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Sims Nieuws
17 jun 2004 - 23:20
17 jun 2004 - 23:10
What are aspirations? How many hats is enough for a Producer on The Sims 2? Find out the answers to these questions and more!
Hello! What's your name and what do you do on The Sims 2?
My name is Jonathan Knight. I'm a Producer on The Sims 2, working mainly in two areas: first, the new Aspirations feature, which involves a new simulator whereby Sims tell you what they Want and Fear (like, I want a baby, or I fear an alien abduction). Achieving Wants drives up your Aspiration Score, which unlocks rewards, and keeps your Sims happy and living long. Secondly, I'm supervising the shipping neighborhoods, which are all the pre-built houses, Sims, and stories that we're shipping with the game.
How did you become an Assistant Producer for The Sims 2?
After graduate school, I got my start in the industry as an assistant producer at Interplay on a big interactive movie. I worked on a lot of different games over the years, but about 3 years ago I was lucky enough to land an opportunity at Maxis, which is a studio I'd admired for a long time. I started out on The Sims 2, when it was just an R & D (Research and Development) project, then moved over to the expansion pack team to help finish Vacation. I then produced the final 3 expansion packs for The Sims, and after we shipped Makin' Magic, I re-joined the Sims 2 team.
What's the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is working with incredibly creative people to imagine new stuff, and then see it come to life in the game. The process of going from blank canvas to implementation to ship is incredibly rewarding.
What's your favorite feature in the game?
Well, I guess it's a tie between two things. The gamer in me loves the new Wants & Fears, because they really give you clear short-term goals and cool rewards, while at the same time helping you tell interesting stories with your Sims. But the builder in me loves the Eyedropper Tool; I can build and decorate four times faster than I could in the original Sims. It's such a simple tool, but it's so powerful!
How do you come up with the ideas for the new game-play design?
I'm lucky to work on one of the most creative teams working in games today. In this talented group of programmers, artists, designers, producers... ideas can come from anywhere. We also continually monitor the fan sites for ideas and suggestions, so be careful what you wish for! Ideas can also come from unlikely sources. I met Bijoux Philips at a party once, and she pitched me an idea for an object: she wanted a bathmat to put in front of her showers to absorb the water from her sloppy Sims. I thought, "we should totally make that object!"
What are your hobbies?
My wife and I love to travel and cook, and we spend a lot of time fixing up our house. We're re-doing the floors in our house right now... and we sure wish we had that Shift-Click feature... 
What's the first computer game you ever played?
Like a lot of people, the first video game I played was Pong. But the first computer game I played was Star Trek on the Apple II. I think it was about 1977, and we had to load the software from cassette tape.
* * *
* K *
E * *
That game ruled!
If you could take 3 things with you to an island and had to stay there for the rest of your life, what would you take along?
The collected works of Shakespeare.
Civilization II.
Sunscreen.
What's it like working in the game industry?
I imagine it feels a lot like Hollywood must have felt in the 40's. Which is to say... incredibly exciting.
How many hats do you own?
I have no idea. But you can never have too many hats.
17 jun 2004 - 23:00
"Without a doubt, The Sims 2 will be one of the biggest gaming events of the year when it is released in September. The sequel to one of the most successful games of all time, The Sims 2 is more than just a graphical upgrade of the original game."
The Sims 2 Designer Diary #8
Producer Jonathan Knight tells us about the game's new aspiration system, which makes your sims act more like real people.
This sim has wealth aspirations, but he's going about it the hard way. Double-click on the video window for a full-screen view.
Without a doubt, The Sims 2 will be one of the biggest gaming events of the year when it is released in September. The sequel to one of the most successful games of all time, The Sims 2 is more than just a graphical upgrade of the original game. In addition to a gorgeous 3D graphics engine, Maxis is introducing entirely new features and capabilities into the game, including the ability to oversee multiple generations of a single sim family. While the designers have been improving the gameplay, they've also been careful to maintain the fun and simplicity of the original game. And as producer Jonathan Knight explains in the latest edition of our designer diaries, Maxis is going to introduce a new behavioral system that will allow your sims to act more lifelike than ever before. Now your sims will want more out of life, and it'll be up to you to either give it to them or not.
