Senseless Prototype Mondays
Senseless Prototype Mondays were a design exercise we employed during early Sims 3 development. The gist was that I'd throw out a vaguely Sims-related topic like "relationships" or "genetics", and the designers (including myself) would then come up with some novel way to incorporate that concept into a simulation, interactive toy, experience, etc. I'd announce the topic on Friday, we'd all noodle on it over the weekend, and then Monday would be blocked out for everyone to code up their ideas. We'd all get together at the end of the day and show up what we made on a big TV in the common area, discuss what worked and chase some of them into how they might manifest in The Sims proper.
To be honest, I can't say that many of these turned directly into shipping features, but many did inspire new ways of thinking that eventually did lead to innovations in the final product. Others just made us laugh. Some should probably never be witnessed.
Below is a collection of some of the prototypes created during those sessions. Many of these were created by me personally, but many were also entirely not. Apologies to the attributed designers if they wished some of these would stay buried forever :).
To be honest, I can't say that many of these turned directly into shipping features, but many did inspire new ways of thinking that eventually did lead to innovations in the final product. Others just made us laugh. Some should probably never be witnessed.
Below is a collection of some of the prototypes created during those sessions. Many of these were created by me personally, but many were also entirely not. Apologies to the attributed designers if they wished some of these would stay buried forever :).