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Life by You is trying to shake up life sims with a greater sense of freedom
26.07.2023 - 20:29 / theverge.com
Rod Humble knows a bit about life sim games. He spent years as an executive at EA helping steer The Sims franchise before leaving to join Second Life maker Linden Lab. So when it came for his new studio, Paradox Tectonic, to try its hand at the genre, he knew exactly what he wanted to change. “What the genre needed was less constraints,” Humble says.
The studio’s first release, Life by You, was officially unveiled last week ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. It looks similar to The Sims but with a few important differences. For one thing, in place of the iconic (and fictional) Simlish, Life by You utilizes a procedurally generated real-language system for dialogue. It’s also a much more in-depth simulation. According to Humble, every single character in the game’s fictional city is fully simulated. They have jobs, homes, relationships, and the same basic needs as your own player character (i.e., they need to eat, sleep, and pee).
“The whole town is being simulated in real-time, with every individual having the same attributes as you do,” Humble explained. “We call that the principle of equivalency. What that allows us to do is, when you see someone in the world, they are operating on the same rules you are — so they need to eat and drink, they’ve got a house where they live — and you can right-click on anyone you see and then play them. You get access to all of their memories, their likes and dislikes, their relationships.”
It sounds like a huge technical undertaking, but Humble says it was a necessary part of the experience, where the developers want players to be able to tell natural and involved stories using the game. “It was needed because otherwise we couldn’t complete this open world design,” he says. “Traditionally in game development, non-player characters are usually props. In our game, the barkeep has a house, has work hours; you can talk to the barkeep, you can develop a relationship with the barkeep, and you can see where the barkeep lives. You can play the barkeep.”
He gave a few examples as to how the depth of the simulation can play out in the game. For instance, in Life by You, you’ll see white delivery vans driving around, but these aren’t just background visuals. Instead, they represent actual deliveries to in-game characters; when a computer-controlled character gets hungry, they might order groceries, which will then be delivered by one of those trucks.
“To have a feeling of freedom, it needs to be physical freedom.”
On a more involved level, characters can actually see and remember things; the developers call these moments “observables.” It could be as simple as learning a new meal to cook from watching a chef. Or, if you go out on a secret date,
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