The SimGuru’s showing us behind the scenes & pack development process ?

I think in some cases it might help people to understand better. I do think some people would use that as a reason to dislike certain developers more. I think some people would still cling to their belief that this stuff is 'not difficult' to make, whether they see a behind the scenes or not ?

Yeah, I don't think a million vlogs would persuade some people that real deadlines and various kinds of budgets -- person hours, technical, financial, talent -- are a reality in product creation, ones you can't just wish away with "but the company is rich" or "we pay so much money." Having worked with similar budgets on products that people thought were expensive for companies people assumed could just throw more money at everything and that would make everything happen, I can attest to that reality. But it's not a reality you can see in action, and accepting it requires some faith in the people who are explaining how things work on the inside in creative-industry companies. (I'm sure some here think I'm now "making excuses for EA" when I state that this is a reality in all kinds of creative industries, including mine.)

Some years ago now, there used to be a thread in the Forums where they'd explain technical/design issues in detail. It didn't solve anything.

I'd love to see in-house production process video, though!

"luthienrising;c-17649252" wrote:
Yeah, I don't think a million vlogs would persuade some people that real deadlines and various kinds of budgets -- person hours, technical, financial, talent -- are a reality in product creation, ones you can't just wish away with "but the company is rich" or "we pay so much money." Having worked with similar budgets on products that people thought were expensive for companies people assumed could just throw more money at everything and that would make everything happen, I can attest to that reality. But it's not a reality you can see in action, and accepting it requires some faith in the people who are explaining how things work on the inside in creative-industry companies. (I'm sure some here think I'm now "making excuses for EA" when I state that this is a reality in all kinds of creative industries, including mine.)

Some years ago now, there used to be a thread in the Forums where they'd explain technical/design issues in detail. It didn't solve anything.

I'd love to see in-house production process video, though!

@luthienrising Probs cause simmers used to get more for their money, or at least more polished stuff. It's not like we haven't gotten attractions systems, free babies, complex relationships in the past now is it? If it was possible in 2004, how is it not possible in 2020? They can talk all they want about how spiral staircases are sooooooooo difficult to animate yet they were a thing a decade ago...

This is exactly the thing. Spiral staircases involve new design and animation taking place across a vertical rise in space. They are difficult. In Sims 4, that animation also needs to include different walkstyles/emotional walks, because we have more variety in how Sims move than Sims 3 did, so that adds to the design and animation work. The vertical rise part can involve new technical development, so that's another group of people to involve. All of these people have to be doing this in a coordinated way -- their timing needs to be right. Add in the design and making of multiple styles of circular staircases. Now add in the tech and design so that those stairs make sense at different wall heights and, to be really well done for this game, multiple stories. Add in some things like children sliding down banisters, Ghosts gliding down the staircase, Vampires flying in a circular path, and you have yet more complexity... but you'd feel the absence of those details if they weren't included.

And then, because new build mode elements have mostly been free (see the previous stairs addition, for example), that all has to fit outside a pack and have funds/budget of all kinds allocated to it. Just because most of those things came together at some point in Sims 3's 5 years doesn't mean that all of those things (because of the considerable added design and animation) have come together yet for Sims 4.

Probably the easiest way to budget a large, complex-to-organize addition like that is to make it part of a pack development. (I've worked on projects in my, less technically complex, creative industry that used project budget to help finance new development.) That adds its own complications, because part of what's being developed is being given for free (unless it isn't), and because it then also has to coordinate with all of the other parts of that pack and be on time. If some things don't work out well and the circular stairs have to be delayed, now you have a big pack element that needs filling in with something else, and you have to redesign anything in the pack that used those stairs.

Now add in that this is just one of many such complex requests to implement, and they can't all happen at once. So what do you manage to fit into a pack in a way that feels like it's on-theme first. These stairs? Bunk beds? "Freed" babies? Those are equally complex. I'm sure, from what SimGuruLyndsay said, that these things will happen... when they can. But it's just not that easy. You can't just plop them in whenever you feel like it and expect them to not be quarter-baked unsatisfactory token attempts.

I miss the tech thread.

Yes I would love to see a "Behind the scenes" documentary, to see them create Cas, testplay games and hear the exchange of ideas

I love the idea of that, and i would personally love to see it aswell. Specially because it would clear up some things the Devs/GCs said in regards to things being hard/impossible to make. I'm a 3d artist myself, and making most of the 3d assets in TS4 would take maybe 15 minutes per Object max, including Uvmapping and textures (at least build objects, furniture and such) so i don't see how some things were claimed to be difficult to make for the game.

I have to be honest and say this is not something that would interest me.

I think it would be cool to see what goes into creating and developing a pack