Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
original game have six skills: cooking, repair, charisma, body (physical strength
and dexterity), logic, and creativity. These skills influence the jobs that they can
take and, consequently, the amount of money that they can earn. Unfortunately,
the sims stay so busy and do everything so slowly that often they don't get enough
leisure time to study or work out. The game is very much an exercise in time man-
agement. By building up a sim's skills, the player can make the sim more efficient,
which in turn gives the sim more free time and sometimes allows him to earn more
money. In
The Sims 3
, the player can choose a lifetime goal for each sim that he cre-
ates and then help the sim achieve it.
PERSONALITIES
Unlike almost every other computer game,
The Sims
tries to simulate relationships
among individual people. These relationships are not terribly sophisticated, but
they do include such emotions as jealousy, anger, and love. In the first
The Sims
game, five key characterization attributes define each sim's personality: neat, outgo-
ing, active, playful, and nice. (In
The Sims 3
, the number of personality traits has
gone up to 63!) These determine how sims react to one another and whether
they're likely to get along. Sims become closer to each other if the player actively
stimulates interactions by making them talk to each other, give each other gifts,
and so on.
The Sims
encourages the player to develop friendships among his sims
because career advancement depends upon having a certain number of friends.
To constr uct a mechanism for computing the affinit y bet ween t wo characters, con-
sider implementing three rules that each character might have, but which apply to
different attributes:
■
The “I Can't Stand…” Rule.
A character can have an attribute that designates a
quality that she cannot tolerate in others. For example, if character A can't stand
talkative people, and character B has a talkativeness attribute above a given thresh-
old, then A will never make friends with B. Another character might have the same
rule, but about a different attribute such as cleanliness. (You can even create hypo-
critical characters, if a character dislikes a quality in others that he himself
possesses!) This rule would override the next two.
■
The Birds of a Feather Rule.
Characters with high levels of particular attributes
are attracted to other characters who have high levels of the same attribute; that is,
studious people are inclined to be attracted to other studious people. Again, each
character might apply the rule to a different attribute, so A tends to be friends with
similarly generous people, while B tends to be friends with similarly spontaneous
people.
■
The Opposites Attract Rule.
Characters with high levels of particular attributes
are attracted to other characters with
low
levels of the same attribute, and vice
versa. For example, a non-musical person might be attracted to a musically talented
person (perhaps out of respect for a talent that the former lacks).
