PLAY WITH LIFE!
THE SIMS 4: R&D
Creating an inclusive experience for our players
start with research
We started from the beginning and had to figure out what and how our players played the game. Not just from the gameplay perspective but from a human perspective. We worked with UXR researchers from all games in EA and created an analysis of what our players find as important versus what they are satisfied with regards to character customization.
Customizable pronouns prototype
From the research and hyper-focused on creating customizable pronouns for our players, we created a prototype that demonstrated what the experience would look like. We wanted to include our players while this feature was in development. We showcased our WIP prototype to our players in a live stream.
Public Reception
Main Menu Face Lift
Our Main Menu needed a facelift. Our main concern was getting our players to the game faster. Since we were working in an iterative process, we identified a few places we could improve the experience. There was also a business need to cater to the specific player type.
brainstorming, Together!
We wanted to include the whole R&D team in the process from beginning to end. As a team, we wanted to align all our priorities. Together, we created pillars and guidelines on how to approach the facelift. We went into a quick ideation phase where we drew our own or screenshotted what we liked from competitors. This allowed everyone to have ownership of their ideas and speak out about their ideas.
problems and solutions
Where am I?
A lot of our players were forgetting what they were doing last. The huge play button was not only confusing, but it did not communicate to the player that it was how you would start your game.
What did we do?
We decided to revamp the launcher completely. We realized we needed to be obvious and bring the Sim to the highest level from playtesting. Aspiration text was also there to encourage and remind players what they did last in the game.
Loading directly into live mode!
By changing the flow of the play button to directly load into the game, players will now have immediate access to Live Mode. Players will be able to access where they last saved as well as well as playing with their last active Sim.
tiles were too distracting
The tiles were a great addition to the current Main Menu, but it was very distracting to players. So much so that players were not clicking or reading the content.
What did we do?
We created a style guide for the asset team! We also improved some usability interactions, like having the whole time be clickable and only seeing the description text on hover.
cater gameplay to the player
We only had the ability to cater the advertisements to the specific player but not gameplay.
What did we do?
We built a new system where the launcher is modular. Buttons will move depending on the player type. Each button will all have the same elements, and with our data tech, we can turn on and off the elements without having to create a new build. Everything in the new Main Menu will be driven by this system.
