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skyjixies · 5 months

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ChatGPT Sims Challenge

Do you enjoy the unpredictability of life in The Sims 4? Do you always find yourself making identical sims, repeating the same traits and aspirations? Are you looking for a challenge that pushes the boundaries of your creativity? Say hello to the ChatGPT Sims Challenge, a thrilling adventure where AI takes the reins of your Sims' lives!

In this unique challenge, ChatGPT becomes your virtual storyteller, guiding your Sims through a life of excitement and adventure. From choosing your Sim's aspirations and traits to determining their career path and relationships, ChatGPT holds the keys to their destiny.

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Basic Rules:

You must adhere to all decisions made by ChatGPT. However, if ChatGPT selects content from expansion packs, game packs, or stuff packs that you do not own, please inform it and request an alternative choice

The goal of this challenge is to accomplish all selected life goals and aspirations within the lifespan of your sim, ensuring they are completed before your sim passes away.

No cheating is allowed in this challenge, except in cases where it's necessary to resolve bugs or technical issues.

Once the first Sim is generated, you must commit to completing their goals before requesting a new one from ChatGPT. Avoid regenerating Sims due to perceived difficulty; remember, this challenge is meant to be challenging!

Immerse yourself fully in the lives of your sims, exploring their personalities and aspirations as determined by ChatGPT. Let their unique journeys unfold authentically!

Maintain the lifespan on normal, unless you're seeking to increase the challenge by shortening it.

Document your sim's journey and share it with the community using #ChatGPTSimsChallenge on social media platforms to inspire and engage fellow simmers!

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How To Begin The Challenge:

Step 1: Access the prompt by clicking on the provided link, then simply copy and paste the entire text into your chat with ChatGPT.

Step 2: Upon sending the prompt, you will receive a message resembling the example below. Utilize the details provided in this message to commence the creation of your sim.

Step 3: You're all set to embark on your Sim's journey! Feel free to request bonus challenges from chatGPT as your Sim makes decisions. And don't forget to share your experience online using #chatGPTsimschallenge. Happy Simming!

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I hope you enjoy this challenge xox

Made by Skyla (@skyjixies)

#sims #sims 4 #sims 4 cc #sims 4 custom content #sims 4 gameplay #sims 4 challenge

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graywritesoccasionally42 · 1 year

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So I wrote an entire essay comparing Loki from The Bifrost Incident to Loki from the Prose Edda for my Medieval Literature Class, and I figured I'd post it here in case anyone wanted to read my analysis on her character

Essay Under Cut--(my formatting got fucked up by the hellsite but what can you do?)

“Is this truly me? What have I left behind?”

A look into how The Bifrost Incident interacts with its source material

Title from “Losing Track” by The Mechanisms

In the early 1200s, Snorri Sturlson wrote his famous collection of Norse mythology called The Prose Edda. In this compilation, we met many gods, goddesses, and creatures, including one who is arguably the most popular Norse deity--Loki, the god of mischief and general shenanigans. The Prose Edda presents Loki as dishonest, violent, at times incompetent. Recently though, about 800 years later, Loki has attracted the interest of many modern writers who have adapted Loki’s story to explore contemporary problems. One particular adaptation, The Bifrost Incident by English steampunk band The Mechanisms, imagines her to be just, intelligent, and loving. There are many striking differences between these two versions of Loki, the most significant being gender, mortality, and how their stories end. This is important because this album re-examines and redefines Loki’s identity, and how we view this Norse deity in a modern context.

To fully delve into how The Mechanisms’ adaptation works, I think some context for the band is necessary. The Mechanisms were an English steampunk band, self-described as “Storytelling Musical Cabaret'' that operated from 2010 until 2020. The Band members themselves were in character at all times as the immortal pirate crew of the Starship Aurora. They also took on the roles in the tales they told. So for example, Tim Ledsam was the guitarist for The Mechanisms, but when he was onstage he played Gunpowder Tim, Master at Arms on the Aurora, and when the band performed The Bifrost Incident, he voiced the character of Loki. The Mechanisms were best known for their clever reworking of mythologies, creating queer narratives and telling queer stories, and their love of tragedies. In their last concert (recorded as a live album), Death to The Mechanisms, Jonny D’ville--the band’s first mate/lead vocalist. played by Jonny Sims--and Ashes O'Reilly--the band’s quartermaster/bassist, played by Frank Voss--had a conversation that encapsulates the crew's relationship with unhappy endings:

[Jonny]

"We happen to stumble across tragic situations where everyone dies. I mean, obviously there are stories where people live but we just choose not to tell them."

[Ashes]

"Yeah, 'cause they're boring."

[Jonny]

"Yeah…”

The fact that this conversation happened during some technical difficulties in the song “Terminus”, the finale of The Bifrost Incident where the entire star system is consumed by a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror, only adds credence to their claims.

With that bit of explanation out of the way, let’s discuss the similarities between Sturlson’s work and The Mechanisms’ adaptation of it. Loki from The Prose Edda and Loki from The Bifrost Incident share many important similarities. These similarities are important because they make the character recognizable, giving us a reference point and allowing the audience to connect the new version to the original. The Mechanisms play on the audience’s knowledge of Norse Mythology, creating an insider audience. Listeners feel like they are in on the joke, as they understand what myths or details are being referenced. The Mechanisms also use these similarities to create puns, as they often do in their albums. For example, in The Prose Edda Baldur is killed by Mistletoe, and in The Bifrost Incident Loki kills Baldur with Missile 2 (the second missile).

