One aspect of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Sims 4 that’s often overlooked is the development of the worlds in which your Sims reside. Community discourse often focuses on the Sims themselves, and the more player-centric creative aspects of the game like create-a-sim or build and buy mode. While how our Sims relate to each other, what they wear and the houses they live in are important, the worlds that make up the foundation of the ga♎me are referred to mostly in terms of size and broad theme, or even ignored completely. With the new DLC pack Cottage Living, that’s all changed.
As someone born and bred in rural England, venturing into Henford-On-Bagley took me back more years than I’d care to admit. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The attention to detail is incredible, featuring familiar-looking farmsteads, beautifulꩲ rolling hills, and even bangers and mash. The Sims 4 development team recently spoke to me over email to explain how these worlds are created🍌.
Henford-On-Bagley is beautiful. It contains quaint cottages, adorable animals, and everything that comes to mind when you picture country life. However, as someone who has lived this rural life, I wa💮s able to apprec🅺iate just how far beyond that surface level the world goes and this is no accident. “The earliest phases of pre-production involve brainstorming locations, pulling together reference imagery, and researching culture and architecture,” the team tells me. “We also have an amazing team of concept artists who help us visualize what these places might look like.”
Alongside these concept artists, are the team that specializes in world design. “We know them as world builders or environment artists,” the dev team tells me. “They create nearly everything you see in the neighbourhoods. They design the layout, sculpt and paint the terrain, model and place the objects like plants, trees, rocks, and landmarks, and for168澳洲幸运5开奖网: most packs until recent ones, construct the lots.”
World design is often developed alongside the main pack. “We often ideate on worlds hand-in-hand as we consider the gameplay theme of the pack or shortly after we settle on the theme,” the t🐈eam says. “We have a sense of the types of locations we have yet to create in The Sims 4. We keep those in mind while we also check for what players have been asking for and brainstorm about other locations as we consider pack themes. The world of Cottage Living is a bit unusual in that the theme of a quaint homestead was based in rural England from the start. Our creative director had a strong vision of raising chickens and growing one’s own produce in this idyllic setting, so our research was very focused on the small, bucolic towns of that region.”
You can see this research in the finer details of the pack. The houses are st༺yled perfectly, with every tiny detail matching my memories. The village square felt so familiar I’m sure I’ve actually been there. Quite often we’d visit quaint towns across Yorkshire at the weekend and while I was told this world is inspired by the Cotswolds, it definitely exists on the other side of the Pennines as well.
I’ve never thought about the small parts of each world before but in Henford-on-Bagley they stand out like never before. Beyond the red phone booths of my childhood and the ducks in ponds resembling those we visited after school, the details extend to the houses in the background, the bushes on the paths,⛎ even the types of bricks you can now use. It never occurred to me that the worlds were so detailed until they resembled my reality.
Snowy mountains, bustling cities, desert towns, and balmy beaches are all outside of my lived experiences. I’ve never been skiing, I rarely visit cities, and I&rs🅰quo;ve never been to a desert - the beautiful beaches of Island Living are in no way inspired by the noisy, chaotic, and often grimy beaches of North West England that are my frame of reference. It’s easy to let the small details flash by when you have no idea how accurate they are.
It’s not just on a physical level that Cottage Living fee🔴ls so accurate. The towns feel so much more in-depth than the other locations, and that’s because the wider aspects of the world, and its culture, are far more relatable.
“Culture is a critical aspect of every location,” the developers tell me. “We certainly strive to impꦜrove in everything we do, including reflecting the people and the history alongside the landscape and architecture. There is a lot of consideration for how we integrate cultural gameplay and related representation into the overall pack.” We see this culture in the crumpets and Yorkshire puddings we can cook, making jam in the kitchen on the stove, and the idea of running errands for your neighbours, something my grandma frequently did.
M😼aking worlds feel immersive is also a balancing act for the design team. “Worlds such as Snowy Escape’s Mt. Komorebi or Cottage Living’s Henford-on-Bagley that are more visually distinct from the base game require more build mode items such as doors and windows to sell that new architectural look,” they say. “That means we have fewer resources fꩲor other objects, so we are deliberate in finding the right balance.”
Over the game’s lifespan, technical issues have been something that has often been a focus of negative attention. Small worlds, cramped lots, and other similar issues remain a factor. While a frustrating aspect of the game, the team explains it’s because they aim to build worlds that will run on as wide a range of hardware as poss🏅ible. “We want the game to be accessible to as many players as possible and also leave plenty of room for their creativity,” they say. “The amount of memory required to support all the Sims who live in the world is one of the most significant factors affecting the size of worlds in general. Each Sim consists not only of their basic information such as traits and skills, but also all their outfits, relationships, and life history such as Sentiments. The type of pack and the requirements of the gameplay aꦬre other factors. We always want to deliver the most value possible for players in all of our content.”
Accessibility is important and even discounting this, the dreams of Sims 4 players and those of its creators are just too big. “Technical limitations are a continual factor since our dreams vastly exceed the capability of current computers and consoles,” the devs say. This sentiment feels like it should be the poster statement when it comes to exploring the worlds of The Sims 4. Whether you realize it or not, the fact remains that each world is uniquely created with attention to detail most people will likely never even notice. So here’s a shoutout to all the Sims world designers, you’ve taken my childhood and put it straight into my game, down to the busy body neighbour who wants to se🔥t you up with the nice boy down the road. Thank you for the worlds, they are more i🥂n-depth than I ever imagined.