Rene Speculation: Lore and Narrative Design

Sims 4's "alternate timeline" is unpopular among the fanbase. My theory is that Sims team is now aware of the importance of lore and will provide greater care to this 20+ year old franchise.

Sims Community has reported that the next-gen Sims game will likely have more narrative elements via job listings.

Responsibilities

Guide the delivery of the following:

• Define and maintain the narrative vision of the project.
  
• Explore new ways to bring characters to life and create emotional experiences in a non-linear simulation experience.
  
• Work with multiple disciplines to direct and implement the characters, settings, goals, and conflicts from drafts in game.
  
• Work with the tools team to improve workflow and processes.
  
• Create design documentation to support prototyping efforts.
  
• Partner with Development Directors to track tasks, identify risk, and clarify changes in work.
  
• Partner with UX to design, research, and implement features, particularly for introducing narrative elements and decisions.
  
• Aid team leadership in gathering presentation materials.
  
• Playtest, attend UXR sessions, and participate in organizing feedback/insights.
  
• Document findings for future use in Sims development.
  

Qualifications

• Significant Narrative Game Genre design experience, especially in the area of creating the production pipeline to integrate story with the gameplay.
  
• Significant experience writing fictional stories, ideally interactive experiences.
  
• Capability to lead cross-discipline prototyping and idea iteration, actively participating in the development of a feature from start to finish.
  
• Experience with young adult fiction, pop-culture stories, in particular romantic narratives.
  
• Hands-on implementation for an interactive experience or mod.
  
• Excited by and helping define new business and distribution models like live services through the lens of narrative elements.
  
• Knowledge of popular interactive story machinima or mod communities a plus (ex: The Sims, Episode, Grand Theft Auto Online).
  
• Excellent communication and presentation skills required.
  

Personally, I don't think there is a need to rewrite fundamental characteristics, relationships, and timelines. Continue the history and build on the foundation.

Sims 3 added a backstory to the events of Sims 1 and 2. Now for the future.

Forum user @IVXXXVI wrote:

I really wish they continue the lore and mysteries from Sims 2. I think it would be really interesting to see for example Bella and Mortimer's grandchildren or Lilith Pleasant with Dirk Dreamer have a family together in the new game.

They could also mix it up meaning that they could also make descendants of returning families who were on TS3 or even TS4. :D

I agree. The Narrative Designers working on Project Rene have a lot of source material documented on the Sims Wiki for their research.