Another thing The Mechanisms’ adaptation has in common with Sturlson’s work is how they develop ideas through music. The Bifrost Incident is a musical album, with each song continuing the story, much like the soundtrack to a musical. It alternates between spoken narration and songs, weaving music into the fabric of the tale. The Prose Edda does this as well! We have evidence that the original myths were probably put to music, connecting this modern work to its source.

This being said, there are significant differences between the Loki of The Prose Edda and the Loki from The Bifrost Incident. I’ve selected just three to discuss at this time, the ones I think are the most important. The first is gender. In The Prose Edda Loki and Odin are firmly male, using exclusively male pronouns. There is a specific instance in the text where Loki turns into a mare and gives birth to Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged steed. This is seen in a negative context, as a way to shame or punish Loki. In The Bifrost Incident, however, Loki and Odin are gender-bent, using exclusively female pronouns. Loki’s gender expression in the album is further complicated by how her character is voiced. Gunpowder Tim, who as far as I can tell is a cisgender man, voices this specifically female character. The use of a more masculine-sounding voice actor for a character that not only uses feminine terms and pronouns but also is married to another woman in the album introduces a new, interesting layer of queerness to the narrative. Because of this casting decision, it’s a commonly held belief among fans that Loki is a trans woman in the album. These choices help the audience explore modern queer themes through the lens of Norse mythology. And it creates a contrast to how gender, sexuality, and queerness in general, were talked about in Snorri Sturlson’s time.

The second difference I’d like to discuss is Loki’s mortality (or lack thereof). In The Prose Edda Loki is a god, an immortal being that could affect the world around him and cause problems on large scales. This allows many myths to happen, most strikingly the ones where Loki transforms into an animal to either cause problems or fix a problem he caused. Now this is complicated by the fact that Snorri Sturlson did not believe the characters in the myths he was compiling were gods. He lived in a Christianized world, trying to compile stories to save them for poets. Either way, Prose Edda Loki is an immortal deity. But in The Bifrost Incident, it is important that all our characters are mortal. It intensifies the tragedy of Loki and Sigyn, their sacrifice and Odin’s demise. It helps us relate to the characters in a way that we don’t get if they’re immortal. In the narration “Cold Case”, we learn that Loki was thought to be dead, and in the song “Sigyn” we get the heartbreaking reunion between Loki and her wife, Sigyn. But the reason I cry every time I listen to “Sigyn” is because of how heartrendingly happy Sigyn is to see her wife, alive and in front of her, and then see that relief ripped away as she realizes that Loki doesn’t recognize her. The humanity, the fear and permanence of death, of losing those you love, is one that we as an audience can easily relate to.

My final difference, and possibly the most important difference, is the ending to Loki’s story. After killing Baldur in The Prose Edda, Loki is chased down by the Aesir and eternally punished: He is imprisoned below the earth, tied down with the entrails of his sons, and has a snake set above him to drip poison into his eyes. His wife, Sigyn, stays with him by choice, holding a cup above him to catch the venom, but the vessel can only hold so much before it must be emptied. So when Sigyn has to empty the cup the venom gets into his eyes, and his thrashing is the etiological myth for why earthquakes happen. Eventually, Loki is destined to escape and kick off Ragnarok (the end of the world), where he fights against the Aesir--sailing in on Naglfar and fatally injuring Heimdall before dying himself. These all add up to an ultimately evil view of Loki, even if he is a bit sympathetic. He turns against the gods and his children are the cause of much destruction. However, the Loki of The Bifrost Incident has a completely different characterization. After her memories are returned to her, she leaves Odin to her madness and goes to find Sigyn. She tells Sigyn what they must do to delay the eldritch train as long as possible, keeping the end of the world from happening for 80 years--

“They uncouple the [train] carriages behind [them] and Loki lays upon the altar. Sigyn pushes a single line into her wife's heart and holds it tight. All she lets through is a drip drip drip, flowing through the glyphs and gears. When Loki's heartsblood is gone, the train will arrive, but until then, they are together.”

Loki chooses to sacrifice herself to stop the end of all life in her star system. This is almost directly opposite of how Loki acts in The Prose Edda. She is noble, in contrast to his cowardice.

I think it’s important to consider why these changes were made. Some are more obvious--The Mechanisms always committed to the bit at full throttle. It’s evident from their stage presences that they cared about the storytelling more than anything else. So many of the more minor changes are to keep to the aesthetic choices the band made--setting it in space, steampunk and cyberpunk imagery, and the puns we talked about earlier. Some choices were made to turn the original myths into queer stories. Making Loki and Sigyn a lesbian couple, as well as having Loki use feminine terms and pronouns while being voiced by a traditionally masculine voice actor, fall into The Mechanisms’ commitment to telling queer stories. Many of the band members themselves are queer, and the vast majority of their fanbase identifies as LGBTQ+. And finally, The Mechanisms only tell tragedies. We discussed this at a few earlier points, how the change from god to mortal fed into the tragedy of the story they were trying to tell.

