Rod Humble Protypes The Sims 3
By Shawn on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 9:36 PM PST In Computer, Electronic Arts, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Games
Rod Humble, head of EA’s Sims Studio, sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to reveal the inspiration behind the next step in the evolution of The Sims franchise, The Sims 3.
According to Humble, the biggest change in the new game is the move from instanced scenarios to open world play. He describes the first design meeting for The Sims 3:
“The one thing that I walked into the room with as a mandate was ‘No More Hamster Cage’,” he says rather cryptically. “That came from a phrase Matt [Brown, design lead] used – during The Sims 2, they referred to the Sims as hamsters with jobs. There’s a little hamster cage, and they have a little job…”
“I always thought that was incredibly limiting,” Humble continues. “We needed an open world. You’re not going to get where this game can go unless you can literally walk across the street and see the neighbour’s kids playing in the opposite yard. You’re not going to get to the next place you want to be unless you can buy a house at the top of a mountain and look down on a town. That’s incredibly important, and that was job one.”
The open world concept was easily agreed upon, but from there ideas of what the game should include took a chaotic turn. Humble outlines several of the different scenarios that were built and ultimately discarded. He also reveals prototypes that seemed like bad ideas at the time but ended up fitting into the evolving concept of The Sims 3 nicely.
“One of the [things we learned] that was very powerful was that it felt right to be able to go into the world and tidy up for your Sims,” says Humble. “This was a huge deal. Before the prototypes, I don’t think that anybody would have agreed that that was a good idea – but after doing a prototype, we realised that when your Sim is at work, and there’s a book lying on the floor, it bugs players. They just want to move it. That felt right.”
“We would never have put it in the game because it sounded tedious and awful. Imagine it as a feature – now, in Sims 3, you get to clean up your Sims’ trash yourself! But what it means is that if your Sim is sloppy and leaves stuff lying around, you can fix it. People did it reflexively. We didn’t even mean for it to be in the prototype, we just forgot to turn it off – and then we watched people do it. If you don’t want to, it doesn’t matter, but there’s a weird side-band nurturing motive that makes people want to do that.”
Actually giving players the ability to “tidy up” for their Sims makes so much sense considering how much time it takes for your Sims to do menial tasks. Players can accomplish clean up in a very short amount of time while the game is paused leaving more time to play with their Sims while the clock is ticking.
You can read the article in its entirety on GamesIndustry.biz.
are they gonna stick with the sims 2 hud?
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I already want to play it. I think actually being able to walk to the shops and buy clothes instead of ordering a taxi and visiting neighbors with them visiting you I think they made the right decision to let you walk freely me and my sister (Bonnie) we were always talking about that when we were only little playing our first ever Sims game on the PS2 me being a teenager now love the Sims 2 I play it all the time. It gives people comfort to control something when they cant control the world around them me being one of those people.
can I say I dont know how to feel but my sims do HAHA Love Hannah
l like how the sims get to interact with their neighbors and walk down the street ,but i don’t really like how the sims look, they look better on the sims 2 . I mean everything seems more realistic but i really don’t like how the sim’s look
I just cant wait until the new game come out the open neighborhood sounds like its going to be a wonderful idea, but I also have doubts. Like wether or not my computer will run it or will my walls and water turn red!!
Even though i love the sims 1 and 2 in sims 2 the loading the walls and water gave me a lot of problems! 
I also hope that most of the expansions that are with the sims 2 are going to be on the sims 3 like pets, cars, seasons, freetime, so that i wont be spending money on something that i have already paid for! 
Other than all of that i am very happy about THE SIMS 3!!!!!! 
i think it looks qite good bt is it coming out on pc
it looks wicked!!!
i luv da sims. i hv every game! i cant wait 4 sims 3!
Cant wait!!!!!!!!!!! I have Sims and Sims2 now Im getting 3~
You want to read more from the link at the bottom of the page, but when you’ve finished, you can’t! I want to find out more!
I love to play the Sims!! I have been playing Sims since I was in High School, I am now 25, graduated with a college degree and I still love to play. I would really like to see Sims go the next level with XBox Live. I think it would be awesome to meet up with other players, invite them over. Something like that.
i love sims 2 its my favorite game but my stupid little brother had to brake it
i cant wait for sims 3
so happy about it
lol i will never let him know how i feel
I already stay to play this. I love sims and i think i wil like sims3. because this criatividaty the shop when we go to home. thats so pretty an cool
Does anybody else find it slightly annoying that the toolbar in the lower left corner looks almost identical to the Sims 2 version? That’s my only complaint.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO FREAKIN XITED FOR THE SIMS 3!!!!!!!!!!
i notice the toolbar, im sort of relieved to be honest, i liked it…
I’m unhappy
I konow , i’m stuppittttt
hello
I am sososoooooooo excited for sims 3 but Idk if i will get it cuz i just bought exstension packs for sims 2 and thats alot of money so i think (to make it more fun) they shud include mor things lik pets, seasons, open for buisness, night life, and maybe even university. IT cud increase sales too. more people wud get it cuz they dont hav to buy exstention packs and they cud bring the price a tad bit higher!!!!!!!
i can’t wait the oly thing is i wish that they talked in english and they had better music
is it coming out on pc if so when?
is it coming out on pc if so when?
