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.

Another aspect of The Sims that very few games manage 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. It’s also simultaneously an area of design about which I am particularly rabidly passionate.

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.