So why does this matter? Why should we care about a Steampunk concept album written in 2017 that no one has ever heard of? The Prose Edda was written to preserve poetry, religion, mythology, and meaning post-Christianization. Why was The Bifrost Incident written? I believe that it’s a commentary on corrupt government systems, as seen with Odin, as well as a cautionary tale about the dangers of pushing too far without the proper safety precautions. It’s also just a fun retelling of myths that most are fairly familiar with in a fun, new setting we never would have expected. The Bifrost Incident takes stories written hundreds of years ago and creates a modern narrative that is as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking. And I hope this paper, if nothing else, convinces you to listen to the Album.

#Loki #norse mythology #the mechanisms #the bifrost incident #loki tbi #tbi loki #The Prose Edda #the mechs #snorri sturluson

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abbysimsfun · 2 months

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Sims In Bloom: Generation One Summary (Daisy)

Based on the Sims In Bloom Challenge by Tasha @a-sims-garden posted here

Gen 1 - Daisy (white, yellow)

Gardening has always been your passion. Owning a large, healthy garden is all you’ve ever wanted in life, even if your nails constantly have soil under them and you have so many broken pots you’ve lost count. Your happy place is meditating in the shade of the fruit trees that you grew yourself from tiny saplings. You sit and wonder what your family will grow to do, and hope that they will flourish just as beautifully as your garden has. This is the start of your family legacy!

Live on a lot with the lot challenge ‘Simple living’

Grow a cowplant and keep it alive for as long as you live (if it dies, immediately plant a new one)

Grow 5 perfect plants

Marry a sim who also has the ‘loves outdoors’ trait

*Gain the Outdoorsy lifestyle

*Grow a death flower

Bonus (My own additions. I might use cheats to help complete these if I feel like it because I'm just piling on stuff to do, but I'll try to make it plot or give it some kind of difficulty.)

Befriend all seven Henford NPC townies (Lavina and Rahul Chopra, Michael Bell, Agnes Crumplebottom, Agatha Crumplebottom, Kim Goldbloom, Sara Scott) *taken from a later Sims In Bloom generation that is supposed to take place in Henford but I'll be in Chestnut Ridge instead.*

Plant all base game plants to earn gardening plaque**

Grow all 5 oversized plants to enter in Finchwick Fairs

Catch all base game fish to earn fishing plaque *not completed until after Generation 2 had technically begun*

Complete Finchwick errands and give Finchwick Favors *given to Neal who made and gave away eco-matic smog vacs. Heather completed one of the errands for Dylan Kraus, the grocery deliverer*

All challenge tasks completed. All bonus tasks also completed BUT the UFO plant was found in the gallery after I got bored of waiting for the rocket ship adventure with the UFO fruit to come around after bungling it the first time.

** Uncle Karl came about after a random sim glitched and walked into the Nesbitt home in Henford (and up the stairs to the second floor!) before promptly leaving again. The sim was randomly assigned the surname Nesbitt, so of course I had to play this up and give Neal a brother (I used MCCC to make it so).

I put a UFO fruit from the gallery on his lot, then sent Daisy over before 5am every day for three days so the plant would bloom and she could tend it until harvest. Basically cheating but not part of the official rules so I don't care. Then she grew her own and my obsessive pursuit of the gardening plaque was done! Immediately had her quit her job as an "astrobotanist" (astronaut) and go back to gardening from home, but never tried too hard with it since she'd accomplished so much and the Florist career comes back later in the In Bloom Challenge.

<- Generation 1 from the beginning Pt2 Pt3 Pt4 Pt5 Pt6 Pt7 Pt8 Pt9 Pt10 Pt11 Pt12 Pt13 Pt14 Pt15 Pt16 Pt17 Pt18 Pt19 Pt20 Pt21 Pt22 Pt23 Pt24 Pt25

Generation 2 time! ->

#sims 4 #sims 4 gameplay #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 legacy #sims in bloom #ts4 #ts4 gameplay #ts4 legacy #ts4 screenshots #gen 1 #henford on bagley #sims 4 story #ts4 story #legacy challenge #sims legacy #ts4 legacy challenge

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serioussimming · 2 years

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Los Santos - Progress Report 2022 - Part 4b: Back on track talking about roads

Okay now again...

This is a pretty in depth, technical and passionate talk about road textures I guess

During last years work on Los Santos (which was mainly september... Okay actually I think it was only september. But hey I haven’t made that much progress in any other year!) I replaced some road textures and reworked some road layouts that already existed. When a project is stretched out in such a long time window (2016-now) you not only work in one direction (from start to finish) but you also occasionally completely rework stuff from before. In all these years from 2016 this has been the only CAW project I’ve worked on. With every year I’m learning new quirks and tricks about the game and caw.

Now this is the point where I diverge from Part 4a

My issue with the previous roads is that they were compelety random textures grabbed from everywhere (GTA V Assets, Store Worlds, Internet and more...). They kind of looked like what I wanted them to look like but they didn’t match that well across the board.

If there was one single thing that I could change about how the worlds work in The Sims 3 it would be the road system. Don’t get me wrong. The roads in The Sims 3 are miles ahead (haha miles) of what we got in say The Sims 2. Sims 3 Roads can curve, run in any angle to the world grid, have different textures, working bridges,... Thats all stuff that Sims 2 can’t. At least from neighborhood view. In lot view roads can be a bit more flexible. But still I’d say that Sims 3 Roads are superior. Yet they only have one lane per side. They always have a sidewalk. They always have the same width. They are completely flat and normal maps can only do so much. I mean it’s okay. Its not Cities:Skylines or SimCity but things could be better.

