EA is the ‘big guy’ when it comes to game development. They have a string of successful franchises across a range of platforms and genres, and I don’t just mean success in terms of dollar bills - though they have plenty of that. Many of their franchises are routinely held up as ‘great games’ - most notably for me is SimCity and Command & Conquer. I’ve played most incarnations of these two series, and I love them.

So I was delighted to receive an invitation to EA Redwood Shores, CA to attend a Sims Bloggers Day. I would get to see several upcoming Sims game, talk with some designers, meet some other bloggers, and see just what’s it like at the HQ for the biggest name in gaming. I’d also get to spend 22 hours sitting in a plane, but such is the lot of the dedicated blogger.

First impressions count for a lot, and EA makes a good one. The building is huge, modern, and the lobby decorated with arcade machines, and a giant TV screen. There are gardens, a labyrinth, a nearby lagoon, an on site gym, a creche complete with playground, big lounges, and (of course) game rooms. No expense has been spared, which is perhaps not surprising given the furor that arose in 2004 over the work-life balance of EA employees. The developers may still have to work long hours, but at least they can see their children and get some exercise. Certainly none of the people we spoke to seemed to be unhappy, and the passion for the games they were creating came through in their presentations.

Ah yes. The games. As a Sims day, all the games were shown were part of the Sims franchise, but there was quite a wide variety in what we saw. One developer compared the MySims characters to the muppets - able to be plunged into any storyline or genre, whilst still retaining their muppetness (or Simness).

I’ll start at the beginning, with the soon-to-be-released SimCity Creator. In my next few posts I’ll move on to MySims Kingdom, SimAnimals and finish up with MySims PC. Finally I’m going to talk a bit about what the Sims franchise represents for gamers, and explore EA’s corporate culture a bit further. So stay tuned - we’ve got a lot to talk about.

SimCity Creator

Released on the Wii and Nintendo DS on 26/09/2008.

SimCity was always a fairly complex micromanagement program, albeit one with Godzilla as an option. Interface and control is everything in games like these, and translating that to the wii and the DS was always going to take some doing. The original SimCity DS could be frustrating when laying down roads, particularly on a diagonal. Sadly, I didn’t get any hands-on experience with this game, but Mitch Ueno’s (Senior Producer) demonstration of the wii version made it look more like painting than building. By adding in curving roads, the designers allowed people to essentially lay down the city in any shape they pleased. Gone are the grid-like, North American-styled cities, and in are the cities shaped like smiley faces. Or like older, European cities, which weren’t planned so much as evolved.

This ability to design your city however you like is reflected further in the addition of ‘Hero buildings’. that alter the style of architecture for the buildings around them. Now we have organic cities, with old Spanish style towns that may morph into a futuristic cyber-city - or even an absurdist paradise, a city of cakes and eclairs, with buildings like your favorite dessert. All very cute, all very accessible, and all very wii.

But what about your hardcore SimCity players? The ones who want to micromanage their budget to drive out dirty industry and welcome in the educated elite? The ones who want to know whose riding the bus and when? The ones who don’t really care about cute ‘MySims’ advisors, and just want to know the pulse of the population?

Well, it’s all there. Beneath the colorful hood of this game lies the same powerful simulation there always was. I imagine if you steer clear of the ‘Cheat’ mode that hands you a wad of cash to play with this, this game stays on the difficult side. Building a city is still hard work.

Destroying a city, however, is fun. Once again, SimCity hands you a number of destructive options. You can send eggs or meteors flying down from space - the first to hatch into a dinosaur-like big lumbering monster, the second to explode into fiery cataclysms. There’s a giant wrecking ball you can control, a slew of giant hammers, some slap-happy hands-of-God, and the occasional UFO. Each demonstration of a disaster brought further laughter to the room, and will appeal to nine year old boys and stressed out forty year olds alike.

It’s fair to say that there is a bit of everything for everyone here. 30 playable missions allow you to take control of a police helicopter and track down thieves or rescue your trouble-stricken Sims, whilst various challenges allow you to compete with your friends over who can level a city the fastest. The original game is there for the fans, whilst newcomers will be gently introduced via some easy tutorials and well-funded easy modes. For those of short attention spans or limited time there are the missions and pre-built cities, whilst for those looking to sink hours into creating their own perfect city have lots more creative aesthetic options.

In short, SimCity Creator is the same SimCity you’ve always known, but wrapped around with a new casual-gamer friendly layer. The DS version, however, is a completely different kettle of fish.

In the DS version, you evolve your city through several ages, starting with the Stone Age and heading into the much anticipated Global Warming Future age. In the beginning, then, you don’t have to worry about cars or unemployment rates - you just need to worry about hunting animals and developing the start of agriculture. Comparisons with Civilization are difficult to avoid.

You keep the map from each age, so if you build up your pedestrian roads in the Middle Ages without due thought, you’ll end up with some serious re-modelling to do later on. Diagonal roads have been dumped, to the joy of DS builders everywhere. You simply can’t get such a complex city into the DS, so adding in the ’story’ element of its evolution over time may well be a selling feature. It feels like quite a departure from the normal SimCity, however. We didn’t spend as much time on the DS version as on the wii version, so I can’t tell you how many of the ‘normal’ features it has. I’m hoping it doesn’t repeat the annoying character interruptions of the original DS version - Granny Agnes is fun the first time and pretty damn irritating the twenty-seventh time.

The addition of the Global Warming age - presumably where the challenge moves from stopping traffic jams to issues of sustainability and recycling - is an interesting one. SimCity has always had a bit of liberal bent, I feel, although it has always made the dollar price of the utopian city very clear. With many people still insisting that global warming isn’t happening, and with many corporations paying lip-service to sustainability whilst continuing to manufacture waste on a massive scale, this challenge feels very current. Interestingly, one of EA’s four buildings is built with energy efficiency and sustainability in mind - an interesting move considering few people choose their games based on the green credentials of the developers behind them. But back to SimCity Creator.

Mitch Ueno suggested it would be quite difficult to reach the final era, so the DS version may well be the trickier version of the two. It may well also be the most groundbreaking, taking SimCity quietly into another type of gameplay. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

If you get your hands on either version this week, I would love to hear your thoughts. I know that at least one EA developer reads this blog, so you may well find you’re not just yelling into the internet abyss, but actually talking to someone who might one day be able to take your thoughts on board (shareholders permitting). I’d also like to know how far player experience differs from that of the boardroom - so drop a comment as soon as you’re able.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 9:26 am and is filed under New Releases, Nintendo, Nintendo DS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.