the covers, tastefully done, that kind of thing.
You see now how everyone's left the hot tub but this girl? Now there's a thunderstorm brewing and before you know it, watch out, she's hit by a bolt of lightning. So there's funny stuff in there too.
So that's it, the different life-scores shape your character, the genetics, and mainly playing your Sims through the different ages.
So we've seen the Sims at play there, but presumably work is also a factor?
Davison: Yeah. The new parts are that having elders and teens, they both get jobs. So having an elder is a bonus actually, because they're bringing in a pension usually, so they can take care of house chores, watch the children, and still bring in money. There's advantages and disadvantages; it just adds that much more gameplay.
So how long does the lifespan of a Sim go on for in a game?
Davison: The lifespan will vary based upon age-range, and also on how you treat your Sims. We're still in the tuning stage of how long each life-span will be, so it'll take us playing it and playing it to really nail down what we think is the right amount of time.
So you could have ancestors going back years...
Davison: There are certain rules that we've set - we want grandparents to be able to meet their grandchildren, so there's certain things that we'll have to play with to make sure that it plays right. And motives will change too; they'll be based upon your age range. So toddlers won't have nearly as many motives as older Sims.
So are we right in thinking you don't really control The Sims as such - you make a decision and then The Sims react accordingly?
Davison: In a sense, but you do control them in that you guide them to do what you want them to. You can just let the game run and they will choose autonomously and do things, or you can actually take charge and direct your Sims.
But with the life-scores, you can really tour the deviant low life-scoring Sims and live that lifestyle, or you can take the high road and be smart and arty and cultural.
We've seen the high and low life-scores depicted in very broad strokes, but is there room to be more subtle than that?
Davison: Sure, we bring the sandbox of tools, and it's up to you what you want to do with those tools. they'll push towards certain interactions, but it's really all about how you guide them...