My new roads work around many of the issues that I previously had with Sims 3 Roads. The new road textures are AGES ahead of the old ones and I spent like 2 weeks making and adjusting the textures (shoutout to the Pixelmator Pro developers for creating an Image Editor that doesn’t drive me crazy)

But let me go into detail:

The difference in detail when you see before and after next to each other is simply astonishing even for me. Look at how much more grungy and used the new roads look. Also note the asymmetric nature of them.

The old textures for this road were mainly modified roads from Roaring Heights. I had then made minor modifications by adding a curb to give the road more dimension. I originally picked that road because I liked the yellowish sidewalk which is also in Sunset Valley I think and it was the only one that also had these red plastered crosswalks that LA is so famous for.

Here you can see more of how much more detail the roads have. The curb has proper coloring compared to the sidewalk and there is a *whatever you call that part between the curb and asphalt* which has a dirty appearance while not looking too repeated.

Note: The curb has no seams and seems to be like one super long piece of curb (new insult unlocked you pice of curb) because the road detail texture repeats three times in one sidewalk til. If there was a seam the curb pieces would be super small.

A difficulty with repeating textures is always making them look detailed, contrasted and sharp without making them look too busy and repeated.

The sidewalk texture is a blend of the default sidewalk texture and a concrete texture. I then changed the color and added details by hand like the all the cracks and irregularities. Notice how the sidewalk gets very slightly darker to the seams too add more depth. Something like this has to be done very subtly so it doesn’t get overdone.

By crafting the road textures myself I can also work around issues that I had before.

I was actually a bit sad replacing the road texture in the vinewood hills area since that light road texture was the very first I used in this world. It was here from the start you could say. The textures were sourced from Lucky Palms where they’re used as freeway.

Now with the new roads I can fix the crossings that can’t have transparency on the sidewalk. The corners have the dirt/sand texture painted onto them so It gives them the illusion of transparency and they blend with their surroundings.

The road details are also handpainted. The yellow lines in the middle and the white borders. In the newer picture you can see how this unifies the different types of roads. The darker old road had white lines in the middle, while the lighter road had yellow lines that were also bigger.

Notice how the old roads were all over the place. The dark and light roads had no actual connection to each other. I mean they were connected but there is no relation between them. They could very well be in two completely different worlds. They don’t tell a story. The new roads do. You can see how these two roads are subject to the same law. The lines have to be the same as that’s how they are meant to be. You could think about how the darker roads are more fresh and how they were paved onto the lighter roads because they were too broken but they didn’t pave the road completely because of financial constraints and other parts still being okay.

It’s laughable but you can really think of an entire story just for a section of a road.

Now onto my favorite part about the new roads! I got really excited when I realized I could do this. Using the road detail overlay I created road sections that are bicolored. In my opinion this little detail makes the world look so much more realistic. It just gives it that extra layer of depth and I love it.

Previously I only had roads connected to each other that had completely different colors (top picture). Now I am able to connect these in a way that makes them look like only one side got new pavement and the other lane was still okay so they left as is. This one road you see in the bottom picture looks completely natural like one road that got new pavement in some areas, when it’s actually technically 3 different roads:

more used light colored road, mix of new and old road, newer dark road

How much a neighborhood can change when you replace the roads. Kind of funny how clean perfect roads were replaced with cracked used roads yet the crappy roads make the area look better.

Some roads in Los Santos are really, really broken and in dire need of complete repaving! Why do I even pay taxes??? I wanted a road that resembles just that! Look at how broken the road is. Full of seams filled with tar and how each tile is colored a bit differently. Also I alternated the direction of the road every now and then to break up the repetition. Do you notice the thin lines that run on each tile?

I feel like this was the hardest road to not overdo. It’s a really busy pattern but in my opinion it still looks good. For each road I had to balance the textures between GTA V’s art style, Sims 3′s art style, my desired art style, and reality. I wanted to make them look as good and realistic as I could without making them look completely out of place. Always remember: They need to look good with a Sim standing on them, a house being next to them and a Sims 3 basegame car on them. All of these have to fit together without making any one of them looking edited in. I cant replace every single game asset after all. Or could I? *Vsauce music starts playing*

Road beside 12 Residue Apartments

Only a few weeks ago I learned that red curb means no parking lmao

Do you notice that one side of the road looks a bit different from the other? One side is lighter and other a bit reddish. Another example of depth/detail

Wow. You really read a nerd talk about roads for like 10 minutes?

Now after my TED Talk about Sims 3 Roads is over I may have come to the conclusion that the roads are the single most important thing to mind when creating a world (next to terrain). They are the connection between every single point in the world and a gateway into the heart of the created world. When you see the roads, you know what kind of place the world is trying to represent. Just take a look at all the different EA worlds and how different the roads can be (e.g. Monte Vista vs Twinbrook).

Now thank you for reading this <3

I hope the road of your life is not as bad as this...

