2014 Producing Emergence & Surprise in The Sims Lyndsay Pearson Creative Director/Sr. Producer October 2014 #GHC

Who am I?  Sr. Producer / Franchise Creative Director  12 years with The Sims (EA/Maxis) Me

2014 What is “The Sims”?  A game about creating and controlling life.  A tool for creative expression.  An escape.  A place to explore and experiment freely.  A passionately collaborative community. PLAY WITH LIFE

2014 How do we do it?  The heart of the game design requires Intentional Surprise.  Developing it requires a TON of flexibility.

2014 Crafting Surprise  Design for creative interpretation

2014 Crafting Surprise  Systems need to overlap & interplay

2014 Crafting Surprise  Let the ideas come from anywhere

2014 Crafting Surprise  Allow “happy accidents”

2014 Our Tools  Change Review −Wouldn’t it be cool if…  Alpha Reviews −This would be better if…

2014 Focusing the Vision  Take the “heart” and work from there.  Know your audience.  Place your bets.  Get feedback.

2014 Focusing the Vision  “Life” can be anything? −What is the core player need we’re addressing? −It’s not about demographics, it’s about player needs.

2014 How does each Pillar support the other? SimsCreativitySharing Sims Creativity Sharing Focusing the Vision

2014 Our Tools  Pillar or feature Matrix  Mind Maps  Quality Report Card

2014 Managing Change  Plan for it.  React swiftly, but wisely.  Open communication is key. Early, often and repeatedly!  Context, context, context.

2014 Our Tools  Team Newsletters  Team Meetings  Always looking for more…

2014 Thank you! “Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.” John C. Maxwell

2014 Questions?

2014 Got Feedback? Rate and Review the session using the GHC Mobile App To download visit