Australian Gamer had a chat with the Rob Murray, CEO of Firemint, on The Sims DJ for the iPod. Below is a sample of the interview:
Yug: You’ve worked closely with EA on previous franchises such as Madden and Need for Speed, a Sims DJ game is a pretty different direction for that franchise though – how much creative licence did you have? Who came up with the idea?
Rob: EA approached us with the hi-concept and we’ve been very conscious of the fact that The Sims is one of their most valuable licenses all the way through the development process. EA wanted to create a fun game that combined aspects of The Sims universe and gameplay style, with the ability to incorporate real songs from your iTunes collection into the game. Within those guidelines we had a lot of scope for experimentation. We actually explored pretty broadly and tried a lot of different things. In the end I think the game is very close to the formula we were seeking.