Wants & Fears
By Jonathan Knight
Producer
You might not think that potty training the sims sounds like a real job, but in a strange way, that's exactly what our team has been up to for the last several months as we put the finishing touches on the new gameplay innovation in The Sims 2. With a new interface, a new simulator, and the same old Maxis humor, we've had a blast taking "that people game" to the next level. Here's a sneak peek into how we arrived at our revolutionary new game design.
It's been four years since bladder failure was all the rage. In the original The Sims, your sims had eight basic needs--bladder, hygiene, social, etc.--and your job as the player was to take care of these needs by clicking on toilets, showers, and other sims. Now, in The Sims 2, your sims have dreams--romance, family, knowledge, fortune, or popularity--which you, as the player, help them achieve over the course of their lifetimes. You choose the aspirational goals for your sims when you create them, and as you play, they reveal their wants and their fears. Satisfy their wants to help them lead happy, long, and successful lives. On the flip side, indulge in their fears to find out what stress can do to sims.
Great concept, right? But what does an aspiration look like in the game? Arguably, the most important thing any game can do is communicate the user interface in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. The original interface for The Sims did all of these things (you saw the word "needs" plus eight red/green bars, each with a word next to it, be it "hunger," "bladder," etc.). The Sims 2 interface needed to boil down the concept of lifetime aspirations, as well as retain the inherent Will Wright humor of the original "needs" panel. (There's just something funny about seeing the word "bladder" with a red/green bar next to it!) So our designers put together a mock-up that showed the words "wants" and "fears" with a series of colorful icons beneath each word. As a team, we fell in love with the new game panel. The challenge then became to deliver this feature within the parameters of this simplistic new design.
We needed a visualization of everything a sim could possibly want or fear. "How are we going to draw a picture of a near-death experience? How do we make 'I want to flirt with Sarah.' into an icon?" We had moved beyond the hundred-or-so memory images. We now needed to iconify--i.e., represent with little images in the wants and fears panel--everything a sim could possibly want or fear in a lifetime. This meant developing a visual language for anything that could happen in the game. And The Sims 2 is a big game! So we came up with a two-icon "grammar" for each want or fear, where the primary icon (say, two wedding rings) does most of the work, and a secondary icon serves as a "modifier," if needed. For example, if a sim wants to "get married," we just use the wedding rings. If a sim wants to "marry Sarah," we use a primary icon of Sarah's face with a secondary icon of wedding rings.
Sims Just Want to Have Fun
With the help of some extremely talented and detail-oriented artists, we were able to come up with a language of icons that allowed us to express, literally, thousands of wants and fears. My personal favorite is the icon for "woohoo"--that thing sims do when they play around underneath the covers and end up with a baby a few days later. (Wouldn't you like to know how many meetings and revisions it took to reach consensus on what that icon should look like...)
We also wanted to bring fun and dynamism to the aspiration game. We wanted players to be captivated by the mutating wants and fears of their sims. We brought some light-hearted slot-machine animation to the panel--coupled with classic sound and movement--around the achievement of a want or fear. Then we layered on interactivity so that clicking on your wants and fears became a strategic game in itself. (At any time, you can lock a want or fear, ensuring that it will always stay in the panel. This lets players strategize toward long-term wants they don't want to miss.)
Finally, the most important challenge was programming what actually shows up in this wants and fears panel. From the thousands of choices, how does the game know what a sim wants or fears at any given moment in life? To answer this question, we had to write a new simulator. And this is where the most exciting work on The Sims 2 has taken place. Here's how it basically works:
Above all else, a sim's wants or fears are consistent with the aspiration chosen for that sim. A family sim should want family things, like getting married, having babies, and teaching children. A fortune sim should want bonuses, promotions, and new electronics. A knowledge sim should want to build skills, see ghosts, meet aliens, and so forth. To keep things interesting, aspirations should eventually lead to extreme wants, like "Make out with 20 different sims." for a teen romance sim or "Have 15 kids." for the adult family sim. A big part of the game is figuring out how to pull off some of these seemingly impossible wants.