#ts3 #sims 3 #the sims 3 #caw #sims 3 caw #roads #caw road #los santos #sims 3 los santos #los angeles sims 3 #gta v #sims #progress report #sim santos #video game development #worldbuilding #create a world #ty for coming to my tedtalk

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every-character-ever-poll · 1 year

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I'd also appreciate splitting up characters from the same fandom instead of running 3-5+ in a row. If it were only 1 or maybe 2 characters from a fandom I'd never heard of I'd be willing to consider it and vote as usual, but when it's obvious someone with a bias spammed the form and they all run one after the other I just get annoyed and scroll past without looking into it, which is less enjoyable for anyone. I hear you that there are technical difficulties, this is just my 2 cents on what option would be preferred.

That's fair. I think I underestimated the amount of people who find this annoying (that's not said in a rude way I promise, I am genuinely surprised). i appreciate the consideration of the problems on my end, and I do hear you.

I will say, in the upcoming 70~ polls, there is one fandom submitted 5 times in a row (The Sims 2, being posted first tomorrow), and after that, the largest amount of concentrated submissions is 4 (once) and 3 (twice). I don't mind switching around the The Sims polls tomorrow, but I am hesitant to implement that as a permanent feature. I would like to trust in the people submitting that they will be respectful of the few rules I have set out and not spam, though I may include that disclaimer on the form as well when I next open it up, just to be safe.

#not a poll #asks #not a week goes by without some kind of issue with the blog (said with no intention of making anyone feel bad. this is a me problem mostly)

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raspberrylix · 1 year

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anyone still remembers this used to be sims blog?

i do, after like a year since last sims related post (lol) so i decided to build something, that something became a kuroko inspired apartment in san myshuno.

a small apartment in the heart of lively fashion district is a perfect fit for a man and his puppy (fun challenge: count the toys number 2 has hidden around the place!)

this one bedroom apartment has a spacious living space with an open renovated kitchen with newest appliances all the way from the north!

the bathroom is... clean, it's nothing special. let's move on to more interesting things, shall we?

kuroko has already made this place a home and we could not be more proud!

oh the basketball? there are many oh them, which one? the one on the wall? i see.. i was told that things on the wall display under the sconce were gifted to kuroko by his friend from america. there's a reason why such bright red cap is on a display in a room without much red. i think the same friend also left an umbrella when he stayed here last time.

If there are no questions, i'd like us to move on to the bedroom, the views outside are impeccable i'm going to tell you all about it- there are still questions :/ the photos? just few photos kuroko took with his friends during a high school championships. such personal details in the houses always makes me happy

now shall we-- you want me to zoom in on my clients' personal photos? yeah, sure! too bad due to technical difficulties only one survived (i know there's inaccuracies and mixed up jersey numbers, this one photo took me over an hour to get, between sims being sims and game crashing more than once. after noticing too late i was not going to do that all over again for a prop, i'm sorry. let's say kuroko and kagami mixed theirs up and after the photo was taken, everyone had a great laugh, okay?)

at last, the bedroom! the room isn't big so an open closet situations was the best decision. it leave so much more walking space and a puppy can go wild. kuroko went for a double bed, and a string light canopy as the main light source for the room, which isn't always necessary as the floor to ceiling windows let more than enough light from a vibrant city, both during the day time AND night time! the painting looks good too!!

the photo on the bedside table? yup, that's kuroko's friend from america! glad to say i can show the full size photo!

hope you enjoyed our virtual house tour! our next one should start in XYCSY minutes, strap yourselves in!

if you made it this far, i appreciate it so much lmao. miss building a lot, so this was very fun, tired to build a huge house for a few knb characters but after struggling for a bit, i was harshly reminded that i cant build big houses, not even modern. but the joy of looking into what could signal to others that this is apartment that belong to kuroko in a way that i see it was really fun. like finding the sims, finding the outfits, finding the pose as im still not equip to do 3d models. then putting this all together and nearly rage quitting due to game crashing. but that's why we love this game, right? right??

maybe someday ill get to revisit this build and fix the already mention and not mentioned details, but for a first proper post in a while, I don't hate it and that's a huge progress <3

also, in my last story&build post i was complaining about not being able to paint ceilings and now we can! maybe when i post next, there will be more hair color options? nah, im hoping for too much, aren't i.

outfits were made by @twoohugs !

#sims 4 build #sims 4 cc #kurokos basketball #sims 4 #simblr #黒子のバスケ #knb #kuroko tetsuya #san myshuno

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l-1-z-a · 1 year

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Summary of Will Wright’s Masterclass on Game Design and Theory

18 key takeaways from the creator of Sims

Games give us the opportunity to see the world through different perspectives. All of us are set in our own little world view. We think we see the big picture, but we really only see a little slice of it surrounding our lens. Games allow us to experience different world views than the one we are used to through play and story. Play is just exploring, experimenting, trying different things. Genres of games simulate different types of play in the real world but with very low cost of failure.

As a game designer, you are creating a toy, one which the player turns into a game as they interact with it using their imagination. You want to create something unique, but also relatable to the masses. Game design involves not just the computer in front of you, but also the computer that is the player’s brain. You create a storyline for your game, and the player builds on that storyline based on the actions they choose in the game.

You can leave it to the player to decide what is the win-state. When Will designed Sims, he was really creating an open-ended toy, and it’s the player that decides what type of city they want to build, and they’re creating their own rules for scoring.

Game technology amplifies player creativity. It used to be that you had to have great technical and fine art skills to be able to create something and show it to others, but now within games, it’s easy for anyone to create new characters and worlds and share them. For many players games are an outlet for not just entertainment but also creative expression.