I love alot of people. Like the sims.
Oh shabva. I love you
im just crazzzy about it!!!!
cant wait….!
Got On Msn This Morning And My Friend Went Crazy
Knowing Its Only 6 Months Away
I to think you’ve made the right desicions about the sims
being free and us being able to tidy up their mess! .. When i am on sims
2 i only have an hour on the computer,And half my time goes to waiting for them to tidy up!
Ever Since sims 2 me and my friends have thought of loads of i deas for extension packs.
1.A dance one. (Bit like free time but they can do all different types of dance)As i am passionate about dancing!
2.Hospital!
3.Designer Clothes! like D+C + Gucci! etc .:mrgreen:
5. Just a hairstyle expansion pack! .. with al l gorgeous hairstyles! like some downloads!
Thanks Sophie
,x3
I wonder if they will still have Vampires, PlantSims, Werewolves and such like they do in Sims 2….it would really stink, in my opinion, if they took that out. That’s one of the reasons I play the Sims 2 so much!
I’ve always wanted to be able to walk around a town without the loading screens for all my fams! I’m so excited about that! I hope that we can make more than one town soon, and just add houses with fams ect later, cuz I really don’t want to be stuck with one town…I’m one of those girls who has a LOT of towns, and fams in each town, but doesn’t play much of those towns…I know it’s kinda stupid, but I can’t help it…I’m sure with the new one and more things to do, I’ll be able to stick with a few fams…my main Q is if you can go back and control someone at your home, when you’re at the town square with another character. I also wanna know if there’s a section where you choose towns, even though you can’t add more immediately, when it first comes out, maybe they’ll let you do so in expansion packs, and how would that work? would you just go to neighborhood view, and choose a fam to play, or something? do the things stay in the house, if they’re like, the counters, sinks, toilets, and ect. if you move a fam out? yeah…actually there were a lot of Q’s, I guess! lol…I’ll shut up!
I cant wait…
but how much does it cost well i guess it dont matter im gonna get it anyway!lol 
when is it coming out
I saw somewhere that it comes out April 2009.
I can’t wait!!! I’m soooo excited about this game, but I have the same problem as Sweet T: every expansion pack after and including Family Fun Stuff (Bon Voyage, Free Time, etc.) makes my walls and pool water flash red! I hate it, cause it makes the game run soooo slow. I know it’s the graphics card, but I heard that in 3, the card requirements are a lot lower than 2, because they were more concerned on speed rather than detail, fact being that there are no loading screens.
I hope it works perfectly on here, if not, I’m getting a laptop anyway for my business course next September, and I’ll load it onto there then.
Still excited, though, red walls or not!!
im not so sure about the whole cleaning up thing it would make it easier but that takes the realness out of it sort of and doesnt motivate you to earn lots of money so you can get a maid but ohwell, also im wandering if like when the other people in the neighbor hood are going on with there lives even when your not playing them does that mean they like have kids and everything when your not using them cuz im one of those people that stick to one family but i dont want all my neighbours dying and not having grandkids and stuff lol
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’ll have kids and all that jazz. I know that if they DO have kids, they grow up with your own kids, which sort of made me think of Free Time, I think it is, where certain neighbourhood kids grow up with your own.
hiii i loo0o0o0vvveee thiiszz siimszz i cant waiit to play iit…. it lo0okkszzz so0o0 intresting and fun becouse you are able to walk freely outside which i thiink was really guudd…. anniiwaaiisszzz i cant wait to play iit!!! bye 4 know!!!! mwahzzz
i hope u can move the sims by the arrow keys on the keyboard instead of clicking on the mouse cuz thats always annoying
but i think its gonna be fun
if any1 has noticed but the pic is fake
i luve sims & i’ll buy every version of it
i cant wait for sims 3 & i hope that i’ll be alive to see sims 100
i hope we can see from sim’s eyes and we’ll be the first person and play our self lifes not a sim’s life!
did you get me??
koga ke iskoci sims 3
Okay so when is the Sims 3 comin out i am dieing to get it!!!
I can’t wait for the Sims 3 to come out.
But I think if I got it, I would never stop playing it. I wouldn’t talk to anyone! 
When I got the Sims 2, I never played the Sims 1 again! 
xxxx
i can’t wait for 2009 for the sims3 it look so good i feel like i want to play it now
