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A documentary detailing the origin of The Sims.
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Catastrophe leads to inspiration
03:02 - The Toilet Game and financial trouble
07:34 - Shifting focus and AI
10:54 - Mixing 3D with 2D
12:54 - Puddles and Plumbobs
14:42 - Creating the perfect UI
16:07 - Making a fictional language
18:11 - Love is Love and E3 1999
22:06 - Slapping and wrestling with EA
23:57 - That soundtrack though
25:59 - Exceeding expectations and success among women
30:16 - User content, The Sims 2, Spore and Project Rene
Project Rene is the working title for a "next generation Sims game," widely speculated to be The Sims 5. Project Rene was officially unveiled during Electronic Arts's "Behind The Sims" summit on the 18th October 2022.
List of sources for this video: / 80201833
Music List:
01. Neighborhood 1 - The Sims OST
02. Neighborhood 7 - The Sims OST
03. Building Mode 1 - The Sims OST
04. Building Mode 6 - The Sims OST
05. Buy Mode 1 - The Sims OST
06. Buy Mode 3 - The Sims OST
07. Buy Mode 4 - The Sims OST
08. Building Mode 4 - The Sims OST
09. Neighborhood 2 - The Sims OST
10. Buy Mode 2 - The Sims OST
11. Neighborhood 3 - The Sims OST
12. Building Mode 3 - The Sims OST
13. Neighborhood 4 - The Sims OST
#TheSims #Documentary #WillWright
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out my latest documentaries on the history of Chris Sawyer (creator of Transport Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Locomotion): kzhead.info/sun/hJVugN1pbqafeHk/bejne.html as well as the history of Oddworld Inhabitants: kzhead.info/sun/Y5iGoculbqmVa2g/bejne.html Let me know which other game franchises you'd like to see documentaries on in the future!
"...so, they made the Sims more irrational..." and thus a million legendary memes and iconic game lore began LOL
it's ironic how one of the most avant garde and groundbreaking series in pc history has become so safe and stale over the years
you have to try really really hard to fail in Sims 4. Sims 1 and 2 it was so easy to just fuck your sims up totally, and the humour was a lot darker.
I’m so in love with the fact that they named their programming language Simantics.
that accidental kiss at e3 demo literally bringing a tear to my eye
The stats about how the game exploded hit even harder when knowing how many players were never counted in... in many non-West countries at least, lots of us would not have a computer or no money to buy games, so we would have that one burned CD with a key code jotted down on it that went around and we'd install The Sims on our house computer (with no or very slow internet access) or played our saves at our friends' house 😅 So many early secret Simmers 😏💖
Amazing video. Also still astounded by the sims 1 A.I. design in 2023. Like people complain about the stupidity of Sims but they aren't real people they are just pixels driven by objects. The fact that they can feel so alive to even be called "stupid" is an accomplishment. 😂😂
Oh man I am an OG sims stan, I can't even describe the awesomeness I felt finally getting my nana to buy it for me for my birthday! I got a bundle which included livin large and house party because I was a year late to the party lol but yes I am one of those female players crazy for the sims, and my next expansion pack I got was unleashed and I was stupidly excited about it for some reason... a funny memory i have was the guinea pig (that came with livin large for me) which I hardly bought for my sims but one time i did. It bit my sims and then they promptly start coughing everywhere which I though was strange but i wasn't bothered... until it started spreading around my whole family, and then a favourite sim of mine (the blonde roomie lol) just up and DIED and i was so traumatised. In the photo album it says "died of mystery illness". I was so shocked I told my mum in a panic haha I couldn't figure it out, this seemed like the game was cursed lol. I had NO idea it was the guinea pig! I isolated the Melissa Roomie and she survived and I was so relieved, which I also told my mum about but she didn't care lol. So crazy that this game still gives me mad nostagia 20 years later, and i will always be an og simmer lol (sims 1 and 2 only). This video was amazing thank you.
