❗ Please remember that the screenshots are Alpha software and do not reflect what may be in the final game.
Games Developer Conference (GDC) 2014 is well underway and Maxis have completed their first talk about ‘Concurrent Interactions in The Sims 4‘. In this talk they shown off 30 ‘new’ alpha screenshots of The Sims 4. Most of these are demonstrating certain aspects of the game engine but they look fantastic.
GDC Session Overview
In real life, people often do several things at the same time, but games typically limit agents to performing actions sequentially. For The Sims 4, we developed a system for authoring interactions that allows simulated people (called Sims) to express multiple concurrent behaviors. Interactions are largely data-driven and are defined in terms of constraints, which specify the state a Sim must be in to perform the interaction. Constraints are used to test whether interactions are compatible, and to drive decisions that Sims make about whether, how and where to perform an interaction. This system allows Sims in The Sims 4 to convincingly eat, watch TV, chat with other Sims, express emotion, and perform many more behaviors simultaneously. We believe that this powerful and simple technique could be applied to a similar effect in your game too.
Screenshots
Our View
The Sims 4, which has been shown off in an Alpha state, looks extremely promising. The new art style at the shown development stage works well and the lighting looks fantastic – especially when compared to The Sims 3. It’s small details like this which will make Sims 4 stand out. It’s clear that Maxis are trying to make our Sims more realistic and with a focus on The Sims themselves, and we’re excited to learn more over the coming months.
A huge thanks to our friends at SimsVIP for putting the screenshots into a ZIP!