Game ideas can be developed through circling a topic from many different views. Will gets his game ideas from deep diving into a subject of study that interests him, looking at an initial game concept from maybe even 20 different angles, building out sketches and models, and slowly zeroing in on the 2 or 3 that works best and developing them in detail.

Build the cheapest simplest prototype and test it. Take an agile approach to figuring out what works and doesn’t work. Don’t invest more money and time than necessary to figure out the questions you need answered in development. Keep it simple and efficient.

You are getting the player to build a mental model in their head. Human behavior is derived from mental models. In building mental models, we take in data, look for patterns, schemas, weave them together to form ways of thinking, and use that to decide how to behave. In a game, you are trying to create a world of possibilities through which the player can interact with based on these mental models.

Enable player communities. There are casual players, browsers, collectors who like to download themed collections of things others have created, webmasters who build collection websites and have others contribute to them too, and the core creators who are feeding these websites. For many players, their involvement in the gaming community is a part of their personal identity.

Allow the player to take control and go into a flow state. Design the game so that the player doesn’t feel like they’re just getting on for a ride, but actually controlling the ride. Challenge them just enough so that it is not too boring or too difficult, but is right at the edge of their ability so that they can enter an enjoyable flow state. Allow the player the freedom to choose the difficulty level, but entice them with rewards to take on greater challenges.

Create nested loops of success and failures and make fail states light and humorous. You can have multiple challenges going at the same time, some taking longer than others. Just as in learning in real life, the more times you fail, the more you learn and the better you get. Iterations are key. To entice the player to keep trying, make sure the failures are understandable so they can learn from it, and light-hearted and enjoyable.

Develop a game language. This is the system of signs and symbols that you use to communicate with the player and influence their behavior in the game. Game nouns are the objects and people that the player can interact with in the game, game verbs are the actions they can take, and game adjectives are the subjective characteristics of the game that influence how the player feels. Common metaphors and archetypes can be useful. Design visual and audio aesthetics to enhance your game language.

Develop the game mechanics. These are the rules of the game. Think of what interactive experience you want to deliver and work backward to figure out the rules. Keep the mechanics somewhat of a black-box though, because then the player may start to see more than there is. Due to randomness, sometimes situations will emerge where it seems it was programmed when it wasn’t. Make sure though that the outcome of the game actually depends on player agency and not just chance. Play games with an analytical mind and start identifying mechanics in other games and collect elements you like for your own game design.

Use feature triage to determine scope and recognize when you’ve reached the local maxima. Feature triage is when the designers work with the engineers to prioritize the list of possible features to build by comparing their relative cost and value. When it seems no matter what you change you’re making things worse, you’ve reached the local maxima of your current design. There may still be a better design, but you’ve essentially reached the best version of your current design.

Play test as early as possible. Run a kleenex test, where two people who’ve never seen the game before test it out together without any instructions, and see if the game is able to convey what it’s meant to. This will reveal where there are differences between how you intended something to be interpreted and how it is actually interpreted. They won’t always say to you directly or exactly what the problem is. For example if the testers give suggestions for improvement, you should reverse engineer where they could’ve had problems that would’ve led to those suggestions. In the next test, use a brand new set of testers, never the same ones, that’s why it’s called the kleenex test.

Use metrics as guides but know they aren’t everything. When someone is reaching for the controller excitedly and saying let me try that, or they don’t seem to want to stop playing, those are obviously good signs. For more systematic measures, you can look at things like failure rates across different player types. Sometimes the demographic you initially target may not be the actual ones that your game becomes most popular with. Focus groups can have misleading results because participants are not game designers. You cannot describe a game concept in a focus group and expect participants to reliably imagine their experience playing it.

Have a great pitch and choose your revenue model wisely. A good pitch focuses on the player experience and inspires you to wonder how the game works and start imagining playing it in your head. There are many ways to monetize, but free to play models usually won’t work for small independent developers. It’s usually only roughly the top-paying 5% of the audience that generates majority of the revenue, so you’ll need heavy mass marketing investments to generate a large enough player base for a free to play model to be sustainable.

Study systems in the natural and social world to adapt them into your game design. Common game dynamics such as growth, allocation, destruction, and evolution all exist in the real world. Study paradigms such as cybernetics, system dynamics, cellular automata, chaos theory, and network theory. Design to encourage emergent behavior. Introducing even simple rules layers within your system can create incredibly complex unpredictable outcomes.

Game design draws from many different fields. It incorporates learnings from not just things like entertainment and storytelling, but also architecture, product design, fine art, mathematics, cognitive psychology. For example Sims started from the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. You can actually study anything, make it interesting, approachable and interactive, and it becomes a game.

These are just the ideas I found most insightful. The full course, which is 4 hr 16 min, can be viewed at masterclass.com

#Will Wright #game desing #masterclass #game development #gamedev #medium

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blueheavensims · 1 year

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Upcoming events at Sims 2 Shenanigans

Sorry for the recent schedule-juggling. I’ve moved Hold That Pose up a week to make room on the calendar to do a makeup of A Light in the Darkness, due to some unforeseen technical difficulties. So those who were looking for some basic posing techniques, it’s a week earlier.

Saturday, July 8th at 13:00 (GMT -6)- Hold That Pose!

