The Sims | Making of Documentary

A documentary detailing the origin of The Sims.

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Catastrophe leads to inspiration
03:02 - The Toilet Game and financial trouble
07:34 - Shifting focus and AI
10:54 - Mixing 3D with 2D
12:54 - Puddles and Plumbobs
14:42 - Creating the perfect UI
16:07 - Making a fictional language
18:11 - Love is Love and E3 1999
22:06 - Slapping and wrestling with EA
23:57 - That soundtrack though
25:59 - Exceeding expectations and success among women
30:16 - User content, The Sims 2, Spore and Project Rene

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection and The Sims 2 Legacy Collection were released on the 31st January 2025. Project Rene is the working title for a "next generation Sims game," widely speculated to be The Sims 5. Project Rene was officially unveiled during Electronic Arts's "Behind The Sims" summit on the 18th October 2022.

Music List:
01. Neighborhood 1 - The Sims OST
02. Neighborhood 7 - The Sims OST
03. Building Mode 1 - The Sims OST
04. Building Mode 6 - The Sims OST
05. Buy Mode 1 - The Sims OST
06. Buy Mode 3 - The Sims OST
07. Buy Mode 4 - The Sims OST
08. Building Mode 4 - The Sims OST
09. Neighborhood 2 - The Sims OST
10. Buy Mode 2 - The Sims OST
11. Neighborhood 3 - The Sims OST
12. Building Mode 3 - The Sims OST
13. Neighborhood 4 - The Sims OST

#TheSims #Documentary #WillWright

[ReliableRhubarb]

Let me know which other game franchises you'd like to see documentaries on in the future!

[Jesio]

I’m so in love with the fact that they named their programming language Simantics.

[xela]

"...so, they made the Sims more irrational..." and thus a million legendary memes and iconic game lore began LOL

[bigpilgrim]

This is a criminally underrated channel, it’s clear how much effort and care you put into these documentaries! Keep up the excellent work!

[QuentrixMovies]

What I find so fascinating is how they were able to take something as complex as life itself (relationships, wants vs needs, life goals, form vs function, etc) and boil it down into a game that's so accessible and simple to understand that anyone can play it. And on top of that it has limitless possibilities to the point where you are always discovering something new even years after playing. It's no wonder it became a phenomenon.

[bellarina]

The stats about how the game exploded hit even harder when knowing how many players were never counted in... in many non-West countries at least, lots of us would not have a computer or no money to buy games, so we would have that one burned CD with a key code jotted down on it that went around and we'd install The Sims on our house computer (with no or very slow internet access) or played our saves at our friends' house 😅

So many early secret Simmers 😏💖

[strawberrylemonadelioness]

The Sims was so important to my life (And not just the Sims Franchise, SimPark was a great game too and got me interested in learning about animals), and I still love The Sims. It's a good game to play when I'm stressed out and lets me express myself.

[DisWldFrk]

Sims is a classic example for how you should not give up on an idea simply because somebody else thinks it's no good. So many people thought Sims would be pointless and it turned into one of the greatest games of all time!

Btw I totally did not know they pulled that clever code of making sure in the 1st game, that if a character was gay, the player had to be the one to initiate it. Smart move as, like you said, they'd know somebody complaining did it themselves and it was a pointless complaint. Great info!

[worawatli]

25:12 Wright is so funny, suggesting bossa-nova music as fire theme lol. No wonder the game turned out to be so fun.

[OddSauce]

it's ironic how one of the most avant garde and groundbreaking series in pc history has become so safe and stale over the years

[sejoki_]

It's one of the first games I played as a kid. I got every expansion pack until makin magic. I was mostly fascinated with building stuff, which in part led me to become an architect later. Turns out I hate it, but not the point. I recently picked it up again after I got into Sims 4 during the pandemic, and it is so much more enjoyable and balanced perfectly.
The basic needs actually made sense, skills make sense and it being harder to maintain relationships makes so much more sense. In Sims 4, it is almost trivial befriending someone, the long term relationship bar in Sims 1 is actually a challenge. Plus, trying to climb the career ladder almost requires you to stay up nights on end, dropping every need in the red and then it's 4am, you have to get up at 6 to cook breakfast and take a shower and you think "there's no way I'm able to get to work in an acceptable state" so you pump in the espresso, catch an hour of sleep to raise the comfort level, eat breakfast, pump another espresso, take a quick piss, skip the shower and get to work with a half bar of energy, slightly dirty and feeling lonely and think it's a wonder you even got to a light green plumbob from deep red in a couple of hours, think "today I'll go straight to bed when I get home" but then realize your social life is going down the drain and you lost two friends while at work, so you pump two more espressos, soil yourself in the kitchen, take a shower, call up some friends and the entire thing repeats - 4 am, no sleep, barely get ready for work, get home and do it all over again. Just like real life.

[dartje]

I can't believe I have been playing The Sims for 22 years.

[safewaytesco]

This is such an excellent and in depth look, the best technical exploration of the Sims I've ever seen. Please continue this throughout the series!

[jessa]

Would love to see even more on the Sims. Maybe one per each game? Yours is the first I've watched that talks about the technical process and I really enjoyed it :)

[TheDawnofVanlife]

Amazing video. Also still astounded by the sims 1 A.I. design in 2023. Like people complain about the stupidity of Sims but they aren't real people they are just pixels driven by objects. The fact that they can feel so alive to even be called "stupid" is an accomplishment. 😂😂

[failedstateupdate]

I was obsessed with the sims and played it constantly for months... Until my stepfather heard that it was "a girls game" and "a dollshouse on the computer" and he broke my CD, and the CDs for the three expansion packs I owned. I was absolutely heartbroken, but he had decided it was "girly" and thus as a boy, I couldn't be allowed to play it as I might catch the gay.

[silverdoe]

I remember the first time I played sims at 10. Mom said “You’re not supposed to kill them!”. 😂👍

[codesymphony]

that accidental kiss at e3 demo literally bringing a tear to my eye

[sheenahardaker]

Oh man I am an OG sims stan, I can't even describe the awesomeness I felt finally getting my nana to buy it for me for my birthday! I got a bundle which included livin large and house party because I was a year late to the party lol but yes I am one of those female players crazy for the sims, and my next expansion pack I got was unleashed and I was stupidly excited about it for some reason... a funny memory i have was the guinea pig (that came with livin large for me) which I hardly bought for my sims but one time i did. It bit my sims and then they promptly start coughing everywhere which I though was strange but i wasn't bothered... until it started spreading around my whole family, and then a favourite sim of mine (the blonde roomie lol) just up and DIED and i was so traumatised. In the photo album it says "died of mystery illness". I was so shocked I told my mum in a panic haha I couldn't figure it out, this seemed like the game was cursed lol. I had NO idea it was the guinea pig! I isolated the Melissa Roomie and she survived and I was so relieved, which I also told my mum about but she didn't care lol. So crazy that this game still gives me mad nostagia 20 years later, and i will always be an og simmer lol (sims 1 and 2 only). This video was amazing thank you.

[celeste-is-building]

As a programmer the thought process behind the making of the sims that this documentary successfully explains, is not only fun to learn about but it is also inspirational. I thought it was funny that initially the sims were too good at satisfying their own needs so they had to make them more irrational. Also, the fact that the user/player creates the landscape in which the sims live in and that there are multiple conditions that the developers had to cater for is so fascinating! I knew that this game was complex but this documentary really dives into the development process and the humble beginnings. I say all that to say THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS DOCUMENTARY!