Category: The Sims 4 City Living

Video Game website, Twinfinite.net, sat down for a one-on-one City Living interview with SimGuruGrant. Below are just some of the answers provided by Grant, but there is a 3-page Q&A available on their website. Be sure to head over to Twinfinite for more!

With all the available ideas and different ways to do expansion packs, why a city? What was your inspiration?

So we always try to look toward the past, like we look toward the expansions that we made in the past that were ones we enjoyed making and that our fans tended to like. We sort of have a rough stack ranking of things that our fans like, and then some of those have longer technical investments they require, some of them have different – basically have different tech requirements – and we were ready and able to do the city around this time. It was also something that – players have been playing The Sims 4 for a couple of years now, and the apartments were a really cool way to sort of shock the day-to-day lives of Sims.

The Sims, really, it’s all about the day-to-day life, and if we don’t shock that, if we don’t change that every now and then it can get a bit repetitive. So the apartments and everything we put in there was a really nice fundamental change to how people play.

The other thing is that, we were inspired by Late Night, which also happened to be the third expansion for The Sims 3, and it tried to do a city as well, but it didn’t do a city very well at all. It didn’t even really look remotely like a city, and we were sort of – we were hoping that we could one-up ourselves, and I really think we did this time. So it was sort of a mix of something that our fans like, something that was the right place in the ark for the technology, something that spiced up the day-to-day life of our sims, and also something that was a really cool challenge that we thought we could succeed and beat, and all those things aligned and it was just sort of the right play.

The other thing is we’re a very global game, and I think something in the past that we haven’t done as well as move past is the sort of Americana of the game. And something we’ve really tried to do better at with The Sims 4 is to better acknowledge and represent the world that is our players. And so the last pack we tried to make sort of a European-style world.

This one we went more toward the urban setting. We were really inspired by all the cultures and ethnicities that kind of make up a city. And then we were looking more toward the East for inspiration, cities like Japan – oh, not Japan. Cities like Tokyo or Taipei, Shanghai, San Francisco, Vancouver, really cool cities. And so it was another opportunity to sort of sample from the rich culture of the world and our player base, and the city was a really great place to put all that effort.

 

A lot of the community was upset that there was no elevator except for in apartment complexes. Do you think fans will get over that?

Especially when they’re looking at announcements, a lot of the players kind of edit the feature list. And it can be frustrating as a creator, especially since we spent a whole year on this. It can be frustrating sometimes that they can sometimes focus on what they don’t have instead of what they do. But then again, I don’t expect them to understand or even care, because it’s not really that interesting, about all the reasons we did or didn’t do a thing.

But we look at the boards. We know what they care about, and sometimes we make the choice that we think we have something we can do that’s cooler, or we think that there’s a thing that will be better in the end. On like the elevator question, we actually debated about this and talked about it a lot. And we knew that players would want to be able to place an elevator, but in reality, most people don’t have elevators in their homes, and it would have been very, very expensive and complex to make it work. And we felt that that time was better spent making the festivals cool and interesting, adding new objects that they didn’t have in the game, adding things like basketball courts and all the different dunks, adding the ability to sell paintings on the street with the craft cart.

It’s always a trade-off, and we don’t do it will-nilly, but we try to have good reasons for it. I think that most players will not be bothered by it. I actually worked on the elevator in both Sims 2 and Sims 3. Personally, I just don’t’ think it’s a very interesting object. I get why some people like it, and it’s great that you can have woohoo and you can die in it. It’s just a trade-off. It’s always us trying to figure out where we can make the most people happy with things that are really cool and surprising.

And we have made [elevators] in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. And with The Sims 4 we wanted to be different, so we’re not doing it just to be different, but there are things where – sometimes we’re going to prioritize the new thing because our players already have that old thing. But we understand. We get it, and maybe we’ll do the elevator at some point. Maybe we’ll do those other things at some point. But I sincerely believe that they will get their money’s worth, and that there is a lot to love in City Living.

 

The scope of the world is so huge. What were the challenges in building that? Did you scale back/add anything last minute?

This was the most difficult world we have ever made in the history of The Sims. It was just an overwhelming undertaking, and it’s just like this sort of phenomenal – I’m super proud of that team, and I think they have a lot to be proud of.

For example, we had to build what we call shell technology. The apartments are essentially just enormous models that then have to interface with our build system so that people can build on top of those. This changes our camera system. This changes LODs, which is effectively when things pop in in-frame based on where you are in the distance, which has huge implications on our video card and performance implications for how well the game runs.

