Sims Nieuws

Check it out at www.game-interviews.com, or click read more to read the interview on our website.

Roxana Wolosenko, a Designer of The Sims at Maxis/EA

You've been mayor, you've built towers, driven copters and who knows what else but have you ever designed a family? The Sims makes that possible. From the creator of Sim City comes what looks to be another massive hit for EA. You can do everything from designing your house to throwing parties and holding a job. What to know more? Without further delay here's our long awaited interview with Roxana Wolosenko!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what your role is on The Sims, and what the team's ultimate goal for this project is?
Roxana Wolosenko: My name is Roxana Wolosenko and I've worked at Maxis/EA for 7 years. I am one of the designers on The Sims. The team's ultimate goal is to create a game that can stand proudly on its own but has an open design that allows it to be transformed by upcoming additions from Maxis as well as by new content from players.

For those unfamiliar with The Sims could you give us a brief synopsis of the premise?
RW: The Sims is a simulation of people in their most familiar environment, their home. The Sims have basic "human" needs and desires: hunger, energy, fun, social, etc. You first have to figure out how to get them to satisfy all their needs so that they stay in a good mood. When you master that, you start to have a little time left over in the day. Then you have to choose whether you want them to pursue money (get a job, work on getting promoted) or develop social relationships (friends and romance) by having neighbors come over for dinner or parties. Or balance the two which, as we all know, is quite challenging.

What do you think the attraction is to The Sims? Is it the control, the voyeurism, or something else entirely?
RW: I think that people are fascinated by the idea of watching other people and being able to control them, trip them up and torment them. What's even more fun is modeling your own household, complete with characters that look and possibly act like you and then trying to make certain social situations happen. The magic is in the unexpected that happens all the time in The Sims.

The AI is obviously the one of the most important aspects in a game like this. What research has been done to ensure that The Sims will react as humans would?
RW: Humans are incredibly complex and so we can really only attempt to simulate a tiny fraction of real emotion. The Sims are driven by a complex interplay of their eight needs: Hunger, Hygiene, Bladder, Energy, Social, Fun, Comfort, Room (environment) and five personality traits: Nice, Active, Neat, Playful and Outgoing. We read a lot about the different theories of how people perceive the world and what really motivates them and then we used our own personal experience of being human in deciding how to apply these theories.

The Sims seems to have an incredible amount of depth. Can you explain the game's interface and how you've made it easy for players to find out where they stand in relation to friends and family, etc.?
RW: We've iterated the interface more times than we'd like to admit because it is so crucial to the gameplay experience. There's so much information that is critical in the game but we have tried to design it so that the information is delivered in layers. When you need the info, you can easily get it but it's not in your face all the time.

Life is often unpredictable; what random events have been incorporated into The Sims?
RW: Stuff breaks, events happen at work, calls with good and bad news come in. And there are other surprises too.

I don't think anyone expects The Sims will simulate all aspects of life (even just at home) so what have you chosen not to simulate for gameplay reasons or otherwise?
RW: Sex. Birth. Teenagers. Growing Old. Dirty clothes. Dustbunnies. Grocery shopping. Driving. Seasons. Sickness. Roaches. Glass ceilings. Religion. To name a few.

Can you tell us how the architectural aspect has been incorporated into The Sims? What can and can't you build (as in the number of floors, items such as doors, columns, etc.)?
RW: You can build a one or two story house. Beyond that it's up to you. You have at your disposal walls and wall coverings, doors, windows, columns, staircases, fireplaces, pool tools and outdoor landscaping plants. There are tools for players (on the Web now!) that allow them to create their own floor and wall patterns and even some of their own furniture.

Want to hear what a conversation between two Sims will sound like? We bet you do. Just download this self extracting file, double click it to install, open the SimTalk folder and double click the SimTalk shortcut to start the toy. Then click the button to hear the Sims talk!

Download SimTalk (1.6 megs)

Strategy Gaming posted an Interview with Luc Barthelet, general manager of Maxis.
Read the interview with Luc on Strategy Gaming, or click read more below this post to read it here!