Host: Ocelotekatl Topic: Posing tips & tricks Tools needed: None, aside from TS2 itself. This is a presentation about helpful mods, tips, and techniques for getting that perfect pose in-game. Approximate time: 1 hour Suggested for: Beginners

This little workshop is intended to introduce in-game posing techniques.

Saturday, July 15th at 13:00 (GMT -6)- A Light in the Darkness (Redux)- Part 1

Host: Ocelotekatl Topic: Creating Decorgal-style accessories, start-to-finish Tools needed: SimPE, Photoshop, Milkshape Approximate time: 1 hour Suggested for: Intermediate to experienced creators. Some of the techniques discussed are a bit complex.

This is a redux of a previous workshop we presented about Decorgal-style accessories. Because it’s a bit on the long side, it’s being presented in two parts. Part 1 includes an introduction and building the base lamp object.

Saturday, July 22nd at 13:00 (GMT -6)- A Light in the Darkness (Redux)- Part 2

This is a redux of a previous workshop we presented about Decorgal-style accessories. Because it’s a bit on the long side, it’s being presented in two parts. Part 2 includes creating some basic hand overlays, building the accessory mesh, and testing.

Saturday, July 29th at 13:00 (GMT -6)- Object Lessons

Host: Ocelotekatl Topic: Basic object creation Tools needed: SimPE, something to mesh with (Blender/Milkshape), something to texture with (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or GIMP). Approximate time: 1 hour Suggested for: Beginners

A redux of my basic object creation workshop.

Saturday, August 12th at 13:00 (GMT -6)- Skin to Win! (Part 1)

Host: Ocelotekatl Topic: “Showerproof” (linked) skintones Tools needed: SimPE, Body Shop. Approximate time: 1 hour Suggested for: Intermediate creators

A step-by-step workshop about making linked skintones.

Saturday, August 19th at 13:00 (GMT -6)- Skin to Win! (Part 2)

Host: Ocelotekatl Topic: “Skinless” (texture-referenced) skintones Tools needed: SimPE, Body Shop. Approximate time: 1 hour Suggested for: Intermediate creators

A step-by-step workshop about making linked skintones.

To RSVP or check your local time, check the event thingy at the top of the Discord.

If you haven’t joined yet, why aren’t you a member of the most amazing creator’s Discord ever? To join, click here:

https://discord.gg/tkNzjgsSTS

#sims 2 #sims 2 workshop #community event #Sims 2 Shenanigans Discord

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shockingdread · 3 months

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seriously long post about dark souls, kings field, and why ds1 is the only fun good game in the series imo

the more we play the RPG side of dark souls, the less frustrating the action part gets, we really appreciate that. we dislike elden ring and bloodborne a lot because we struggle to grasp this aspect in those games and knew we needed to put ourselves into easy mode in them, sekiro was a comfortable non starter for this reason. disclaimer: we are pretty great at first person shooters and fighting games, we have our gaming skillset, but im not gonna act like this isnt a skill issue. its just ... like... we have a job, so we're not really willing to waste our precious time off "getting good". sorry. but here in DS1 its made fun simple and intuitive to water the difficulty down. to be honest: kings field 2 is still a better and more enjoyable game in every aspect we seek solo experiences out for. the atmosphere, the storytelling, the gameplay even. it is not remotely bad. kings field 1 was a phenomenal first try but it is hard to have patience for a slow maze crawler like that. kf2 is juuuust right. just beautiful enough, just mysterious enough to overcome technical limitations. our only kf2 complaint is that the tunnel system thing is a major copout vs having a sensible interconnected world, DS1 actually implements this stunningly well and it shocks us how much this game is literally just modernized kf2 with last ditch effort to save a studio level budget. it succeeds in so fucking many of those aspects so well, its just that modernization imo is not improvement by default so this action combat is just notttt my style. kf2 was modern enough it just needed the map layout overhauled. but obviously we understand fully that this is a retarded thing to expect any game studio trying to stay afloat to do and we are never going to argue against DS1's success. but we will argue against the rest. real time first person dungeon crawling should make a return, lunacid proved it's got serious legs. we still think about lunacid a lot. that game just needed a better plot and lore. the world was so pretty though.. the music was pretty fuckin tight too... real time combat dungeon crawlers are best when viewed as walking sims with passable gameplay for the sake of pacifying the player while they soak in atmosphere and aesthetics in my opinion. dark souls left the genre fromsoft pioneered behind to try for mainstream success and it won, at the cost of king's field's memory, and that history will taint the soulslike genre for us forever hence why this post is less about the actual video game we're playing and more about the video games we cant stop thinking about

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widespot · 4 days

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So, does anybody know what "LFA update failed" means?

Those of you who've been around for awhile know that I play my game on an internetless Windows 7 machine, copy story snaps and albums to flashdrive, walk it across the hall to the internet machine, use the Sims 2 Storybook Album utility by roachandlazygirl to open the album, and copy the text over. Then if I've made any changes to the album I can save them and walk them back across the hall to replace the old one.

I got interrupted before I finished writing up the story album at the end of the vacation, so I was updating it while posting, working back and forth. I finished queueing up the whole vacation, tried to save, and got "LFA update failed" instead. No saving. So I started laboriously opening posts to "edit" to copy them back, but when I tried to save I got the same error.

This is BS and I am not down with it.

I have done this lots of times and this is a new error - in fact, it's the first time I've ever had the Storybook Reader fail to save. But we have a new internet computer with - 10 or 11, I don't remember. It's almost certainly Windows BS. But how do I fix it, that is the question?

