It might be hard to believe, but the first The Sims game came out almost twenty years ago. Although simplistic compared to games nowadays, it paved the way for the rest of the series and created a genre of games where The Sims franchise has remained uncontested for years.
No doubt the best life simulation out there, the series has grown a lot after taking off from its very first installment. You might be surprised by how little you know about this very first game, and just how revolutionary it was for its time. Luckily, we’re here to share ten facts about The Sims you may have yet to find out.
10 Architecture Game
When The Sims was first in development, the whole point of the game was to be an architecture and design game. Life simulation wasn’t a big part of gameplay. Instead, the player would create and furnish homes and then watch how the Sims would interact with their environment.
It would allow the player to measure how functional and comfortable their creations were. However, as development progressed, the creators realized that the life simulation aspect of the game was highly entertaining, and so the direction of the game was changed forever.
9 The 1999 E3 Kiss
The Sims was in development during a time when there was still extreme lack of representation in both gender, ethnicity and sexuality in different games. Nowadays the series is without a doubt the most inclusive one, with tons of creative freedom and something for everyone.
It all started at the 1999 E3, where during a gameplay demo two female Sims had fallen in love with each other and engaged in a kiss. The kiss hadn’t been planned by the developers, but it helped to skyrocket the game into a huge success and give it the spotlight it deserved.
8 Poorly Received (At First)
The Sims series is a massive success and has yet to face a serious competitor in the life simulation genre. It’s hard to believe that it was once almost rejected by a focus group in the 90s when the game was first being tested.
Luckily the game was re-branded and went through a lot of changes that would make it marketable for not just girls, but for boys as well. Not just that, once the focus of the game was switched to life simulation rather than simple architecture, the audience began to listen and show more interest.
7 A Combo Of 2D And 3D
At first it’s hard to describe what The Sims looks like, and that’s because it uses the combination of two different dimensions: 3D and 2D. Your Sim itself is created in three-dimension, but the environment is 2D and can only be viewed from a few set of angles.
Even though this was the case, the game still felt like a very real, three-dimension experience. Luckily the developers were able to bring the whole game onto the next level in The Sims 2, in which everything was finally 2D.
6 From Crime To Mime
The Sims became a sensation all over the world. It even made its way to countries like Japan and China, but not without certain changes. In China, the game was only published after a few crucial changes were made to it.
The Crime career was completely removed due to government politics and was instead replaced by the Mime career path. The job was fully developed down to the costume itself that has become iconic in The Sims games. Other than this change, the game has remained untouched in every country.
5 The Sims Forever
Observant Simmers may have already noticed something very strange on the computers of their Sims in The Sims 4. There’s a game that your Sims can play called The Sims Forever, which is basically a bunch of gameplay footage from the very first The Sims game.
These types of cross-references to previous titles have been a common feature in the series, but this is definitely the nicest tip of the hat to the original version of the game that made all the rest possible.
4 Inspired By A Fire
Will Wright, the lead creator of The Sims, is living proof that sometimes the bad things that happen to us can lead to very good things. After losing his house in a fire and having to buy and furnish a new one from top to bottom, he was inspired to create a game that would simulate this process.
This is how the original architecture-based version of the game was created, in order to help players create comfortable and visually pleasing homes that Sims would enjoy.
3 Hardest One In The Series
Over the years the mechanics of The Sims have changed quite a bit. It’s always been known that The Sims is the hardest game in the series, simply because of how much your needs decay and how much time you have to devote to your work and fulfilling your needs.
This made it especially hard to juggle other things like becoming a superstar in the Superstar expansion or training magic in Makin’ Magic. Not to mention, nobody misses the Room meter which measured how attractive or nice the environment around your Sims was.
2 Makin’ Magic
The Sims Makin’ Magic was until recently a very special expansion pack in The Sims series, because it was the only one that was solely devoted for magic. The Sims 3 introduced magic in the Supernatural expansion pack, but the pack was more devoted for all things spooky and strange like vampires, werewolves, fairies and the like.
Until Realm of Magic came out a few weeks back, Makin’ Magic was the only expansion that was all about learning spells and potions, and even introduced dueling as a major mechanic.
1 The 100th Day Bonus
There’s a small but wholesome Easter egg in The Sims, which gives credit to the original development team of the first game. If your household makes it to the 100th day, you’ll receive a congratulating message, which then states that for the next 28 day you’ll be seeing messages with information about each developer.
You can ask the game not to show you these, but if you do wish to read them they reveal even juicier and interesting details about the behind the scenes of the game and its development.
NEXT: The Sims 5: 10 Things We Want EA To Include
