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Bethesda hired a Skyrim modder to create the "lighting and clutter" in Starfield
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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I think this is great. Acknowledge the talent and give them an opportunity.
Maybe Sims 5 will hire the wickedwhims creator and add their skills to the next game...haha
I'm kind of surprised that The Sims doesn't have more competition.
It's been many years that the series has been kind of the only entry in the genre.
Yeah, a lot of the other classic Sim games don't have analogs either (though Sim City does), but The Sims is pretty commercially successful.
There's The Sims at work by Paradox called Life by You.
Also Paralives.
Much like Bethesda games, they take quite a lot of work to make for what is essentially a position that has been unchallenged for years. Very high risk, but only like somewhat high reward.
Like just breakdown what the Sims into its fundamental components. The characters, the fashion, the homes, the skills, the jobs, social interactions, possessions. It's a lot of work.
That's the thing that gets me is the core life sim gameplay loop is actually pretty simple, mostly because it was originally an architecture simulator with people you could play house with and then Maxis realized playing with the people was a ton of fun so they built onto that gameplay.
Basically you just need several values which count down over game ticks for the needs, modifiers on how much it each goes up and down and then add a bunch to the value when the sim does something to satisfy the needs
Social interactions are purely plus/minus a few points with a bit of RNG and modifiers for the traits, mood, hygiene level, etc.
Careers are basically just bad quests from an RPG. Your sims happiness (is the average need level greater than or less than X) chooses whether their career performance value is increasing or decreasing per game tick while at work, skills and work style (working normally, working hard, etc.) will modify the value that's added or subtracted per tick, add in a skill check when that value reaches promotion and you have rabbit hole careers
Tons of games have structure building mechanics which I won't pretend to understand from a game engine level but I'd say that's a pretty well solved issue
Really the hard part is the graphics but if games like Minecraft, Terraria and Stardew Valley can be such hits with 8-bit inspired graphics, I think a strong core gameplay loop can outshine average Steam shovelware-grade graphics
So basically, if you want to create a Minecraft mod to play the sims, there's the recipe. Honestly if I was any good at programming I'd take a crack at it but I don't have the patience nor skill to do that at this stage
The recipe is easy. It's the fact that you're cooking it for a thousand people is the difficult part and you've to got source all the ingredients for it. And to keep the metaphor going, there's actually like 30 variations on the recipe you need to serve up.
It's a conceptually simple game, but making it is difficult. You're not a genius who just cracked the secret code behind the Sims.
Why so salty? I never claimed to be a genius who cracked the code, in fact at a few points I specifically said I lack the knowledge and skills to even begin to implement what i described.
What I was trying to say is that the core gameplay loop is pretty simple, so it's surprising with the sheer number of game development studios and hobbist programmers that nobody has cloned it since the hardest part is the graphics.
Chill out man!
I meant to imply "genius" sarcastically. Everybody with brain understands how the Sims works conceptually, you just have to think about it. You're going on about how nobody has made a Sims clone when all someone needs to do is "this and that."
Not knowing the formula for the Sims isn't the problem. The problem is that the Sims is a significantly larger undertaking than anyone actually expects. Just look at the food in game. You need to make all these different kinds of foods and then the food as it's being partially eaten. And then because cooking is a staple skill, the player character should learn how to cook. So you now need the implement the various stages of cooking that particular food. And to top it all off, there will always be more food you can add.
A lot of simulators exists that cover bits and pieces. Mostly just people simulators without house building, often entirely without a house view with decorations you have free control over. Most try to fit in more complicated stories and relations, which might force them to restrict many other choices, like character progression far beyond simple skill points and career level.
One man can only dream!