The Making of The Sims 4 Creator Kits

Behind the Scenes of the New Creator Kits Coming Soon!

We recently announced The Sims 4 Creator Kits, and we’re excited to share more about how these kits went from an idea to reality, along with an exclusive look at our first two Creator Kits launching on November 14: Myshunosun’s Cozy Kitsch and Trillyke’s Sweet Slumber Party.

But first, let us introduce our two talented creators:

📻 Myshunosun, known to her family and friends as Kristina, has been playing The Sims since 2007, and the game’s endless possibilities for playing with life inspired them to create their own custom content. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to channel my passion for art, visual design, and 3D modeling in such a unique way—seeing the items I create come to life in the world of The Sims is truly rewarding.“

💅 Trillyke grew up with The Sims, and started making custom content in 2016. “I saw what incredible things other creators made, and found it fascinating that these assets were available for everyone to play with so I decided to create my own.” For her own work, she mostly draws inspiration from modern fashion, alternative fashion, street fashion, and k-fashion.

We’re so proud to be able to work with these amazingly talented creators and bring their creations to more Simmers. Whether you’re embracing vibrant colors and mid-century modern designs with Cozy Kitsch, or looking to elevate your sleepwear and sleepovers with Sweet Slumber Party, these Creator Kits offer more ways to play and tell stories across platforms.

We’ll be sharing and showing more about what’s inside these Creator Kits as we draw nearer to launch on November 14. In the meantime, our team sat down with Myshunonsun and Trillyke to share more about the collaboration that went into bringing these Creator Kits to life.

What’s the difference between these Creator Kits and the kits you’ve collaborated on with creators in the past?

The Sims Team : The Sims 4 Creator Kits mark the first time that a full collection of in-game assets have been crafted by a creator and officially published by The Sims development team.

This new type of official kit partners with creators from the custom content community to lead the creation and design of new in-game content. Creators have the freedom to pitch kit themes and create items that speak to what they want to see in-game. This content will be distributed via official channels and available to all players, including Simmers on console! This approach will allow all players to add even more variety to their game, and console players to enjoy new content from creators previously limited to PC and Mac players.

We know there may be some confusion between previous kits featuring community collaborations and this new process. Previous kits, like our most recent Storybook Nursery with Sixam, start with outreach to the potential collaborator, who then pitches their idea for their potential kit, and works with the The Sims team to finalize the design and theme. The Sims team then creates the items in-game to bring the vision to life.

We understand that not everyone may be familiar with–or interested in–creating in-game items, so collaborative opportunities will continue to exist as an avenue to work with Simmers who may have exciting ideas that reflect communal interests, but may not have the technical ability to see these ideas realized on their own.

Each Kit begins with a pitch, which comes in the form of a mood board from our creators to illustrate the overall vision. What inspired your Creator Kit pitches?

Trillyke: Movies! I was always fascinated by how sleepover parties were portrayed in movies. Endless hours of gossiping, dozens of teen magazines and skin care products scattered around the room, cute PJs and fluffy socks! I participated in sleepovers in my teen years, but never on the scale these movies presented them. So I wanted to create a kit revolving around one of the main (and my favorite) focuses of teen slumber parties–the cozy and cute attire!

Myshunosun: I love creating items with vibrant color palettes. When The Sims team reached out to me, I immediately envisioned a specific palette of vivid reds, mustardy yellows, and amethyst greens. I associate these vibrant shades with mid-century design, which I consider a timeless style in interior design. As both a player and creator, I aim to craft items that blend seamlessly with the rest of The Sims 4 catalog. This project felt like an excellent opportunity to share my personal passion for color and mid-century design with other players. The first item I designed was the vintage radio—my favorite piece in the kit!

What went into making these Creator Kits?

The Sims Team: Each item that is created for a Creator Kit has a unique set of parts depending on whether it lives in the Create a Sim (CAS) or Build/Buy (BB) game mode. The inspiration for each item comes from the initial pitch, where our creators introduce their vision in the form of a mood board that tells the story, tone, and vision for a cohesive kit. This helps the The Sims team understand what the creator is trying to achieve, and what it would take to successfully support the creator’s vision.

After the pitch, creators submit a comprehensive list of all the items they want in this kit, and The Sims team then evaluates if each item can be supported within our current toolset. A template is then created from the The Sims team’s catalog of assets that serves as the foundation for the creator to build upon.

