Late 1998

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:The Sims (Windows).

June#

Coverage of the current build is "pre-release" biased — it focuses on comparative analysis between the previous and next known demo iterations from its era. For an in-depth analysis contrasting the whole body of resources of The Steering Committee demo with its final counterpart, please check its "Prototype" article.

On June 1998, the developers promptly compiled a new demo build of The Sims, showcasing resources as they looked like during that stage in development. This build, designed specifically for a steering committee at EA, aimed to secure their greenlight for the game's concept and continue production on a more stable foundation. It featured a new Sim — Sim — amongst some of the previously used ones, as it's covered below.

Notably, it introduced a remade scenario-based storyline centered around a male character named Ross, who's in pursuit of good fortune trying to kiss one of the two women that just moved to his neighborhood: Happy Acres. Despite such a feature getting cut later on, it served as the basis for Pre-made Sims in the final game with their own biographies, and eventually in later entries.¹

People Mode#

Apr '98 (Mock-up)	Jun '98

The control panel no longer dynamically inserts thumbnails as new Sims are added (as it speculatively does in previous builds). Instead, it features a section that displays only the Sims specifically intended for a given scenario (maximum of three). Also, the game now features the final arrangement of Sim needs, with the "Stress" and "Alertness" motives permanently removed. When it comes to how time is displayed in the game, the strings associated with the in-game year, month and day are no longer shown, given its decreasing importance in gameplay. Hours and minutes are now shown as a digital clock, replacing the previously used analog clock for the iterations to come. The GUI section that likely displayed the family name now showcases the string ids associated with the name of the game scenario. Interestingly, some finalized houses in the retail builds still have these early scenario names in their raw data.

Object Mode#

Feb '98 (Mock-up)	Jun '98

The default Object Mode thumbnail template no longer places a white platform tile underneath objects, and the three-dimensional depth of the catalog page has been reduced. Button labels across all GUI sections now consistently feature a "wooden" pattern, replacing the previously used "marble" pattern.

Architecture Mode#

Feb '98 (Mock-up)	Jun '98

The icons and floor tile thumbnails were redesigned to ditch their flat, placeholder look for one with more depth and perspective.

Options Mode#

Feb '98 (Mock-up)	Jun '98

The house files no longer support more than one save slot. New button labels show info. about the current scenario level and take users back to the newly-added Neighborhood Menu.

Pie Menu#

Feb '98 (Mock-up)	Jun '98

From this development iteration onward, the pie menu's style was significantly simplified to a design closely resembling its final counterpart. The pseudo-three-dimensional background was replaced with a sphere featuring a progressive contour and a blending effect that decreases the saturation and brightness of the in-game world screen rendered directly underneath it. Additionally, the head of the active character is now rendered across the sphere, always facing the mouse.

Neighborhood Menu#

This is the oldest known iteration of the Neighborhood Menu. GUI-wise, it resembles a typical Simulation game campaign menu. When the mouse rests on the pre-rendered house thumbnails, their scenario's title picture appears. As with the previous demo builds, the game adopts a pre-scripted scenario format for each available house file. Players can not create characters from scratch in this demo.

Demo Characters#

November#

Will Wright presents a demo of The Sims at the fifth Door of Perception conference in Amsterdam², entirely dedicated to games and technology. The game, now under Electronic Arts and significantly different than previous iterations, was part of his talk titled "Build, Buy, and Live."³ Wright innocently predicted a four-month release window⁴ (it actually took eleven more months!). In spite of the brief online exposure of two of the game's snapshots at the conference's webpage, only thumbnail remnants survived.

Irk's Artwork#

We made it! Hadn't Electronic Arts green-lit the The Sims project, the game's shipping — as well as this article's following segments — would be but a dream. Thank you for this.

Visual Development#

The game saw a massive creative face lift at this point. In order to seek an overdue continuity in visual terms, mid-to-high fidelity mock-ups by Eric "Irk" Hedman describe what is getting nearer from what the players know as the Sims' look. Among their design proposals, it's notable that an effort has been made for the development of doors and windows placed diagonally, at the isometric world — also observed in leftover alpha channels at the final game's sprite resources. The house renders also notably have foundations, which would not be introduced until the next mainline entry. Some of the items shown in these mock-ups would appear unscathed in the final game: the dresser and dining table appear in these same forms, while refined versions of the double bed, grill, and stereo system would also appear in the final.

New Animations#

adult-backrub
Keyframe
bed-getout
a2o-bed-getoutl-lazy
Keyframe
style="text-align: center; background-color:#EAECF0;color:#17191c;--link:#12467a;--newlink:#9c2b26;--dim:#4a4d52"; text-align: center"|
Keyframe
style="text-align: center; background-color:#EAECF0;color:#17191c;--link:#12467a;--newlink:#9c2b26;--dim:#4a4d52"; text-align: center"|

Trailer on SimCity 3000 Disc#

The Sims sees a first promotional effort as a cryptic COMING SOON video shipped in SimCity 3000's demo files.

Three out of the pre-made Sims made up until this point in development wave at the player in a burgeoning residential zone, announcing a new game, a new focus and way of life... whatever it could possibly mean for the viewers at the time. Little had Sam, Ross and Mercedes known that, in no time, they would not be Samantha, Ross and Mercedes, but just about anything the player wanted them to be...

References#