Sul Sul, Simmers!

We’re back today to bring you Episode 2 of Behind The Sims, our community series that covers the latest updates, sneak peeks and deep dives into game development, including the latest on Project Rene, new content for The Sims 4, and more.

Here’s a recap of the Behind The Sims Episode 2 community stream hosted by Mersea from The Sims team.

• The Sims 4 devs saddle up for the Horse Ranch Expansion Pack
• Winners of the upcoming community voted kits!
• Bite into a piece of S’more Lore
• Exciting news for The Sims Mobile and The Sims FreePlay!
• An update on Project Rene

Invite your neigh-bor ranchers over as we welcome horses to The Sims 4 on July 20

Come adventure out west! Players can explore the rustic locale and curate their ideal ranch life in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch. The team knows how much players have been requesting horses over the years, and whether Simmers want a barn full of animal friends or a relaxing cabin on the prairie, each moment is sure to feel authentic and meaningful.

To ensure the authenticity of this Expansion Pack, The Sims team visited a local equestrian center. We wanted to experience being in the presence of these majestic creatures first-hand to better understand how incredible these animals are and to learn how our relationship with horses has changed through the course of history.

We’re excited to see how players customize a plethora of hoofed friends in Create a Sim, and are elated to watch players develop relationships with each individual animal. But that’s not all! We can’t wait to see players interact with mini goats and mini sheep, experience the pleasures of Nectar making and invite their neighbors over to see how adorable all of their animals are!

Now, saddle up for the Expansion Pack that will be the talk of the ranch on July 20! Be sure to tune in on Friday, July 14, 2023 at 11 am PT to learn more about The Sims 4 Horse Ranch on Twitch and YouTube.

Winners of the upcoming community voted kits!

In awe of the incredible ways we’ve seen players express themselves in The Sims 4, the team asked players to vote on which themes will inspire Kits in an upcoming release. As a result of the vote, we’re announcing that the winning style Kit is Goth Fashion and the winning build Kit is Medieval Castle!

These Kits won’t be released until next year, but thank you to all those who participated in the vote!

Bite into a piece of S’more Lore

In this Behind The Sims episode, we introduced S’more Lore, where we’ll bite into the many histories and mysteries of The Sims. In this first storied segment, we’ll delve into the theories surrounding The Calientes.

The femme fatale sisters, Nina and Dina Caliente, made their mysterious debut in The Sims 2, and since then it has been nothing but an enigma surrounding the two sisters. From unexplained disappearances to alien ancestry, nothing remains more puzzling than the appearance of Katrina Caliente! Which begs the question for this S’more Lore, who is Katrina Caliente?

As the universe continues to grow, we’re excited to continue to discover the truth, and if we do, we’ll enjoy another s’more while digging deeper into the lore of The Sims.

Exciting news for The Sims Mobile and The Sims FreePlay!

This summer, a brand new lot is coming to The Sims Mobile! That’s right, say hello to Briny Height’s new 90 Sunset Jetty house lot! It’s a large 30x30 house lot that comes with a dock and a jet ski! What is that jet ski used for? Make sure to unlock it and find out!

A day spa has arrived at The Sims FreePlay! Your Sim can either become a Salon or Spa manager and treat your customers to all types of wellness pampering. Grow their career and transform the business into a high end experience for your Sims to enjoy.

Also coming to The Sims FreePlay this July, Superyachts 2!

An update on Project Rene

We’ve got a team of staff around the world working on Project Rene, the next evolution of The Sims, and we’re thrilled to show you an early look at what we’ve been up to behind the scenes. This isn’t the full game and not a single thing is final.

Lighting

Lighting has a massive impact on the look of a game. The team is embracing exciting new technologies to support highly customizable and emotionally resonant stories for both PC and your phone.

Animation

The vision for animation is driven by the phrase, “read the room,” which means we want players to know how our Sims feel, along with what they’re thinking, just by how they behave. This means we support a variety of attitudes, emotions and postures that need to work across various objects and socialization features.

Sim Routines

To further understand this notion, we are using simple prototypes to understand how Sims live at home and in a broader neighborhood, diving deep into populations, routines and what a Sim can see and do.

Early Simulation

We are slowly but surely bringing these basic ideas to life with 3D models, animations, audio and scripted behaviors in our first version of the simulation. This entails Sims navigating their home and interacting with objects to satisfy their needs. This is developing rapidly and we cannot wait to show you more exciting imagery soon.

Hair Styles

We’re also in the process of figuring out how to model a wide variety of hair styles across a broad range of humanity, and unlock options like flexible coloring. We understand how important it is for you to feel well represented and this is no different for a Sim.

Socialization

Socialization is a critical aspect of this experience, but there is always so much happening on screen! From animating, talking and processing thoughts, the team is using basic visuals and placeholder content to better understand how much information is too much, what stands out and ultimately, what helps players understand what their Sim is thinking.

This is still in the early stages of development and we’re still years out from the launch of Project Rene, but we are excited to keep sharing the details of our progress with you!

That’s it for Episode 2 of Behind The Sims!  Follow The Sims, The Sims Freeplay, and The Sims Mobile across social media to keep up with the latest news and information about the next Behind the Sims episode.

We’ll have more to share soon in our next stream. Until then, Dag Dag!