GamerZines: We really like the look of Generations, adding extra meaning to a sim’s life-cycle is really good to see…
Graham Nardone, producer on the Sims 3 Generations: Yeah, well it was really all about bringing an expansion which is about the sims again. It’s cool for us because it’s a new thing that we’ve never done before. It’ll be exciting!
GZ: The Social integration is quite interesting as well…
GN: Yeah we’ve had memories in Sims games before, but it’s unique now. Not only will they capture their own moments in their lives, but you have the opportunity to make your own custom memories too. So if something is happening that is really funny and you want to share it with your friends, you can take this custom memory and upload it to either thesims3.com or directly to Facebook without leaving the game.
GZ: The new camcorder item which allows players to record footage in-game from a first person perspective is something every sims player has asked for since day one! Are their any plans to expand it out so you don’t have to use the camera to see the world like that?
GN: No, nothing we’re talking about currently. We have all these life experiences and we really wanted to give players the ability to record them. I saw something recently where a new player was trying the game and we have a new wedding ceremony in Generations. They had a sim in the background pull out a video-camera and so they taped their wedding ceremony. They sent their sims home later and they were watching the wedding back on camera via the TV and it was such a cool moment where everything came together. I love the video camera because I’ve never seen the Sims from that perspective before and it’s so different to what we’ve seen. It’s so great to roam around the neighbourhood and see what other sims are up to, because you really feel like you’re there now.
GZ: Looking to what you can do with regards to pranks and things like that. Is this the cheekiest expansion you’ve ever done?
GN: Well yeah, there’s a bunch of ways you can get into trouble! The kids do it too, but I really love that aspect for the teens just because they do get angsty. They have these mood swings and of course the rebellious streak is fantastic for them. With the chemistry table you can have the teens get in trouble and it’s funny because you’ll pour a potion for another sim and leave it out on the side for them to drink, they’ll drink it and suddenly they’re racing to the bathroom. There’s just all sorts of ways to mess with people. It’s really great addition for give players who like to mess with their sims and like to screw with their lives.
GZ: Are there any pranks which have long term consequences?
GN: So the consequences really come from how the sims get in trouble, so with the pranks it might effect another sim for a short period of time. However the sim that starts the prank and then gets caught, that’s when you see the ramifications; maybe they have something taken away, maybe they are put in a time-out. They’ll start getting into more and more trouble and the more that happens, the harder they have to work into get back into good graces again. There’s a lot of consequences for what you do now.
GZ: The biggest question which always needs to be asked when an expansion arrives is what pushes this expansion to be more than just an content pack delivered via The Sims Store?
GN: We’re expanding everything across the entire age range of the sims and there’s a lot of gameplay here you haven’t seen before. If we’re talking the video camera, you have an entirely new way of looking at the world. We also have an entirely new profession in the game that we haven’t mentioned yet, the babysitter career – kind of similar to what we had in The Sims 3 Ambitions. You’ll bring over a bunch of kids, other sims will drop off their children and you have to take care of them. As you keep going along you’ll start getting more problematic children and you’ll have to deal with them. There is a lot of new gameplay in this pack. We’ve given you a small taste of it, but there’s plenty more to discover.
GZ: The imaginary friend is definitely Generations’ stand-out feature, in our opinion. Will players be able to make their own, is there only one template?
GN: No, the imaginary friend is personal for each sim that has one. They have different patchworks and colours that they appear in and what’s really cool about them is the ability to bring them to life and make them real sims. If you really love the imaginary friend it can become real and if it isn’t as important to you as a player or for your sim, they might just turn back into a doll again.
GZ: How does it work with regards to age? Do they disappear after a certain life segment or can you be a thirty year old man suffering a mid-life crisis who’s still able to hang out with his imaginary friend?
GN: Yeah you can still have your imaginary friend later in life. You might turn them real, but you certainly don’t have to. You might have an insane sim, maybe you give them a trait and they are a little off the wall; an imaginary friend makes a lot of sense for them.
GZ: It’s interesting with this expansion as it really is about bolstering content across a sim’s different life phases. How do you make playing an elderly sim exciting?
GN: The elders have new stuff; not only will they walk around with the canes, but it’s really funny to see what they’ll do with that. Elders are kind of cranky, they don’t like kids or teens too much. You’ll see when they start hanging around with them that they’ll start shaking their cane and yelling. For elders, it’s really an opportunity to reflect on everything that a sim has accomplished in their life. They like reminiscing and thinking about the good old days and really recalling all the good stuff that they’ve done in their lives.
GZ: How do you make that interesting from a player perspective? What happens if you have a boring sim who hasn’t really done much?
GN: That’s what is cool about The Sims as it’s really about telling the story that the player is interested in telling. If a sim hasn’t accomplished much in their life, maybe he or she goes to the grave and doesn’t have many friends remembering them. It’s a sad thing, but that happens in real-life and Sims 3 is a cool reflection of that.
GZ: It’s always a sad thing whenever a new numbered sequel of The Sims gets talked about because you guys get really good with an engine and then you have to focus on something new. Generations is only the fourth expansion, will there be more on the way?
GN: We have this very passionate community and they certainly love things that we’ve done in the past and you’ll see that with our expansions. Sometimes we bring back things that our players ask for, but with The Sims 3 Generations it’s a brand new thing which they’ve never had. Really when we develop stuff it’s an opportunity to introduce something new or give something to the community that they really love. We just keep building on that for the future.
GZ: Thank you very much for your time.
The Sims 3 Generations expansion pack will be released on June 3rd, exclusively for PC.
Tags: Sims 3 Generations, The Sims 3
Diablo III feature plus previews for Crysis 3, Dishonored and War of the Roses. As well as reviews for both The Walking Dead and Sniper Elite V2.
Download Now!
