4 ms·

This is incredible. I'd love to read more anecdotes like this. I don't want to pressure you into turning it into a blog... but I'd certainly be an avid reader :

This is incredible. I'd love to read more anecdotes like this. I don't want to pressure you into turning it into a blog... but I'd certainly be an avid reader :)

DonHopkins 5y ago
Thank you! Here are some Sims articles I've published on Medium, and I've written lots more stuff on HN, which I'd like to eventually clean up and publish on a blog some time: Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996) https://donhopkins.medium.com/designing-user-interfaces-to-simulation-games-bd7a9d81e62d https://donhopkins.medium.com/designing-user-interfaces-to-s... The Future of Content — Will Wright’s Spore Demo at GDC 3/11/2005 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-future-of-content-will-wrights-spore-demo-at-gdc-3-11-2005-9eab0cedc583 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-future-of-content-will-wri... The Soul of The Sims, by Will Wright https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-soul-of-the-sims-by-will-wright-8afdc225c936 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-soul-of-the-sims-by-will-w... The Sims 1 Crowd Sitter https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-1-crowd-sitter-1f478b645148 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-1-crowd-sitter-1f478b... Dumbold Voting Machine for The Sims 1 https://donhopkins.medium.com/dumbold-voting-machine-for-the-sims-1-3e76f394452c https://donhopkins.medium.com/dumbold-voting-machine-for-the... The Sims Pie Menus https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-pie-menus-49ca02a74da3 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-pie-menus-49ca02a74da... Automating The Sims Character Animation Pipeline with MaxScript https://donhopkins.medium.com/automating-the-sims-character-animation-pipeline-with-maxscript-bc490787d7a2 https://donhopkins.medium.com/automating-the-sims-character-... Head Phaking, Phase 1 https://donhopkins.medium.com/from-don-hopkins-to-chris-trottier-date-tuesday-november-17-1998-7-57-am-subject-head-2680f8db3e68 https://donhopkins.medium.com/from-don-hopkins-to-chris-trot... The Sims Object Placement Tool https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-object-placement-tool-6d84f544dec4 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-object-placement-tool... And more documents at: https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSims/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSims/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSimsDesignDocuments/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSimsDesignDocuments/ And some more videos: The Sims Steering Committee - June 4 1998 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC52jE60KjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC52jE60KjY The Sims, Pie Menus, Edith Editing, and SimAntics Visual Programming Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs Demo of The Sims Transmogrifier, RugOMatic, ShowNTell, Simplifier and Slice City. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imu1v3GecB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imu1v3GecB8 Transmogrify Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTbs7IL5EI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTbs7IL5EI Speed Dating With Cupid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVUP9OXmHTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVUP9OXmHTM Simprov Wedding Play Set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwt5LJlrMe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwt5LJlrMe8 FreeTheSims Sims Character Animation ActiveX Control Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz0cFSmgiM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz0cFSmgiM Also there's a great interview with Chris Trottier about "the toilet game", "tuned emergence", and "design by accretion", that I published on my old blog, which is still on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20160704065742/http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/31 https://web.archive.org/web/20160704065742/http://www.donhop... >Sims Designer Chris Trottier on Tuned Emergence and Design by Accretion >The Armchair Empire interviewed Chris Trottier, one of the designers of The Sims and The Sims Online. She touches on some important ideas, including "Tuned Emergence" and "Design by Accretion". >Chris' honest analysis of how and why "the gameplay didn't come together until the months before the ship" is right on the mark, and that's the secret to the success of games like The Sims and SimCity. >The essential element that was missing until the last minute was tuning: The approach to game design that Maxis brought to the table is called "Tuned Emergence" and "Design by Accretion". Before it was tuned, The Sims wasn't missing any structure or content, but it just wasn't balanced yet. But it's OK, because that's how it's supposed to work! >In justifying their approach to The Sims, Maxis had to explain to EA that SimCity 2000 was not fun until 6 weeks before it shipped. But EA was not comfortable with that approach, which went against every rule in their play book. It required Will Wright's tremendous stamina to convince EA not to cancel The Sims, because according to EA's formula, it would never work. >If a game isn't tuned, it's a drag, and you can't stand to play it for an hour. The Sims and SimCity were "designed by accretion": incrementally assembled together out of "a mass of separate components", like a planet forming out of a cloud of dust orbiting around star. They had to reach critical mass first, before they could even start down the road towards "Tuned Emergence", like life finally taking hold on the planet surface. Even then, they weren't fun until they were carefully tuned just before they shipped, like the renaissance of civilization suddenly developing science and technology. Before it was properly tuned, The Sims was called "the toilet game", for the obvious reason that there wasn't much else to do! https://web.archive.org/web/20140720190605/http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/chris-trottier-the-sims.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20140720190605/http://www.armcha...
- short_sells_poo 5y ago
  Wow, a veritable treasure trove! Thank you.