So - help? There was some hefty dialog on this vacation, you'll recall, and it should not be lost to the ether!

#technical difficulties #help!#Sims 2

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dorefasolsido · 7 months

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41.

1~ What quality do you value most highly in others?

Definitely stuff like emotional intelligence and warmth because I struggle with this stuff myself. I have a very hard time connecting with people on that level and when I see someone do it so effortlessly (and genuinely), I'm always really impressed.

2~ Are you more aggressive or mellow?

Mellow. I'm very conflict-avoidant.

3~ Who has made the biggest sacrifice for you?

My parents, surely.

4~ Do you take any vitamins or medication?

Not really regularly, no.

5~ Do you want to grow old with someone?

Yes, with my best friend. I want us to stay like this forever. I don't care about growing old with a partner though, I don't think such a thing is for me at all.

6~ Do you treat others better or worse than yourself and why?

I think I treat others better because I'm one hell of a people pleaser sometimes, always worried that others might drop me if I don't try my best. But I can't technically drop myself, so...

7~ What sound is annoying you right now?

Nothing's really annoying me right now.

8~ Where was your last vacation to?

Transylvania, Dracula's castle.

9~ Where was your last car ride to?

To a restaurant earlier in the afternoon, we went for a family lunch.

10~ Where did you last walk to?

Uhh, upstairs to my bedroom.

11~ What gives you a peaceful feeling?

Driving down an empty straight road at night when there are barely any cars and no people on the streets. Only me, my music, and city lights.

12~ Are you a light sleeper?

So-so, it used to be worse.

13~ When you sleep next to someone who usually falls asleep first?

Usually the other person does, just because it takes me forever to fall asleep unless I'm really exhausted.

14~ How many people have a piece of your heart?

I don't know, a couple.

15~ What do your salt and pepper shakers look like?

We don't keep salt and pepper in shakers.

16~ When was the last time you hurt yourself?

I don’t remember.

**continued from who knows when :D**

17~ Would you rather live in the city, suburbs or the country?

I'm a city person, or at the very least suburbs. I grew up in a small town and can't imagine ever returning to one for good--not while I'm young anyway. There's really nothing to do there and every day looks exactly the same. I need some vibrancy, some activity, otherwise I feel like I'm suffocating.

18~ Have you ever built something?

Yes, houses in Sims.

19~ Are you more of a maker and giver, or a taker and user?

A little bit of both, I think.

20~ Do you take naps?

Not normally, unless I pull an all-nighter. I function on very few hours of sleep without much difficulty.

21~ Do you buy holiday gifts early or at the last minute?

Lol I never do anything early, it's something I've been struggling for years. Everything's always last minute.

22~ Do you laugh when there is no joke and dance when there is no music?

I'm sure it has happened before?

23~ If someone else were to describe you what would you hope they would say?

That I'm a meaningful person in their life who is fun and easy to talk to. I never feel like any of this is true, so of course, it would be nice to hear it from someone else. I might not really believe it, but still.

24~ What is the dirtiest habit you can think of?

Hmmmmmm nothing comes to mind right now.

25~ Do you ever need ‘quiet time’?

Yeah, and I get plenty of it, working from home and all. Thing is, I need quiet time for myself, which is something I haven't had much of lately. Like, it's quiet, but there's always 50 billion things to do. I hate adulthood ;-;

26~ Do you think it is harder for a parent to outlive their child or for the child to outlive their parent?

Probably the former, though I feel a pit in my stomach whenever I imagine my parents not being around.

27~ What was your best find from a flea market, garage sale, ebay or thrift?

Well I have been to flea markets before, but tbh I don't remember at all.

28~ What is one selfish thing you tend to do?

Eat the entire chocolate instead of leaving half for my sister when she's not at home.

29~ What kinds of people do you find intimidating?

Tbh, no one in particular. Like, people who really have their shit together can be a little unsettling, but then again, I probably come across like that to some people too and that's not the case at all.

30~ Out of everyone you know who has the most unique personality?

Chris hands down. I like to befriend unconventional people, but Chris is just, I don't know where to begin to describe his personality. Sometimes it feels like he genuinely just came to visit from Mars.

31~ When do you do your best thinking?

In the shower. Running water of any kind inspires me.

32~ What was a choice that you didn’t want to make but you had to?

Well, shutting out a certain someone from my life. It was a very hard choice at the time, but yeah, I had to.

33~ Have you ever written a letter to a soldier?

I don't know any soldiers.

34~ What does your favorite coffee mug look like?

Umm, it's black with some orange Halloween motif.

35~ What age do you think it is most difficult to be?

Well I haven't lived through all the ages yet, so it may be a little hard to tell, but so far teen years and mid-to-late twenties take the cake.

36~ Do you think you could handle a day in jail?

Yeah, it's a day. Even if it's absolutely dreadful, I could handle it.

37~ Who is the most overbearing person you know?

I'm actually not sure.

38~ Have you ever been on a trampoline?

Yup, not too long ago either.

39~ What do you use batteries for the most often?

Remotes.

40~ Would you prefer to wrap your own presents or have them all gift wrapped?

I like wrapping presents (tho we don't usually wrap them here anyway), but if there were many, I'd have them wrapped. I'm really slow with arts and crafts.

#personal #surveys

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