At the same time, we wanted each sim to feel unique. Each sim should want things outside of the normal aspirations--things that make them feel human and unpredictable. Some sims just want pizza! Furthermore, we knew that sims should want things based upon how you play them. If you tell your sim to flirt with Sarah, then your sim should subsequently want to kiss Sarah, and not just anyone. (Unless he's a romance sim, that is.)
And with all of that, we ultimately had to figure out why wants and fears matter? Well, they matter because every want achieved by a sim contributes to an aspiration score, which is the new red/green bar next to the wants and fears. And fears (or even failure to achieve wants) make that bar go down. When the score is in the red, sims worry a lot, become desperate, and eventually have nervous breakdowns. When the bar is in the green, sims are rewarded with new behavior and are treated differently by other sims. They also get access to a brand-new reward catalog that offers extreme objects--like the Elixir of Life, the Energizer, and the Money Tree--which make it easier for your sim to succeed. These rewards and failures are the cornerstone of the new gameplay, and they help set The Sims 2 apart from its predecessor. Strategically use these rewards, because they can backfire.
As we head down the homestretch of development on The Sims 2, it is clear that the new simulator, the new user interface, and the new rewards and failures all represent tremendous innovations over the original game while staying utterly true to Will Wright's vision. His vision was of a software toy that reduces human beings down to a few manageable concepts while maintaining a consistent sense of humor. It is fun and magical to anticipate what your sims want next, and it is extremely satisfying doing your best to give them what they want so that they live long, happy, and fulfilled lives. We hope you feel the same way when you play The Sims 2!
12 jun 2004 - 23:00
Hello Everybody:
Week after week, I provide you with the scoop on The Sims 2, which means that, week after week, you're only getting my perspective on a project that requires the constant attention and dedication of literally hundreds of individuals.
This week, I thought it would be nice to shine the spotlight at one of the other heavy hitters behind The Sims 2, and let him talk about the game from his perspective. I immediately sought out Producer Jonathan Knight, who both literally and figuratively wears many hats, and asked him to provide a little background about himself and talk about his contributions to The Sims 2.
Here's what Jonathan had to say in a recent behind the scenes chat:
Hello! What's your name and what do you do on The Sims 2?
My name is Jonathan Knight. I'm a Producer on The Sims 2, working mainly in two areas: first, the new Aspirations feature, which involves a new simulator whereby Sims tell you what they Want and Fear (like, I want a baby, or I fear an alien abduction). Achieving Wants drives up your Aspiration Score, which unlocks rewards, and keeps your Sims happy and living long. Secondly, I'm supervising the shipping neighborhoods, which are all the pre-built houses, Sims, and stories that we're shipping with the game.How did you become a Producer for The Sims 2?
After graduate school, I got my start in the industry as an assistant producer at Interplay on a big interactive movie. I worked on a lot of different games over the years, but about 3 years ago I was lucky enough to land an opportunity at Maxis, which is a studio I'd admired for a long time. I started out on The Sims 2, when it was just an R & D project, then moved over to the expansion pack team to help finish Vacation. I then produced the final 3 expansion packs for The Sims, and after we shipped Makin' Magic, I re-joined the Sims 2 team.What's the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is working with incredibly creative people to imagine new stuff, and then see it come to life in the game. The process of going from blank canvas to implementation to ship is incredibly rewarding.What's your favorite feature in the game?
Well, I guess it's a tie between two things. The gamer in me loves the new Wants & Fears, because they really give you clear short-term goals and cool rewards, while at the same time helping you tell interesting stories with your Sims. But the builder in me loves the Eyedropper Tool; I can build and decorate four times faster than I could in the original Sims. It's such a simple tool, but it's so powerful!How do you come up with the ideas for the new game-play design?
