Can you give us a run down of how you guys crafted the controls? In what ways have you utilised the accelerometer? Any cool uses of the touchscreen you’d like to highlight?

On the iPhone, we have implemented full touchscreen control over 3D camera movement. As you would probably expect, touching an object, building, or another Sim allows you to view the interaction options you have to choose from.

For the camera controls, dragging with one finger moves the camera around the scene. Swiping up or down with two fingers tilts the camera up or down, changing the angle. Touching two fingers on the screen and then turning them rotates the scene.

There is a transparent bar on the right side that controls zooming, so that you can zoom in and get really close to the detail, or zoom out to view the full house or neighborhood.

PocketGamer conducted an interview with Justin Taber, the producer of The Sims 3 for iPhone.  In the interview, he points out ideas for future upgrades (in-app commerce, camera usage) as well as details on the traits and the gameplay.