This is incredible. I'd love to read more anecdotes like this. I don't want to pressure you into turning it into a blog... but I'd certainly be an avid reader :)

DonHopkins 5y ago

Thank you! Here are some Sims articles I've published on Medium, and I've written lots more stuff on HN, which I'd like to eventually clean up and publish on a blog some time: Will Wright on Designing User Interfaces to Simulation Games (1996) https://donhopkins.medium.com/designing-user-interfaces-to-simulation-games-bd7a9d81e62d https://donhopkins.medium.com/designing-user-interfaces-to-s... The Future of Content — Will Wright’s Spore Demo at GDC 3/11/2005 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-future-of-content-will-wrights-spore-demo-at-gdc-3-11-2005-9eab0cedc583 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-future-of-content-will-wri... The Soul of The Sims, by Will Wright https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-soul-of-the-sims-by-will-wright-8afdc225c936 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-soul-of-the-sims-by-will-w... The Sims 1 Crowd Sitter https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-1-crowd-sitter-1f478b645148 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-1-crowd-sitter-1f478b... Dumbold Voting Machine for The Sims 1 https://donhopkins.medium.com/dumbold-voting-machine-for-the-sims-1-3e76f394452c https://donhopkins.medium.com/dumbold-voting-machine-for-the... The Sims Pie Menus https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-pie-menus-49ca02a74da3 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-pie-menus-49ca02a74da... Automating The Sims Character Animation Pipeline with MaxScript https://donhopkins.medium.com/automating-the-sims-character-animation-pipeline-with-maxscript-bc490787d7a2 https://donhopkins.medium.com/automating-the-sims-character-... Head Phaking, Phase 1 https://donhopkins.medium.com/from-don-hopkins-to-chris-trottier-date-tuesday-november-17-1998-7-57-am-subject-head-2680f8db3e68 https://donhopkins.medium.com/from-don-hopkins-to-chris-trot... The Sims Object Placement Tool https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-object-placement-tool-6d84f544dec4 https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-object-placement-tool... And more documents at: https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSims/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSims/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSimsDesignDocuments/ https://donhopkins.com/home/TheSimsDesignDocuments/ And some more videos: The Sims Steering Committee - June 4 1998 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC52jE60KjY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC52jE60KjY The Sims, Pie Menus, Edith Editing, and SimAntics Visual Programming Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs Demo of The Sims Transmogrifier, RugOMatic, ShowNTell, Simplifier and Slice City. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imu1v3GecB8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imu1v3GecB8 Transmogrify Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTbs7IL5EI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTbs7IL5EI Speed Dating With Cupid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVUP9OXmHTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVUP9OXmHTM Simprov Wedding Play Set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwt5LJlrMe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwt5LJlrMe8 FreeTheSims Sims Character Animation ActiveX Control Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz0cFSmgiM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzz0cFSmgiM Also there's a great interview with Chris Trottier about "the toilet game", "tuned emergence", and "design by accretion", that I published on my old blog, which is still on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20160704065742/http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/31 https://web.archive.org/web/20160704065742/http://www.donhop... >Sims Designer Chris Trottier on Tuned Emergence and Design by Accretion >The Armchair Empire interviewed Chris Trottier, one of the designers of The Sims and The Sims Online. She touches on some important ideas, including "Tuned Emergence" and "Design by Accretion". >Chris' honest analysis of how and why "the gameplay didn't come together until the months before the ship" is right on the mark, and that's the secret to the success of games like The Sims and SimCity. >The essential element that was missing until the last minute was tuning: The approach to game design that Maxis brought to the table is called "Tuned Emergence" and "Design by Accretion". Before it was tuned, The Sims wasn't missing any structure or content, but it just wasn't balanced yet. But it's OK, because that's how it's supposed to work! >In justifying their approach to The Sims, Maxis had to explain to EA that SimCity 2000 was not fun until 6 weeks before it shipped. But EA was not comfortable with that approach, which went against every rule in their play book. It required Will Wright's tremendous stamina to convince EA not to cancel The Sims, because according to EA's formula, it would never work. >If a game isn't tuned, it's a drag, and you can't stand to play it for an hour. The Sims and SimCity were "designed by accretion": incrementally assembled together out of "a mass of separate components", like a planet forming out of a cloud of dust orbiting around star. They had to reach critical mass first, before they could even start down the road towards "Tuned Emergence", like life finally taking hold on the planet surface. Even then, they weren't fun until they were carefully tuned just before they shipped, like the renaissance of civilization suddenly developing science and technology. Before it was properly tuned, The Sims was called "the toilet game", for the obvious reason that there wasn't much else to do! https://web.archive.org/web/20140720190605/http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/chris-trottier-the-sims.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20140720190605/http://www.armcha...

short_sells_poo 5y ago
Wow, a veritable treasure trove! Thank you.