We had right up until the very last minute, right up until the wire, all kinds of stuff like ‘Oh my god, we have to touch up the background map painting.’ So we effectively have paintings in the very background for the distance views. Like a lot of movies do that, for example. And so we had to touch that up, make sure that was clear. At certain camera angles, there might be empty spots that we had to fill in. Our visual effects team was placing sims in the world to create a sense of traffic. They designed a real traffic simulator for all the cars that are driving, so the cars will stop and use the stop lights. They don’t just plow through each other.

There were just so many details and places to examine, and our art director was just doing passes and passes and passes and passes. ‘Oh god, we missed this camera angle! Oh god this shot doesn’t work. Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!’

I don’t think we compromised on anything, and maybe in some cases we should have. It’s one of these things where we basically went all out. We just sort of went crazy on this one, and I’m sure I will get yelled at by some manager for the budget implications.

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Amazon.com and SimCookie posted 5 brand new City Living Game Renders.

EA has released a “Concept to Completion” blog on apartments in The Sims 4

The smallest details can make all the difference. In our Concept to Completion series, we’ll look at how environments, characters, and more are added to video games during development.

When we started working on The Sims 4 City Living, we knew that apartments were going to be a key feature. You cannot have a city without close, confined living spaces, and that means apartments.

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We knew a few things immediately: You could not modify exterior walls and windows, but you can modify interior walls and objects. We knew we were going to create large shells in which we placed lots that we could then build. Why shells? Well, in order to create true high rises, or even six-floor apartments, we needed to craft specific models. Otherwise, they wouldn’t look like apartments, and trying to create sufficient assets for Build Mode would have been very difficult for an expansion. By using these shells, we get something that looks like an apartment, fleshes out the city, but still gives us a platform on which to build.

Secondly, we had to figure out the community. We did extensive prototyping around apartments in The Sims 3 and tested a wide variety of cases, including having multiple households simulating at once, having Sims you cannot control, and having Sims in separate apartments.

Ultimately, we sampled from all of this technology to create the framework we have:

• Multiple households can live in an apartment
• These households can and will visit you and be active in the public spaces
• You can visit them and be a part of their lives

One thing that’s cool about apartments is that there’s a true sense of community as a result. In fact, apartments have more gameplay related to Sims than living in a traditional neighborhood in Willow Creek! Sometimes we outdo our past selves, and that is true here.

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Apartments are the classic set of so many legendary sitcoms, including Seinfeld, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and more. As we often do, as we’re making a game about humanity, we looked to these classic, intuitive experiences, as well as our own, and tried to recreate the characters and moments.

We needed a few pieces of new technology to create sitcom-like situations from within inactive homes, ways to trigger new sounds and visual FX, and lots of scripted content to make these occur, work, and look right. Through iteration, we found we needed different ways of reacting to the situations, had to tune them to feel right, and needed to make sure they occurred the right amount of time. Too often and they’re annoying. Not enough and what’s the point? Play testing was key here, as was bringing in Sims fans and outside testers to provide their input.

So, we have our shells, multiple households, a sense of community, but now we need all the important details. Beyond elevators, we needed trash chutes, mail boxes, problem objects (leaky pipes, rat holes, leaky floor vents, and more) to create a typical apartment. Plus, the walls and floor content to make a truly ratty apartment.

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Once we had the basics, we still needed to iterate. Initially, apartments didn’t have the ceilings covering your neighbors’ apartments and they were open, empty spaces. Our art director couldn’t stand it, so he really pushed to get the ceiling tech. That took some time.

Apartments created several issues with the camera. Typically, large buildings or mountains in the game create a buffer region. With apartments, you need to be able to zoom in closely to Sims standing outside the apartment on the sidewalk, as well as towards Sims standing inside their apartment.

By default, the camera kept you at many arms’ length. It took extensive amounts of iteration to find the right balance, perfect the smoothness of the camera moving from the 8^th floor to the ground floor, and ensuring it worked no matter how you adjusted it to follow your Sims (as there are several methods with distinct behaviors).

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We also knew our players would need more customization options for an apartment. We have a smaller but super vibrant and vocal part of our community we call builders, players who primarily build and create new homes for their Sims. We wanted to give them a method of customization with a great view, so we created Penthouses, which allow players to customize every single detail at the top of a shell building. Players can put in pools, basketball courts, elaborate porches, rooftop gardens, or even just a normal home in their own image. This is how players can live out their billionaire fantasies, which is important in a game all about aspirational stories!

Finally, we had to completely revise our user interface to allow for players to choose lodging for a single family, on a floor with multiple options, and sometimes with multiple floors.

