Since his return to Twitter, SimGuruGrant has been quite the social butterfly! With so many different tweets and topics, we’ve decided we will round up his tweets on a weekly basis so you can read everything in one place. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 as well!
More and more, we're working to be more open with the community. There are actually laws that prevent us from talking about stuff too soon. I am totally not joking! Accountants *shakes fist at sky* But, this is a HUGE priority for me. https://t.co/fQsCFnEAi4
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 26, 2018
Actual federal US Government laws. I'm not joking.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 26, 2018
I like that there are so many solutions to make this happen!
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 26, 2018
Nope. No "issues with the world code." Every game is a different engine, which means different discussions every time.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
Every Sims game is a different engine. Some things we evolve and bring forward, a lot we do not.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
Our goal is to be open and transparent. We wanted to share the trailer, step away, and figure out how best to address this. In the past we probably would have been quiet, so this is sometimes new territory for us. I appreciate your patience as we figure it out.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
We've released over 20 packs for The Sims 4 so far. Expansions, Game Packs, and Stuff Packs, and we still plan to keep going. We plan to keep making content for years.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
We didn't want to repeat a mistake we've made in the past, Marcel.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
Folks: While we make a lot of decisions to improve and optimize performance on a wide range of PCs, our decision regarding deep snow was not due to performance. Be nice to each other.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) May 30, 2018
Every time we livestream Sims 4 and quickly cheat our Sim's Motives/Needs by directly clicking on the bar in the UI, we get a ton of requests from people who want access to that cheat. Any other dev cheats you've seen us use that you'd like access to?
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) May 31, 2018
Every time we livestream Sims 4 and quickly cheat our Sim's Motives/Needs by directly clicking on the bar in the UI, we get a ton of requests from people who want access to that cheat. Any other dev cheats you've seen us use that you'd like access to?
— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) May 31, 2018
Hi, @SimGuruGrant @SimGuruKate @SimGuruEmory
Will seasons be the last Sims 4 expansion pack?— PyramidPyramidu (@DollyDraws) June 4, 2018
NO NO NO NO NO https://t.co/yMOHGVDDYE
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
@SimGuruGrant @SimGuruKate Phew, it took a week but I've put together a step-by-step walkthrough concept of how #TS4 Create A World tool could work, it would mean so much to me if you could take the time to read through it and tell me what you think! 😅https://t.co/s0mNPvgy0m pic.twitter.com/mOgY4UAZnV
— HazzaPlumbob (@HazzaPlumbob) June 4, 2018
This is…wow. This is offensively thoughtful and detailed. This is the Simmer of the Day and Simmer of the Week as far as I'm concerned.
We are actively discussing what a "CAW" like experience can mean for TS4. We have some good ideas. https://t.co/9nSYPO8VCv
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
In the first pass? Probably not, but it's listed as a long term option. Again, just hypothetical, early explorations.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Well, that isn't our plan.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
It is something we're actively researching.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
We aren't conducting any development on TS3.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Happy to have you send any notes here. Right now we aren't planning on doing anything retail related, but who knows what might happen.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
I had an interview for a Game Development xourse last week. The professor told me there would be a class that would teach us that the most important in Game dev is player satisfaction.
It was so hard not to answer "Oh I know, I follow all of the SimGurus on Twitter"
— legasimmer (@legasimmer) June 4, 2018
Hmmm. There are so many layers to this. There's player satisfaction, but in some ways that's more a business goal than a design goal. There's creating interesting choices. There is being innovative and interesting. Gah! And goals change based on the type of game. https://t.co/ugPnmchqbQ
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
We've thought about it quite a bit. There are some challenges with the TS4 engine that make it tough to do, but there are upgrades in almost every pack.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Something we try to do is examine every feature and find the right home for it. With Dine Out, we wanted to go bigger on restaurants and dive into the feature. With Get Together, we added the new Club system and other features.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Similarly, we created an entire $20 game pack so we could go really deep on Vampires and do them better than we've done before. In some cases, yes, we mix and match where features go and change things done in TS2 and TS3. But, every pack is FULL of content.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Right now it isn't a priority, but anything is possible.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Cats and Dogs costs the same as every other expansion we've released, though. We didn't change the price. We also made the choice to focus on cats and dogs to go really deep and make them the best we've done. I recognize some folks want breadth, not depth.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
We wanted to experiment with enhancing an existing expansion. It's something we've never done before and wanted to see how people would respond to more content. We're always going to try to experiment. Again, I'm sorry you're frustrated. I hope you have a good day otherwise.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
Ultimately, when adding four seasons, climates for all four, to address as much of the world as possible, it's tough to do everything. It means we're going to delight some people and frustrate others. The best we can do is do our best with what we make and listen to you all.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
The tough part is that everyone values things differently. There is no one right feature for all parties. We ship in 18 languages, around the world, for millions of people, which means it's on us to listen and do our best.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
One of the biggest challenges is that folks always want everything that TS1, TS2, and TS3 did, plus new stuff. We try to find the right balance. It's a definite mix and match and one of the interesting parts about making a beloved 18+ year old game.
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) June 4, 2018
