Twenty years ago, a little known game made its way into PC shops — The Sims.
A “virtual dollhouse”, the opportunity could see you style, give characteristics to and build homes for the sims, even watching them shower, use the bathroom, pro-create and “woohoo” in the bedroom.
Since it’s inception, the game has gone to sell nearly 200 million copies worldwide and the phenomenon — which is now in its fourth instalment — is showing no signs of slowing down.
Now, a US TV reality show based on user experience has been created called The Sims Spark’d and is set to premiere on July 17 — although at this stage, it is unclear how we can watch it in Australia.
The series will task 12 contestants with building “the most unique characters, worlds and stories” using The Sims 4 game.
In a new trailer released today (which you can see below), competitors design characters, building anything they can imagine and tell original stories using the game.
There are challenges which are designed to “inspire creativity” with a huge grand prize on the line. $100,000. Real dollars, not simoleons.
The judging panel consists of YouTube creator Kelsey Impicciche, Sims voice actor Tayla Parx, and Dave “SimGuruNinja” Miotke, a producer at Sims developer Maxis.
It sounds like a lot of fun, but if the trailer is anything to go by, creators will use personal stories to create their worlds and it gets very emotional.
We don’t know about you, but the thought of watching others get overly obsessed with creating a family on The Sims looks wildly entertaining and we’re just a little bit jealous.
BRB as we go dust off our expansion packs and reminisce about the glory days.