The Sims:
From Will Wright, the creator of SimCity™, comes a new strategy game that really hits close to home. You are in charge of a neighborhood of Sims and it is up to you to show them that they're livin' in your world now! Force them into a life of crime or help them live life in the fast lane. Build them a sprawling mansion or dump them into a dilapidated shack. Let them party like swinging singles or fall in love, get married and raise a family. They can live out your wildest dreams or experience your worst nightmares. It is up to you to decide... their fate is in your hands.

Interviewer: Anthony Micari
Luc Barthelet, the General Manager of Maxis

1. Maxis' line of Sim games have been known for their deep strategic gameplay combined with easy to use interfaces. How will The Sims go about providing a similar experience?
The Sims uses an object oriented interface. For most of the actions, the user clicks on objects like the Fridge or the TV and select an action from a pie menu. The other overall interface is a mode selection between "Build", "Buy" and "Live". I think this is the best UI to date for Maxis. As for the depth of the simulation, I like to think that we re building sandboxes, and that we mostly work on defining the physical properties of sand. The more interesting the properties, the longer the users will play. I think we have some real innovation in this game and I will describe some of them as I answer some of the questions below.

2. "Life" simulation games in the past, such as Dogz, Catz, and Creatures, have been viewed by many as mere novelties. How will The Sims elevate itself above that status, and provide a unique experience that will have gamers coming back for more?
The Sims is about people and relationships. I learned through the development of this game that when you create an environment with representations of human beings, and make those humans behave in a familiar fashion, that the user cannot help but create a story in his head to explain their behavior. I am convinced that people are more interesting that domestic animals.

3. The history of artificial intelligence has been a rocky one. Some games have been criticized for their lack thereof, while others have provided solid AI that really challenges players. The Sims, however, is trying to simulate the emotions of humans, something that is new to games. Has this been a great challenge for the development team?
One problem we had for a while was that our characters were too smart. They knew exactly what was best for them, and anything the user would do would lead to a negative impact. It took us a while to make the characters a bit dumber, but in a way that would be fun.

4. How much input will the player have in determining the events of the game? Will we be able to tell the characters what to eat? When to sleep, perhaps? Or does one just make bigger decisions and see how they turn out?
The user can choose among many options to feed its sims. Most of them are accessed by clicking on the fridge, but you can also order Pizza by selecting it from the menu on the phone.

5. What I have been wondering about the most is how the player goes about winning the game? Is there an end? Or do you just go on playing similar to SimCity 3000?
The Sims is like SimCity, you can play it forever.

6. Maxis' past titles have been appropriate for all ages. Will The Sims be the same? Or is there material that is recommended for older players?
It is for all ages.

7. This game has been in the works for quite awhile. As it nears completion, what has been the greatest challenge?
They were so many I have a hard time selecting which one. Probably turning the game from a set of interesting tools into a cohesive gameplay experience.

Thank you taking the time to answer these questions for our site. Your generosity is much appreciated.

By B.S. Battle.
Walnut Creek (SimCity newswire) - The Sim City Central Intelligence Agency said Wednesday it had set up a fashion company headed by a computer-game artist to help speed up its development of state-of-the-art disguises.
The venture capital company, called Qool Qlothes, takes its name from "Q," the Ian Fleming-created master gadgeteer who supplied the fictional James Bond with lethal clothing and cars.
The company was formed to ensure the SC-CIA a pipeline to the best video game art talent to solve the most pressing fashion problems, said William Wallow, the agency's chief spokesman.
Qool Qlothes will invest in start-ups or partner with companies like MAXIS to help solve the spy agency's suit and skirt processing needs, said Gilman Gaggula, the 39-year-old chief executive officer of the new company. "Our first job is to find out what cool skins exist today in The Sims," he said in a telephone interview. "We're going to create a baseline of today's best character skins."
He said the company aimed to solve SC-CIA problems in working with agents that really don't know how to dress themselves. Along the lines of a normal private sector video game model, this would create "shoes-off value" for those working with Qool Qlothes, who could then take attitudes back to market.
"Most of our agents just don't know how to dress cool or even naturally.", says Gaggula. "But after we sat them in front of The Sims game for a couple hours, and let them see the new skins and cars they could use, they, like, freaked out." Maxis has agreed to release a preview of some of the newest, secret in-game character skins created by Eric Chin and some of the cars The Sims will be able to take to work.

Available here: Download Graphics Pack 2