EA Podcast – Interview with Ben Bell of The Sims 3 Jeff Green (that dude who was a journalist from 1UP now MySims Agents producer) recently picked up a gig to host weekly EA Podcasts.* This week, he teams up along with Samantha to interview Ben Bell, producer of The Sims 3.* I spent some time listening in on the podcast.* During the beginning, they talk about EA’s appearance during Comic Con 2009 and all of the various games that will be shown (sadly no Sim/Spore games – unless they are un-announced).* Later on, they get to the questions.* Here’s a brief rundown of the questions that were asked (this is me typing here – I would recommend you to listen yourself), along with a summary of Ben’s answers: Q:* Are you happy? A:* Happy in general or…?* I’m happy with The Sims 3.* Now able to spend more time with my daughter. Q:* How long total from time you started until release A:* Game was in development for about 5 years, was not involved until 2 years of the game’s release.* A lot of folks started the project.* Looked at others work in the game to appreciate the hard work the others put in.* A lot of details were implemented. Q: Ben, is there a way you like to play? A:* I used to play like an achiever, go after careers.* Now that I have a family, I created them. Q: Are there any particular user stories that you see in the community? A: The stuff that interest me is seeing all the different themed families that mirror current event.* Like looking at the household section.* People make a lot of celebrities and tv show families – even worst case scenerios families. Q: The delay in February… A:* There were signs hanging up for the release in February, but had to pull them down to replace as we needed more time.* When you say your going to do something, there is a certain amount of pride you take.* Taking the business out of the discussion…we felt that we needed to give the game more time.* So we were all like we said what we didn’t do and were disappointed, but we needed to move it for different reasons – needed a smoother launch, get online services ready, wanted market campaign to be perfect.* Spent more time with personality traits. Q: When you started 2 years out from launch, how far would you say you came to at launch…Was it everything you imagined the game should be? A:* The initial plans for the game was everything we felt like it had been delivered.* One of the big ideas was the premise of breaking down the walls and go around town along with personality traits and change the look of everything.* The vision had been well defined. Q: How much of the community feedback did you get from TS1 and TS2 to implement into TS3? A: The Sims Studio was connected to the community and loved the feedback.* Studio met regularly with fans, searching message boards – a lot of interacting.* Honestly some of the ambitions we had were all things fans wanted as well. Q: Do you ever have nights when you were at home trying to sleep and you had a moment of clarity to where you said “OMG, I’m in charge of the Sims Division?” A: Yeah, I never heard the phrase don’t screw it up more than when I was working on this project.* Its one of the challenges of working on the team.* It’s not a good way to worry about all of the negative outcomes.* In terms of how I felt at night?* Well, I wake up and think of 500 things I had to do the next day – or the next week that I needed to write on paper.* But it does feel good to work on The Sims 3. Q: Coming from your background, was it interesting coming from dragons and goblins (past work) to say, baby making? A:* Hahaha, there are like RPG elements in the Sims 3.* Totally different way of thinking and its fun. Q: Was there any discussion of realism and design of The Sims 3? A:* Do you mean how real life it is or how it looks?* (real life).* We’re about real life – its inspiration. Q: When you think about how realistic the game can be, does it bog your mind thinking how it can be a little too much? A: No, I think the more you can make it like real life, the more interesting it is for players. Q: How did the CAS get developed? A: There was a group of people who focused on that.* They explored cultures, clothing, etc.* During testing, we always had to tell the testers to test other parts – they were always playing with CAS! Q: Will you ever have the ability to interact at work? A:* I sure hope so! Q: If you could compare being a producer on a video game and a director on a movie, do you think that is a fair comparison? A: Yeah, I think so.* Goals of both focus on presentation, creative decisions, budgets, etc. Q: In these hard economic times, are you keeping your eyes on the pennies (budget wise)? A: Its the decision of the company to put funds aside for some of the biggest titles. Q: What do you do for fun? A: These days I hang out with my wife and daughter (4 months).* I’m an active road racer (biking), had a couple of bad crashes.* Got an Amazon Kindle and do some reading. Work, family and bike. Q: Do you have a cube (office)? A: I have a small filthy cube.* The first time I saw Rod Humble space, I was surprised how tiny it was.* You’d think his title would have a bigger cube/office.* You’re always going to have to move to another cube.* Some people just keep boxes and get ready to move. Listen here
