Meet The FreePlay SimGurus!
The Sims FreePlay
Sul sul Simmers!
It's been so exciting to watch The Sims™ FreePlay flourish over the past eight years at EA Firemonkeys Studio! With our game hitting our 66th update for our mobile title with no hints at slowing down, we'd like to introduce our brand new SimGurus to everyone in our player community!
Not only are we video game developers and gamers, we love The Sims as much as you do! We're so fortunate to have people working on The Sims FreePlay™ that choose to take on extra duties as SimGurus, and we’re excited about engaging with our amazing community and sharing our knowledge!
Introducing SimGuruAlana, SimGuruIceFox, SimGuruPenny, SimGuruRhys, SimGuruGrumpyCat and SimGuruDarcy - follow the team on Twitter so you can chat all things FreePlay - show us your favourite builds, your Sims spending time as a family or even your favourite outfit styling.
SimGuruAlana
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
You might be thinking, why is my avatar from The Sims Mobile? That’s because I’m the Community Manager for both games! Outside of gaming my passion is anything musical, whether it's listening to music, performing or jamming to the Sims radio.
What kind of Simmer are you?
I’m definitely a storyteller Simmer. I love creating elaborate story lines for my Sims to live out. It’s all about the drama in my Sim Town! Being Community Manager for the Freeplay allows me to see all of your amazing creations and live vicariously through your Sims’ storylines.
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
What I love about the Sims is that it appeals to every kind of gamer, there is a gameplay for all. I also love how diverse and passionate the Sims community is. It was also the game that first introduced me to the wonderful world of gaming.
SimGuruIceFox
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
Hi there! I’m SimGuruIceFox. I’m a Producer on The Sims FreePlay and I’ve been with the team for 1.5 years. I’ve been playing The Sims since the release of Sims 1 and am still playing and having fun within the franchise 20 years later. Outside of Sims and work I thoroughly enjoy D&D and other roleplaying games, competitive online gaming (currently DoTA), watching movies and TV shows and baking. :)
What do you do on The Sims FreePlay?
I make sure the team has everything they need so we can deliver new content and features to the game every 6 weeks. That can mean many different things such as making strategic decisions, setting priorities, getting people together to collaborate and problem solve!
What kind of Simmer are you?
A bit of everything! I spend way too long customising characters which I really enjoy. Sometimes I like playing to create my own narratives with my sims. Sometimes I don’t assign a family to a house and just build for days. It really depends :)
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
That I have the freedom and the flexibility to explore and create whatever I want, and that it’s been with me (and with so many others) as we’ve grown up. That’s pretty incredible.
SimGuruRhys
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
Sul, sul everyone! I’m Rhys!
I’ve been working on The Sims FreePlay for over 2 years now as a Game Designer. I have been an avid gamer my whole life, starting at the ripe old age of 3, and have played everything between the Atari 2600 to modern consoles. I’m a massive retro gamer, as well as enjoy speedrunning a few games! I have also recently taken up sword fighting as a hobby!
What do you do on The Sims FreePlay?
As a Designer, I am responsible for planning all of the awesome content you find in game from a simple idea, to something functional that your Sims can use! I also help create new gameplay features and collaborate with my team to decide how they should work.
What kind of Simmer are you?
I am a bit of an all-rounder Simmer, but definitely tend to be more of a Builder. I really enjoy taking my time building beautiful houses and mansions. I’m also responsible for some of the Grand Prize house lots and templates you see in the game!
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
My favourite thing about The Sims franchise is being able to do almost anything you like, including things you would never get to do in real life! I love being able to tell cute stories and set up little scenarios, and when I am bored of that, work on building my dream home!
SimGuruPenny
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
Hi Simmers, I’m Penny! I've been working as a Game Designer on Freeplay for one year, but have been playing Sims and games all my life. Outside of Sims I love other games like Zelda, Animal Crossing, Overwatch and Fortnite. As a human I enjoy all kinds of art and dance, and have recently started trying to garden.
What do you do on The Sims FreePlay?
As a Designer, I spend a lot of time with the content of the game. This includes planning the items and themes, figuring out functionality, and working with the rest of the team to implement it. I love dreaming about what would be incredible to add to the game, and trying to figure out the best way to make it happen. I’m currently the one picking out the Architect Homes each fortnight (a highlight of my week!), and love it when I get a chance to build one of the Live Event house templates!
What kind of Simmer are you?
I'm firmly in the builder camp, and like many other Simmers I love building out my dream home, or recreating the house that I live in. I also love making myself and my friends as Sims and living a life where I'm much better at doing the dishes.
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
I love that it’s a chance to explore myself, and what I want from the world. If I don’t know what I’m doing with my life, I can play the Sims for awhile, and take note of what makes me happy in the game (like improving my painting skill, or gardening), and then try applying it to my real life!
SimGuruGrumpyCat
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
It’s all in the name I think, haha! I’ve been working on Sims FreePlay since before it launched some eight odd years ago. Outside of that, I enjoy all kinds of games (looking forwards to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal), good food & drinks (both creating them, and consuming them), and cats.
What do you do on The Sims FreePlay?
I am a Quality Designer, which essentially means that I have my many grubby fingers in many different pies. It’s to maintain quality, you see… (I also enjoy pies!) It also means that I work closely with our testing and development teams to help ensure that we’re identifying and resolving issues, and to keep SFP as great an experience for you as we can.
What kind of Simmer are you?
I’m very much a builder; I don’t even want to think about how many hours I’ve spent iterating on house designs to get them juuuust right. I also really enjoy being surprised (and sometimes frustrated) by what my Sims elect to do when I leave them to their own devices.
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
I really love the surprising moments that can play out between Sims when given a chance. There’s satisfaction in having a plan for your Sims and being able to execute it, but sometimes the moments where that plan goes completely off track are even better.
SimGuruDarcy
Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?
Hey everyone, I’m Darcy! Can you guess where you might have seen my portrait from? Outside of life on the Sims, I enjoy playing a bunch of other games, watching goofy comedy series, a lot of stand up, and frequenting Reddit (It has been a good place to find improvements for Freeplay!)
What do you do on The Sims FreePlay?
I've been working on Freeplay as a programmer for almost a year, I've played the Sims games all the way back to the original Sims on PC (Hard to believe that's 20 years ago!)
What kind of Simmer are you?
The Sims game I spent the most time with was The Urbz: Sims in the City (Not sure how many of you played that fantastic spin off)!
What do you love most about The Sims franchise?
I'm really looking forward to chatting with you all, hearing your feedback/suggestions, and your Sims stories!
To follow the SimGurus and share thoughts about our game, tweet with us on Twitter. Check out our official page on Facebook, and double-tap our posts on Instagram! Thanks for playing The Sims FreePlay!