Typically, players can get a feel for the house from the high level thumbnail. However, with apartments, we needed to show them the shape, the layout, as well as things like apartment traits. We invested a bit of time into create a really lovely display that highlights and displays every option in a single apartment and lets you quickly toggle between floors.

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All told, apartments were a massive undertaking. When asked what the most difficult aspect of City Living was, I always point to apartments. Typically, a feature only uses the work from a subset of the disciplines, but Apartments involved everyone. This includes concept, the environment team, visual FX, audio, scripting, gameplay engineering, client engineering, modeling, animation, UI team, and more. The result is one of the most holistic changes to our core experience in a very long time.

Apartments are a big deal and we’re incredibly proud of the work. Hit the button to the top floor and find your new home!

❗ Be sure to check out the SimsVIP City Living Game Guide for help with your game.

Firstly, hello! This is my first review for SimsVIP and what an expansion pack to kick off with – pack your bags and shut up the barn, because we’re heading to the city!

I am of course referring to the newest release and third expansion pack in The Sims 4  series – ‘The Sims 4 – City Living’.

We won’t get too bogged downed in the detail here, as there really is a lot on offer in this expansion. But rather let’s have a meander through some key takeaways and observations San Myshuno has to offer. Let’s get stuck in.

 

Initial Thoughts

‘City Living’, without a doubt, very much does what it says on the tin – more so than its most akin predecessors ‘The Sims 2 – Nightlife’ and ‘The Sims 3 – Late Night’. We’ve left the focus on late night partying and general frivolity in the past and instead are given a far more genuine recreation of what it’s actually like to live in a city (incredible, I know!)

This is also the first time an expansion pack has truly shown echoes of past series of The Sims. ‘Get to Work’ was a new concept for an expansion, ‘Get Together’ brought back the previously party aspect of The Sims, but ‘City Life’ is very much the “city” expansion – The Sims 2 had it, The Sims 3 had it. So, how does it hold up? I’d say pretty well.

The party, glittering night time skyline angle appears to have been dropped for this expansion pack and instead we’re served with a more authentic, immersive city feel. It looks great, there’s no denying that. When presented with the initial Edit World screen, I found myself unsure where to even begin. However, I think it best to start with the main event – the city itself.

 

San Myshuno

Inspired by Eastern Asian cities such as Shanghai – San Myshuno certainly looks the part. Keeping with the funkier graphics of the Edit World screen, we get a backdrop of a crowded cityscape, with specific spots that are actually playable (as you can see above).

Now, I must make an early confession. I was never the biggest fan of the “city” expansion packs introduced into the series. I wasn’t a big lover of ‘Late Night’ nor ‘Nightlife’ – I’m just a country gal at heart – but that was primarily because previous incarnations were all so very dark and a bit too Hollywood–esque for my liking (nothing against Hollywood, I just feel it focused a lot on the idea of celebrity glitz & glam). San Myshuno couldn’t be further removed, offering a bright, colourful landscape that feels like a modern metropolitan hub.

However, once you get over the initial bedazzlement of the Edit World screen and get stuck in, the playable areas seem somewhat… limited? I am a believer of more doesn’t always mean better and I have been a fan of The Sims 4’s smaller worlds, with all the detail they offer (even if it’s just pretty backdrops), but the fact that the penthouses exist in their own tower blocks with no other apartments is a tad odd. I understand that this fits with their new design of the screen where you can select apartments (see below), but I suspect there could have been a way around this to allow for maximum lots and the sense an apartment block should offer – living in a building packed with people.

I also found the apartment screens slightly jarring and it was difficult to distinguish between each apartment – the mouse very much had to be my guide! But I admit, I’m not sure what better way it could have been displayed – so I recognise that it’s pointless to criticise if you have nothing to offer as a solution.

The public spaces are open and stylised to the respected neighbourhoods (not sure if this is what we’re calling them?) of the city. We have the option of 4 diverse and unique areas of San Myshuno: the Fashion District, Arts Quarter, Uptown and the Spice Market… oh, and Myshuno Meadows! There are constantly people moving about, which is great to see. Although, I do hope that the open spaces provided for the ever coming and going festivals do not grow to feel sometimes empty and lacking in activity. Time will tell!

There are new and exciting aspects to each neighbourhood (I’m rolling with it) in their turn. So take the time to explore them all and get to know the vibe of the area your sims may be living in, as we really have been spoilt for choice with this expansion pack.

 

CAS, Build & Buy

What’s the point in a city if you don’t have jazzy objects and swanky looking sims to put in it? Building, however, has taken a backseat it would appear.

No apartment building for us – this we know. But ‘City Living’ does offer a slew of new build options and objects – many with a distinctly modern feel. But apart from the talking toilet, there isn’t anything particularly mind-blowing.