This is so familiar to me. I was an absolute sims fanatic, but I quickly discovered I was outnumbered by female simmers but I didn't care, I loved it more than I'd ever loved a game before. I remember the Guinea Pig illness! I was so freaked out, I thought all my sims were going to die. And oh god, when I got the house party expansion, and I had a party that was so good Drew Carey came. I didn't even know he was someone famous, I thought he was just like a guy who only went to good parties, and I ran into my mum to tell her Drew Carey had come to my sims party. She wasn't interested 😂 I think she kind of just smiled. But I was so happy.
@@failedstateupdate haha awesome yo have someone who can relate! Unfortunately my parties and my siblings ALWAYS had “zee mime” come haha I don’t think I ever had a drew Carey success party. Didn’t even know that was a thing until years later when I saw it on KZhead ;D
This is a criminally underrated channel, it’s clear how much effort and care you put into these documentaries! Keep up the excellent work!
The Sims was so important to my life (And not just the Sims Franchise, SimPark was a great game too and got me interested in learning about animals), and I still love The Sims. It's a good game to play when I'm stressed out and lets me express myself.
This is such an excellent and in depth look, the best technical exploration of the Sims I've ever seen. Please continue this throughout the series!
Patrick Barrett III, the man, the myth, the legend.
Would love to see even more on the Sims. Maybe one per each game? Yours is the first I've watched that talks about the technical process and I really enjoyed it :)
Skip 4 pls
how the hell this video only has 2k views? It was super informative and to the point. Kudos man
12k now
What I find so fascinating is how they were able to take something as complex as life itself (relationships, wants vs needs, life goals, form vs function, etc) and boil it down into a game that's so accessible and simple to understand that anyone can play it. And on top of that it has limitless possibilities to the point where you are always discovering something new even years after playing. It's no wonder it became a phenomenon.
Yeah not including children probably would have been a huge turn down for me. Since I was a child back then I was always more interested in creating kids sim and I'm sure a lot of people felt the same way.
As someone interested in video game development (having participated in video game projects) AND as someone who still enjoys the first Sims game, this video is so good and informative. Very educational for me too, I *adore* the explanations of the technical side! Thanks for all the research, I really wanted to know all these details. Will check out your other videos too. 😊
Great video! Really interesting to learn about the development process for the original Sims.
Great video. Would love to see a video like this on the sims 2 and 3 as well.
But not 4 (b/c it sucks)
This 30min-long documentary taught me a lot of things I didn't know, and I play The Sims since the 1 was released! Thank you for that
This is awesome! Appreciate the time & effort!
18:11 Right when it dropped, I remember reading in a gaming magazine that developers had many round table discussions about relationship possibilities. How pedophilia was an absolute no and the homosexuality option was shuffled back and forth on whether it should get the green light. I hadn’t played the game yet, so was pretty infuriated to see same sex relationships being compared to outright sexual abuse. So upon picking up a copy, I was relieved same sex couples made the cut, and even more so now to learn that there was total fanfare at the unexpected kiss on the demo for E3!
awesome work!
loved this video! it would be cool to see future coverage about the sims 1 for the ps2, which was the first sims game that i ever had.
Thank you for this, it was so well done!
I was obsessed with this game in 2001! It wouldnt run smoothly on my pentium 233 so it ran on the family celeron 533 compaq pavilion for many years
Wow! I've learned so much because of your video and your great work and explaination! I had no idea how much complicated and a head scratcher for years this game being a whole new genre and created in 90's. All the people that worked on it, giving tools for custom contents, even "streaming" it on their website, when streaming wasn't even a thing at all, no KZhead, no Twitch, no Social Networks. Kudos for sticking and beliving hard to their project and development. I don't know why, even though Sims 1's path finding/reaction is quite limited, can't place diagonal, moods/friendship are so hard to maintain in Sims 1... but I can't get the same pleasure and fun with Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4... though the Sims 1's the last 3-4 expansion packs left me meh... All those racoons, skunks, animals leaving piss on my plot, making my sims's overall mood drop big before leaving for work always annoyed me. Cleaning that everyday was annoying, time is already so limited, you fulfill a need and another needs is now low... and these weird magic objects or superstar... I never bothered with that. But something made me stick to Sims 1, maybe nostalgia, the simplicity ? I would love to see a remastered version of it, rebalance with alot of QoL added, maybe the ability to change the colors of your furnitures, floors, etc.
