HomeCrafter

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

""Now go have some fun refurbishing that old, neglected home of your's.
Pretty soon you will be able to see your terra cotta tile and chartreuse wallpaper come to life in The Sims!!""

- Description

Throughout 1999, as The Sims was still in development, the game's engineers cemented the first foundations for the game's ever growing participatory culture by consistently releasing (and updating) stand-alone tools that allowed the players to create personalized user-made content prior to when it was possible to actually test them out in game. A wonderful marketing strategy, isn't it?

Because they're based off earlier builds of the game, one could suppose they sport pre-release quirks that the final build has no remnants of. FloorMaster 1.0, the earliest first creativity tool effort (not Link's anthropomorphic hand!) becomes in no time a buffed up Hyper HomeMaster 5000DX Mach3 (July 28, 1999) — adding up support to a providential wallpaper tool — and, the cherry on the cake, a more intricate HomeMaster 4.0 (December 1, 1999).

Download HomeMaster

File: HomeMaster 4.0.zip (2.4 MB) (info)
Current version: 4.0

(Source: LUCPIX)

Miscellaneous Differences#

Splash Screen#

HomeMaster
Jul 1999	Dec 1999

Control Panel#

HomeMaster
Jul 1999	Dec 1999

Leftover Dialogs#

100 Seen in the latest iteration: HomeCrafter. None of the known versions of the tool see a native access to the executable's existing string tables, rendering all their About windows inaccessible. Here, the program is named as Super FloorCrafter, indicating how old this leftover is.

100 Seen in Hyper HomeMaster 5000DX Mach3. Same as previous, except the attributions line reads 1999, and you'll find the tool facing another name change: Super FloorMaster 4000. Is choosing a definitive name for a standalone utility that difficult?

244 Remnant of a rather vintage setting that allowed fans to share their creations at TheSims.com before the game even saw a first release ("vintage", at least, for The Sims custom content sharing standards!).

242 A glare of a resource for a mesh/texture editing facility — a fancy one, considering that is not quite what HomeCrafter is for.

UI Differences#

`EXIT.BMP`#

pre-release

Neighborhood Menu.]] The early EXIT.BMP is consistent to what it used to be in old versions of the game. Later on, however, it gained an extra outline stroke and shading, all in trade of no inner bright.

09-03-99
Early

`THUMBTEMPLATE.BMP`#

pre-release

media displaying THUMBTEMPLATE.BMP (upper-left corner).]] In the same fashion as the "Go Here" interaction queue icon, the Buy/Build Mode catalogue icons were of a tanner hue. Given the final iteration's Last Modified date (and through observation of the whole body of earlier media on the game), it was clearly a last-minute change.

09-03-99
Early

Early Resources#

Wall Demos#

HomeMaster includes four .JPG files with the recommended proportion for the walls that the program can handle. Despite how they likely show consistence to the walls existent in the build of the game that this tool is based off, only GrayExterior is natively present in the final game, save a couple of remnant thumbnails hidden away Wall.iff's supply of .BMP thumbnails.

Floor Demos#

None of these made their way to The Sims' final build:

Painting Demos#

Earlier iterations of HomeMaster contained a very rudimentary tool that generated custom wall paintings, ready to be imported into The Sims UserObjects folder. It did not take too long until the behavior of these objects became somewhat outdated in comparison to the decorative objects added to the game later in development, then it was entirely removed from HomeMaster 4.0 onward. Also, the unappealing low-quality image importation, and how the program limited the user to one frame choice only, led the developers to reprogram the tool entirely as a new The Sims Art Studio, not too long later.

If anything, the tool comes with unique demo JPG mugshots of some of the core members of The Sims' development:

If the HomeMaster-generated paintings are imported to the final game, the characters tend to struggle a little in finding the correct resources in order to execute the interaction smoothly. — If the **HomeMaster**-generated paintings are imported to the final game, the characters tend to struggle a little in finding the correct resources in order to execute the interaction smoothly.

File	Sample	Note
Bobo.jpg		Eric Bowman, Graphics Engineer
Don.jpg		Don Hopkins, Engineer
Jamie.jpg		Jamie Doornbos, Simulation Engineer
Jeff.jpg		Jeff Charvat, Development Director
Patrick.jpg		Patrick J. Barrett III, Engineer