I'm lucky to work on one of the most creative teams working in games today. In this talented group of programmers, artists, designers, producers... ideas can come from anywhere. We also continually monitor the fan sites for ideas and suggestions, so be careful what you wish for! Ideas can also come from unlikely sources. I met Bijoux Philips at a party once, and she pitched me an idea for an object: she wanted a bathmat to put in front of her showers to absorb the water from her sloppy Sims. I thought, "we should totally make that object!"What are your hobbies?
My wife and I love to travel and cook, and we spend a lot of time fixing up our house. We're re-doing the floors in our house right now... and we sure wish we had that Shift-Click feature...What's the first computer game you ever played?
Like a lot of people, the first video game I played was Pong. But the first computer game I played was Star Trek on the Apple II. I think it was about 1977, and we had to load the software from cassette tape.* * *
* K *
E * *That game ruled!
If you could take 3 things with you to an island and had to stay there for the rest of your life, what would you take along?
The collected works of Shakespeare.
Civilization II.
Sunscreen.What's it like working in the game industry?
I imagine it feels a lot like Hollywood must have felt in the 40's. Which is to say... incredibly exciting.How many hats do you own?
I have no idea. But you can never have too many hats.And, be sure to check out gamespot.com's recent Designer Diary featuring his insights on What a Sim wants from Life. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/thesims2/preview_6100496.html
Cheers,
Lucy Bradshaw,
The Sims 2 Executive Producer
10 jun 2004 - 23:10
We have opened a new Goodies section and posted new wallpapers for you! Now you can decorate you desktop in style with The Sims 2.
10 jun 2004 - 23:00
5 jun 2004 - 23:00
Greetings, Sims fans!
Here in the office, we have a wall that holds a dizzying array of post-it notes. Each post-it note represents a The Sims 2 task that needs to be completed. When one of these tasks has been successfully accomplished, somebody comes by with a large rubber stamp labeled "done" and stamps that note. Right now, that wall is awash in a sea of large, red "done" stamps. It's incredibly gratifying to have this visual reference of where we stand on our long road to completing The Sims 2. Everybody working on the project has devoted such a staggering amount of time, dedication and hard work to The Sims 2, and we all continue to devote the majority of our wakinig hours to the project. All this hard slogging through the dense underbrush of game development is to ensure that when we slap that final red "done" stamp on that last remaining post-it, The Sims 2 will be the definitive people simulation game when it's released on September 17th.
In other The Sims 2 news, those of you with a keen eye for design may have noticed our brand new logo. We've incorporated new colors and a simpler, more streamlined design and layout, and I think it looks wonderful! You can see this new logo peppered throughout The Sims 2 website, and we're all really excited about it.
While you're perusing our website, you may feel compelled to harness some of that anticipatory energy that just keeps building during the wait for the release of the game, and start your own Sims 2 website. We positively encourage that sort of behavior, and we've made it dang easy for you, with the release of the updated The Sims 2 fansite kit. It's loaded with new images and artwork, and we've also been able to secure some of the ultra-scarce time of one of our artists, to create some desktop wallpapers.
So go ahead, create that fabulous web homage to The Sims 2, and then use our fansite listing pages (http://thesims2.ea.com/fansites.php) to drive traffic to the fruits of your labor. Otherwise, if you have neither the time nor inclination to develop a website, feel free spruce up your computer desktop with some new desktop wallpaper!
Have fun:
DONE
Lucy Bradshaw
The Sims 2 Executive Producer
3 jun 2004 - 23:20
We got a new logo and have updated the site to match! We have also updated the fan site kit so you can have a copy of the new logo.
3 jun 2004 - 23:10
You probably have wishes and dreams and aspirations of your own. Check out these Sims living out their aspirations.
3 jun 2004 - 23:00
We will be conducting focus groups to discuss The Sims 2 on the evening of Wednesday, June 16, in Sunnyvale, California.
If you own The Sims on PC and are interested in participating, please email your name & phone number to: gameplay@nicholsresearch.com and mention The Sims groups. An independent research group will then contact you to discuss the details, as needed to select the final participants.