SMagazine Issue 9 | Page 114

smagazineofficial.co.uk What does your job involve at The Sims Studio? I’m a producer and we do a little bit of everything! What’s your favourite - and least favourite - part of your job? My favourite part would be that I get to “wear a lot of hats.” Every day as a Sims Producer is different! We give design feedback, we write text, we test, we play, we help coordinate all the disciplines (Animation, Engineering, Modeling, etc…) that are needed to bring a feature to life, we run meetings, we organize late night ice cream runs… the hardest part of being a Producer is scoping features. That’s when we look at a feature and we look at how much time it will take to implement everything, and then we look at how much time we actually have. It’s a tough, but necessary part of the game development process. What has been your favourite project to work on? The Sims 2 Open For Business! I was in QA, so I was pretty much testing/playing the game all day every day. OFB is so much fun and there are infinite ways to play with the systems. I love running bakeries and retail stores. I once built a store that sold nothing but Sir Bricks-aLots : ) What’s your favourite thing about The Sims? I love creativity through storytelling. I love playing with my Sims and telling their stories through gameplay. I like to create a structured story in my head, and then let the randomness of non-controllable Sims take hold and take 114 The giant plumbob light in the EA lobby also lets you know you’re in the realm of The Sims. Image credit: @SimGuruRachel