Jeff Green (that dude who was a journalist from 1UP now MySims Agents producer) recently picked up a gig to host weekly EA Podcasts. This week, he teams up along with Samantha to interview Ben Bell, producer of The Sims 3. I spent some time listening in on the podcast. During the beginning, they talk about EA’s appearance during Comic Con 2009 and all of the various games that will be shown (sadly no Sim/Spore games – unless they are un-announced). Later on, they get to the questions. Here’s a brief rundown of the questions that were asked (this is me typing here – I would recommend you to listen yourself), along with a summary of Ben’s answers:
Q: Are you happy?
A: Happy in general or…? I’m happy with The Sims 3. Now able to spend more time with my daughter.
Q: How long total from time you started until release
A: Game was in development for about 5 years, was not involved until 2 years of the game’s release. A lot of folks started the project. Looked at others work in the game to appreciate the hard work the others put in. A lot of details were implemented.
Q: Ben, is there a way you like to play?
A: I used to play like an achiever, go after careers. Now that I have a family, I created them.
Q: Are there any particular user stories that you see in the community?
A: The stuff that interest me is seeing all the different themed families that mirror current event. Like looking at the household section. People make a lot of celebrities and tv show families – even worst case scenerios families.
Q: The delay in February…
A: There were signs hanging up for the release in February, but had to pull them down to replace as we needed more time. When you say your going to do something, there is a certain amount of pride you take. Taking the business out of the discussion…we felt that we needed to give the game more time. So we were all like we said what we didn’t do and were disappointed, but we needed to move it for different reasons – needed a smoother launch, get online services ready, wanted market campaign to be perfect. Spent more time with personality traits.
Q: When you started 2 years out from launch, how far would you say you came to at launch…Was it everything you imagined the game should be?
A: The initial plans for the game was everything we felt like it had been delivered. One of the big ideas was the premise of breaking down the walls and go around town along with personality traits and change the look of everything. The vision had been well defined.
Q: How much of the community feedback did you get from TS1 and TS2 to implement into TS3?
A: The Sims Studio was connected to the community and loved the feedback. Studio met regularly with fans, searching message boards – a lot of interacting. Honestly some of the ambitions we had were all things fans wanted as well.
Q: Do you ever have nights when you were at home trying to sleep and you had a moment of clarity to where you said “OMG, I’m in charge of the Sims Division?”
A: Yeah, I never heard the phrase don’t screw it up more than when I was working on this project. Its one of the challenges of working on the team. It’s not a good way to worry about all of the negative outcomes. In terms of how I felt at night? Well, I wake up and think of 500 things I had to do the next day – or the next week that I needed to write on paper. But it does feel good to work on The Sims 3.
Q: Coming from your background, was it interesting coming from dragons and goblins (past work) to say, baby making?
A: Hahaha, there are like RPG elements in the Sims 3. Totally different way of thinking and its fun.
Q: Was there any discussion of realism and design of The Sims 3?
A: Do you mean how real life it is or how it looks? (real life). We’re about real life – its inspiration.
Q: When you think about how realistic the game can be, does it bog your mind thinking how it can be a little too much?
A: No, I think the more you can make it like real life, the more interesting it is for players.
Q: How did the CAS get developed?
A: There was a group of people who focused on that. They explored cultures, clothing, etc. During testing, we always had to tell the testers to test other parts – they were always playing with CAS!
Q: Will you ever have the ability to interact at work?
A: I sure hope so!
Q: If you could compare being a producer on a video game and a director on a movie, do you think that is a fair comparison?
A: Yeah, I think so. Goals of both focus on presentation, creative decisions, budgets, etc.
Q: In these hard economic times, are you keeping your eyes on the pennies (budget wise)?
A: Its the decision of the company to put funds aside for some of the biggest titles.
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: These days I hang out with my wife and daughter (4 months). I’m an active road racer (biking), had a couple of bad crashes. Got an Amazon Kindle and do some reading. Work, family and bike.
Q: Do you have a cube (office)?
A: I have a small filthy cube. The first time I saw Rod Humble space, I was surprised how tiny it was. You’d think his title would have a bigger cube/office. You’re always going to have to move to another cube. Some people just keep boxes and get ready to move.