The games console is a welcome addition and the ability to have four sims playing at once makes it far more communal. Karaoke also returns (with the singing skill!) – always great fun and very fitting for this pack, where creativity appears to be key. My previous statement leads quite neatly on to one of my favourite new additions – murals. This is connected to the painting skill and allows for sims to create art on the streets of the city (or anywhere else for that matter). The fact that you can create political art and then go a step further and deface these murals is a really interesting touch – it’s nice to see the creators go the extra mile in this way.

Basketball also deserves a shout out, as I have always liked the idea of having more sports in the sims. It’s a new way for your sims to gain the athletic skill and fits the urban feel of this expansion perfectly. But overall I wasn’t blown away by the new objects, but happy enough. I just want more beds, please! Whine over. The new décor is funky and edgy which, again, is very much the vibe of this expansion.

The new styled rooms are also very attractive (a few examples below) and are infused with a lot of colour.

Of course, the limitations on building our own apartment block is a shame, but in keeping with their Edit World screen design, I don’t see how it could have worked. The dimensions had to be predesigned, I can see that. So I think this is more a case of the build aspect being stylised into a corner. The design team made it impossible as soon as they chose to go with the aesthetic they did. Is it worth the pay-off? That’s for each individual to decide – I would say… just about.

The new CAS editions are genuinely fantastic and one of the best parts of the expansion (very much a personal opinion). It’s great to see more diversity in the style and culturally inspired clothing. The headscarves are superb, it’s so exciting to see them in a Sims game. More of this please!

As per usual, I feel the children have somewhat lost out in this department (but then they did get a whole stuff pack, so we can let it go). But that aside, the theme was clearly an explosion of colour, as can be seen from the view examples below. Everything is vibrant and striking, much more akin to the diverse styles found in cities such as New York, London and Tokyo. The garbs are rather dapper – again, very Asian inspired. They have a distinctly edgy, younger feel to them, which suits the aesthetic of the city perfectly. A job thoroughly well done I would say – but CAS editions have always been a big thing for me.

 

Festivals, Careers & Lot Traits

So, the festivals were definitely a major draw in the lead up to this expansion. They were pitched to players as an explosion of activity, vibrancy and colour. Do they hold up? Personally, I think yes. However, I do think they’re a tad random in terms of subject.

So we have a number of festivals to choose from. There’s Geek Con, the Spice Market and the Romance Festival to name a few. There really is an interesting mix, so much so that I wonder how the final festivals found in the game were actually decided on. You can see the source of their inspiration for a the likes of Geek Con (Comic Con for sure) and I always enjoy seeing nuggets like these in Sims games, as it it tells me about the inspirations of the creators.

When you check the board outside your flat to see if there are any festivals you’re going to get a pop-up that looks like the picture below, which gives you all the information you need!

Within these festivals there are a number of activities, opportunities to purchase items and eat delicious (sometimes dangerous) food. It’s extremely immersive and will definitely leave you dazzled after a go around. There have also already been a myriad of pictures posted of the festivals and none I could take really did them justice (I promise to get better!)

It’s extremely helpful and handy that you receive a notification when a festival is on, with an option to travel straight to where it’s happening. When it first popped up saying the Flee Market would be taking place I did have a moment of panic when I realised I had no idea which neighbourhood the festival was in. So a reminder was very welcome.

One reservation – I’m uncertain how quickly they may lose their shine. I can imagine once each festival has been visited upwards of five times (admittedly this would take a while), they may become quite samey. This is very much coming from a legacy player perspective, as I plan on taking multiple generations to explore San Myshuno. But I suspect there may only be so many times I want to go through the same motions of each festival. Again, only time will tell and my worries may very much be unrealised!

Great to see the Political career back in action, which has been sorely missed since The Sims 4 launch. This does feel like the right expansion pack for it, as politics often seems to
come alive in cities (not that countryside politics aren’t important!)

Along with the Politician career track, you can also take of the virtual world by storm as a member of the Social Media career path or become a Critic, which is quite a fresh and interesting addition. The more careers the better, so it’s great to see three new-(ish) options.

And last, but not least, lots now have traits all of their own. I am a big fan of this edition, as it adds even more character the places our sims inhabit and really make them seem more like homes. It’s a new concept that injects more life into the buildings many players have and will so devotedly create. There are lots of traits to choose from too, ranging from fast internet connection to infested with gnomes.

More innovations like this are what this series really need, so I hope for more in future expansion packs.

 

Final Thoughts

I love the fact that they continue to extend this world. Windenburg was a great edition in ‘Get Together’, bringing a central European setting to the series, and now we have this distinctly modern, Eastern inspired city.

