GDC 2018 - Emergent Storytelling in The Sims
I'd been intending to do a GDC talk (or a couple if they'd have me) on various elements of The Sims and how they've evolved over the years and iterations. Having been involved in some way, directly or indirectly, with most Sims incarnations since the original and directing the engineering and design of a couple, I had this mountain of stories and examples of things that worked and a bunch that didn't. We did a bunch of prototyping that was pretty innovative at the time that I wanted to tell people about, but those were already getting pretty dated by the time I got my act together (you can still see a bunch of them on this site though, dated be damned).
Another aspect of The Sims that very few games mange to pull off is emergent and/or player-directed storytelling. There've been a few genuine standouts over the years (e.g. RimWorld) that manage to get there, often in a narrower context, but it's not an area of design that I see discussed much. That said, it's a class of designs that can often be applied additively to experiences that are less "squishy" than The Sims and which have more tightly controlled success/failure structures. It's also simultaneously an area of design about which I am particularly rabidly passionate. You can watch the entire talk below.
Small trigger warning for people who lose their minds when a presenter says "umm" a lot. If this is you, this is not the video for you. Also be warned that one of the audience comments submitted after the talk included the phrase "there was a lot of urine in it".
Your mileage may vary. No warranties expressed or implied.
Another aspect of The Sims that very few games mange to pull off is emergent and/or player-directed storytelling. There've been a few genuine standouts over the years (e.g. RimWorld) that manage to get there, often in a narrower context, but it's not an area of design that I see discussed much. That said, it's a class of designs that can often be applied additively to experiences that are less "squishy" than The Sims and which have more tightly controlled success/failure structures. It's also simultaneously an area of design about which I am particularly rabidly passionate. You can watch the entire talk below.
Small trigger warning for people who lose their minds when a presenter says "umm" a lot. If this is you, this is not the video for you. Also be warned that one of the audience comments submitted after the talk included the phrase "there was a lot of urine in it".
Your mileage may vary. No warranties expressed or implied.