Probably the most famous social simulation game on Earth
I am part of Maxis EU, a remote team conformed from different nationalities inside the European Union. We are tasked to make Expansion Packs (EPs), which are standalone, themed gameplay packs that date from the first Sims game.
In my time there I’ve been part of 1 whole dev cycle, releasing Businesses & Hobbies.
We’re currently working on more content, but it’s still under NDA! 🙂
Businesses & Hobbies
This pack had three main pillars: Business complete flexibility, transforming Sims’ passions into actual income and deciding whether Players wanted their Sims’ businesses to become community staples or scheme-ish moneymaking machines.
I worked mainly on the third pillar, where I owned three features: Small Business Perks, Burglar and Burglar Alarm.
Small Business Perks
This feature was the main storytelling enabler inside Small Business progression, as gave Sims interactions to align in the reputation they’d feel part of, plus some passive effects that made managing a business a little easier.
Some of my favorites are Chug The WUTANT! which by drinking an off-market drink gave Sims a huge boost, but as a trade-off, they had to sleep 9 hours non-stop aftewards, and My name’s Bill, No Bill, which faked house bills and employees’ salaries, but if you played too much with it, could fire back and receive a massive fine for doing so.
Burglar and Burglar Alarm
One of the most iconic features from the franchise, it hadn’t been back for 10 years. I was responsible for its redesign, adapting it to the content that currently inhabits The Sims 4 and its AI behaviors. For example, cats and dogs will chase the Burglar or spellcasters can use their magic powers to stop it.
The iconic Alarm was also brought back as it was needed to counter the Burglar, but this time on steroids: it has multiple upgrades that will help Sims combat the Burglar more efficiently.
