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Team-Wide Content Creation on The Sims 3

3/25/2012

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The Sims 3 Painting Skill
One of the quandaries we had on The Sims 3 was a goal of making a deeper and more interesting game than The Sims 2, with more content to explore, but without an infinite budget and schedule (go figure).
The Sims 2 Easel Paintings
I ran up against this wall when designing the painting skill. The Sims 2 had 12 paintings your Sim could paint on the easel (right).

I was emotionally attached to the easel because I’d programmed it in The Sims 2. It was a great object. I may have been in love with it. So I wanted to design an easel and painting skill worthy of players’ lofty expectations in The Sims 3.

To add variety, there were 3 different canvas sizes. To add depth and collectability, some paintings were uncommon and rare (known as brilliant and masterpiece paintings). To add character, certain personality Sims would paint unique variations of paintings.

And I wanted players to barely ever see the same painting twice.

By now you’re thinking, Holy Bella. That’s a metric dumpload of content… sounds insane. And you’re right. A few dozens of paintings were within scope, but each one had to be painted by a digital artist, so it took a lot of time. Here’s one of my favorites:

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My GDC 2012 Talk: Life is a Social Game

3/2/2012

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(My presentation is available here.) 
GDC 2012 GDC Speaker Life is a Social Game The Sims Social
I am giving a game design talk at GDC this year, titled Life is a Social Game: Lessons Learned Bringing The Sims to Facebook. Here’s my 45-second pitch.

I’ve worked on The Sims for close to 9 years. Then 1 year ago, I began working on The Sims Social for Facebook. On Thursday, I will share my fresh perspectives on the social space along with 7 useful design lessons – from developing strong ranking systems to the conflict of design vs. monetization.

But the most interesting things we’re going to dive into are character interactions and relationships between players. We’ll see how relationships strengthen gameplay. I’ll share a theory on how I think that games can affect real life relationships (and we’ll see how this can sometimes lead to uncomfortable situations – and why this is all a good thing).

And ultimately I’ll try to convince you that relationships will be one of the next big trends in social gaming.

Hope to see you there!


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    Ray Mazza Author and Game Designer

    About the Author

    I make stuff up. Creator of Merge Dragons. 10 Year vet of Maxis as Lead Designer & Creative Director on The Sims, turned indie. Now all things Merge with Gram Games! Also, a self-proclaimed mental-neurosurgeon.

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    Merge Dragons

    Merge Dragons is an addictive match 3 game for iOS and Android

    Novels

    The Reborn - The Day Eight Series Book 1 by Ray Mazza
    Of Mice and Hitmen - The Day Eight Series Book 2 by Ray Mazza
    The Spiritual Singularity - The Day Eight Series Book 3 by Ray Mazza