This is fascinating, I didn't know any of this! Thank you for making and sharing. I'd love a continuation of this for the other Sims games :)
Thanks for your Research and nice vid.
24:09 LOL did Cassandra just get so offended by Bella’s piano playing that she stopped being friends with her
I love when I get recommendations for documentaries of games that I love❣I love it even more when said recommendations are so well done and interesting, that am eager to absorb additional content from the creator/s❣ You have achieved just that❣ Thank you for all the time and research you put into this video, I look forward to watching your other content, as well as subscribing to see more released❣
Just as an FYI: Mateo has emphasis on the second syllable. =) And this is VERY cool. I'm glad I found this.
Yeah, I'm aware. I learned that too late, but at least I know now so future videos won't have that problem. Nowadays I try looking up pronunciations of names/places I'm unsure of, so I don't end up making an ass of myself.
How does this have only 1k views? Really well done. We can see you put a lot of work into it. From this video it's really clear why the sims ended up being such a huge success and why sims 4 isnt as strong as the others. Being the first of its genre surely presented it with a lot of challenges(and only now its getting some competition). 7 years in development wow. Also how cute the two female sims fell in love during the simulation.. my sims in sims 4 rarely do anything on their own can't imagine them falling in love without me initiating it somehow. I miss that. Thank you for the video keep it up. I would love to see one documentary like this for tropico. It kind of reminds me of the sims for its dark humour.
Thank you! Tropico is definitely a series I want to cover at some point. Not sure when I'll get around to it, as there's a lot on my list already and these documentaries take months to produce. My next documentary has already taken three months, as it's significantly larger than anything I've worked on to date, so I likely won't get around to covering Tropico until sometime next year at the earliest.
@@ReliableRhubarb oh wow 3 months . I will be waiting for it
It's up to 12k now
Excellent informative video!
Thank you, amazing video
Very nice video❤
this video is a must see for any sims fan
great content
I wish I could have played Tactical Domestic Simulator.
great video
16:27 🔖
I always thought the children sucked, the idea to make a family....but the kids don't do a lot. Which wouldn't have been so bad if they grew up, but they don't. Nobody does, they are all static. For the elderly I'd have been fine with a simple hair colour change then eventually dropping dead. Also the game not having a proper week system always rubbed me up the wrong way....but there is a calendar mod for that at least. I like this game, but some aspects of it are just a little bit too unfinished/refined/whatever. But, the first in a series can't have everything. All in all I do like the game still.
Nice name 🤔
Woohoo
I was obsessed with the sims and played it constantly for months... Until my stepfather heard that it was "a girls game" and "a dollshouse on the computer" and he broke my CD, and the CDs for the three expansion packs I owned. I was absolutely heartbroken, but he had decided it was "girly" and thus as a boy, I couldn't be allowed to play it as I might catch the gay.
God damn dude, that sounds horrible. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope you're in a better place now so that you can play all the "girly" games you want.
@@ReliableRhubarb yup, I got out of that house as soon as I could and have a much better life these days. I have the classic Sims 2 on my laptop and a save file I've had going for about a decade now. And I never see him, thank God. But yeah, my memories of the sims are bittersweet because of that. I have so many fond memories of playing it, spending way too long designing the family and writing bios for each family member, building up my house by earning money through jobs, moving into better houses, telling stories of my family in the photo album - and then coming home from school one day and him bursting into my room and snapping the cds into pieces in front of me. I'm pretty sure he made me uninstall it in front of him too, to make sure I couldn't ever play it again in case I worked out how to do so without the CD. Then he bought me one of the command and conquer games for my birthday, and said it was the kind of game I "should" be playing, rather than "the dollshouse" as he called it from then on. Thank God those days are over. Fantastic video by the way, definitely reminded me of the better times I had with the game even if it had a terrible ending and really reminded me of what I loved (and still love) so much about it, the open ended creativity of it all, making your own stories in what seemed like an infinite sandbox you were given, and just losing hours building my own little world in the computer. You definitely earned my sub.
Funny how nobody wanted The Sims but they wanted Will to continue working on Sim City and 20+ years later The Sims is still alive while Sim City has been a dead franchise for years lol
this video is so underrated