Game Retrospective: The Sims
A brief history of one of the most popular games of all time, selling over 200 million copies and forging the way for the life-simulation genre.
On the 4th of February 2000, The Sims was first released for Microsoft Windows in North America. The game would launch in Europe a week later, with a Japanese release following in April.
Developed by Maxis, The Sims was initially conceived by game designer, and Maxis co-founder, Will Wright. Wright, who had previously developed 1989’s Sim City, would go on to lead the game’s development.
The Sims is a life simulation game in which players control and dictate the daily lives of a variety of virtual people, called ‘Sims’. Although characters do exhibit a certain degree of autonomy, it is up to the direction of the player to ensure that the in-game residents’ basic needs, such as food, entertainment and rest, are met, in addition to managing their career path and relationships with other in-game inhabitants. Players can also customise and upgrade the structure of a Sims home in the game’s ‘Build’ mode, as well as furnishing them with a vast range of equipment, furniture and appliances in the game’s ‘Buy’ mode
The origins of The Sims can be traced as far back as 1991, following Wright’s work on Sim Ant. The game had simulated an ant colony and, soon after its release, Wright began pondering whether human behaviour could be simulated in a similar way. The game designer had also long been interested in architectural design and, following Sim City, had wanted to create an architecture-focused follow-up that involved designing individual structures and buildings, rather than entire cities. However, after exploring this idea further, several questions arose — How would players know if their buildings were any good? How would they be scored? Influenced by Christopher Alexander, an architect who often explored the relationship between environmental design and human behaviour, Wright suggested introducing miniature characters that would live in the player-created structures, and react accordingly, therefore providing instant player feedback.
As the project developed, Wright discovered that it was more fun and interesting to control the people. In a 2014 interview with Retro Gamer, Wright stated: “It was still fun designing houses for them, but controlling their lives actually turned out to be far more compelling, so the whole project took a turn towards the people.”
Despite Wright’s enthusiasm for the project, Maxis was not convinced, believing that a game that mimicked daily life would be mundane and hard to sell. The game idea even tested poorly with an early focus group in 1993. The project was subsequently put on hold with Wright instead working on Sim City 2000.
Work on the game would not resume until around 1996 when Wright managed to recruit a small team who continued work on the project.
Early in the game’s development, Wright referred to the game as ‘Dollshouse’. Unfortunately, after discovering that the title had not tested well with teenage boys during one of the game’s focus groups, it was promptly scrapped to maintain an open target audience for the game. Another early working title for the game was ‘The Tactical Domestic Simulator’.
Simlish, the now-iconic in-game language spoken by the game’s virtual inhabitants, was entirely improvised. With input from Wright and language expert Marc Gimbel, voice actor Stephen Kearin (who would later voice characters in Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar), and actress Gerri Lawlor experimented with different vocal sounds and helped create the basis for the Simlish language. At one early stage, several real-life languages were tested in-game but it was felt that these were not only restrictive but also detracted somewhat from the immersion of the game. With Simlish, the team consciously kept conversations open to interpretation with players using their imaginations to fill in the blanks.
One of the series most recognisable visual elements, which made its debut in The Sims, was the Plumbob. The small crystal-like shape that hovers above a selected in-game Sim which changes colour depending on their mood, the Plumbob, has become a familiar franchise symbol, appearing on the box art for each entry of the franchise from The Sims 2 onwards. Its creator, lead graphic designer Charles London, originally used the shape as a temporary place-holder throughout the development. As time went on, however, the image simply stuck and the decision was made to keep the design in the final game.
Upon release, The Sims was praised by critics for its unique nature and engrossing gameplay. The game would quickly become the best-selling computer game of 2000 in North America and would, just two years later, become the top-selling PC game in history at that time, selling over 6.3 million copies. The game kick-started an entire franchise which would see numerous sequels, spin-offs, expansions and ports across a wide range of devices.
The Sims would go on to receive several awards, including numerous ‘Game of the Year’ and ‘Best Game’ accolades. It would even be selected by the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, as one of 14 games central to its Applied Design exhibition in 2012.
🕹Are you a fan of The Sims?
🕹Which version of the game has been your most fondly remembered?
🕹Are you a fan of any of the many expansion packs for the game (House Party, Vacation, Hot Date, Makin’ Magic, etc)?
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