In the wake of The Sims 4, I know many players look back on the times of The Sims 3 with fond memories. But the open plan world of The Sims 3 would never have allowed for the opportunity we now have, like living in Windenburg, Willow Creek or the City of San Myshuno all in one universe. With every expansion pack, it pays off more.

Is it a truly great expansion? Not quite – but it’s the combinations that are starting to make The Sims 4 really exciting. ‘City Living’ and ‘Get Together’ combined create something pretty special. I like the idea of expansion packs not just being stand alone, but an integrated part of a bigger picture.

I look forward to what’s next! More worlds please and more culture, let’s make The Sims 4 as diverse, inclusive and sprawling as possible. San Myshuno is definitely a step in the right direction. I may have been converted to the “city” expansion pack after all. Now pass me that pufferfish…

When The Sims 4 launched in 2014, the world felt empty. In the City Living expansion that dropped yesterday, The Sims 4 finally feels alive. Sims are now everywhere, all the time. Since I’ll be moving to New York soon, what better way to try out City Living than seeing how a sim deals with a new city life?

I’ve spent the last week playing through City Living with a code provided by EA, and I’ve discovered that finding an apartment in fictional San Myshuno is way easier than finding a place to live in New York. The difference is, apartments in the Sims wear all their problems on their sleeve. City Living introduces a new feature called ‘Lot Traits.’ These unique characteristics give houses and apartments special features, such as ‘Chef’s Kitchen,’ which makes it easier to get good at cooking, or ‘Lively Neighbors,’ which is a lot like my last apartment. My sim decided against an apartment with the Lot Trait ‘Needs TLC,’ in the Arts District for a nicer one in the Spice Market. It’s historic, but haunted. Hey, she can handle it.

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My second biggest concern moving to a new city in real life is finding friends. While I already know a bunch of people living in New York and love my coworkers there, can I find people to just, you know, hang with? I had my sim join the new ‘Critic,’ career in-game, just to make sure she’d get to know someone. In the base game, you can’t control your sims at work but you can tell them to talk to their coworkers, which grants them new friends and raises your sims ‘Social’ need. The Get To Work expansion would later making following your sims to work an option, but the series of minigames you had to complete there made it hard to ever talk to anyone. In San Myshuno, making friends was as simple as going to the bar.

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Straight away, I could tell this expansion pack was going to be ground-breaking. The intricate details of the new content is amazing — everything from the range of fashion and objects, the hustle and bustle of a live city, new aspirations, sim’s traits and the new lot traits for your houses and apartments. (OMG love!!) Even the realness of the neighbours, down to the interactions and personalities of the people living in this magical city. These are just SOME of the breathtaking new features included in “The Sims 4: City Living” expansion pack.

San Myshuno is the newest world in the new expansion “The Sims 4: City Living”and it is made up of 4 main areas which have their own style, activities and celebration. There is the Arts Central, Fashion District, Spice Market and Uptown. The details in this new world are visually stunning. I felt like there are a lot of influences from different cities all over the world which makes me so excited to explore the San Myshuno City Limits. I dare you not to get lost in that skyline….

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The Sims has released a Launch Day Blog for The Sims 4 City Living

Great news! The wait is over, and it’s time for your Sim to pack up and move to San Myshuno because The Sims™ 4 City Living* is out now**! There’s a whole lot of new experiences awaiting them in the big city, so we thought it might be handy to re-cap all of the recent info about City Living!

New World: San Myshuno – The world of San Myshuno has a big city feel, with four neighborhoods inspired by different cultures. They all offer different living experiences and activities, and really make San Myshuno feel like a diverse city.

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New Living: Apartments & Penthouses – With City Living, Apartments and Penthouses made a lot of sense. That kind of communal living is common in cities, and it brings opportunities to add fun extra experiences for your Sims too.

New Events: Festivals – Oh boy, where do we start? Festivals bring in so many new fun situations for your Sims, from the curry challenge at the Spice Festival, selling their creations at the Flea Market, or picking up some merch at Geekcon. Excited?

New Possibilities: Careers – The Sims 4 City Living brings with it 3 new careers: Social Media, Critic and Political. These all work a little differently to traditional careers as you can either send your Sim off by themselves, or you can head out on assignment with them in San Myshuno.

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New Activities: Karaoke, Video Games & Basketball! – There are a whole bunch of new activities and items in The Sims 4 City Living, but the karaoke machine, video game console & basketball hoop are definitely worth a mention here. Get your Sim working on the new singing skill, their fitness or just relax with some gaming! Either way, we’re pretty sure they won’t be complaining.