The creators are then able to use this template to create a 3D model, colors, textures, and swatches for their item, with the help of documentation and guidelines provided by The Sims team. These guidelines are more about performance functionality and less about artistic style, so players can use the items in the ways they would expect to in-game. For example, if there is a bookcase, Sims can pick a book from it and read, and that CAS clothing will support a variety of body types.

Once a creator submits all of these parts for each item, The Sims team carry out a series of tasks and tests with Quality Verification that helps us catch any issues before the item is ready to be released. This also allows The Sims team to maintain compatibility with all other content releases.

For BB assets, creators have to additionally write a description for each asset, which is eventually added to the game catalog and translated by EA into the 18 different languages TS4 supports.

The final step is prepping for publishing. The creators name their kit, write the descriptions for store pages, use an early build to capture screenshots, and create renders of objects that will end up on the front of the kit art (packaging). The Sims team works with the creator to ensure everything is approved, then polishes, localizes, and delivers the final artwork–fully bringing the creator’s vision to The Sims community. We’re continuously improving and refining our process based on feedback from our creators and collaborators to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience. The details of this process may look different in the future.

Did you learn anything new throughout this process?

Myshunonsun: Getting to know The Sims team was thrilling! As a self-taught creator, understanding how the team develops content for The Sims was an invaluable learning experience. This project helped me improve various aspects of my content creation process. For instance, I’m now much more confident in creating 3D models.

Trillyke: A lot! From small technical details to bigger, more in-depth factors of what goes into creating a kit was very fascinating to see. I was introduced to many different methods, platforms and tools, it was very interesting to see how many different things and even teams are involved to publish a kit!

How much creative freedom does the creator have?

The Sims Team: Creator Kits are a partnership between the community creator and The Sims team. The idea and decision-making behind what to create, how it will look, and how to go about authoring it comes from the creators themselves. Creators propose and refine the idea for their kit, select the clothing and objects they want to create and what they’ll look like, and come up with the names and descriptions that you’ll read in-game. That creative freedom even extends to areas you might not expect, such as capturing the screenshots for their kit, arranging the cover art, and writing the description of the kit that appears in the marketplace.

Because we see Creator Kits as part of our overall kits lineup, The Sims team does help set certain standards and expectations with the intent of preserving creative freedom. For example, we do ask creators to regulate the volume of content they include, and we share performance criteria their items must meet to maintain the game’s stability for all players. We’re learning and growing from our experience with creators to refine the process for greater accessibility.

Our goal is to empower more creators to unleash their creativity and bring new ideas and styles to The Sims 4, including things that we at The Sims may have never chosen to create ourselves. Embracing those creative differences creates a clear path to more choice and new experiences for everyone who plays The Sims 4!

What surprised you about the process?

Myshunosun: While it wasn’t surprising to learn that there are many factors to consider when creating new items, the sheer amount of documentation was impressive! It was extremely useful and helpful, of course.

Trillyke: A pleasant surprise was how much freedom I got from The Sims team! From brainstorming on kit ideas till creating the final last touches I was given a free hand, but the team was always ready to encourage me and help me, whenever I needed assistance! Being able to express my creativity has been absolutely amazing and I am very thankful for that!

How did you pick which creators to work with, and how are they compensated?

The Sims Team: The Sims community and our custom content creators are exceptionally talented – choosing who to work with was an incredibly difficult decision!

As integrating assets that are made outside of The Sims team is such a new process for us, we treated this first wave of Creator Kits as a pilot. We’ve been working with a pool of custom content creators who are known in The Sims community for their high quality creations, responsiveness to community reported issues, and who are in good standing with official current Mods and Game Updates Policy, which can be found here.

This group has been instrumental throughout the pilot to inform a creator-first strategy and allow our team to adapt to their feedback and continue to refine the experience. We wanted to understand their typical process of creation, while also ensuring that this experience would be valuable and rewarding for them to take part in. Throughout this process, all creators have been fairly financially compensated according to competitive market standards at every stage for their time, input, and expertise. This has been integral to this pilot program and reflects our values of ensuring equitable compensation as part of The Sims Creator Program.

What has been the most rewarding part about creating your kit with The Sims team?

Myshunosun: Overseeing the process from the initial pitch stage all the way through to creating publishing assets was an incredible experience. I have never imagined that I would get an opportunity to collaborate with The Sims team, but here we are.

Trillyke: The answer is in the question – creating my kit with The Sims team! It’s been such an honor to work with people who work on a game so close to my heart! Seeing the kit grow from week to week and from month to month has been a wonderful feeling! Knowing that people use my custom content has always filled me with excitement, but seeing my content in the official game is something on another level! Little me who played the franchise for countless hours and often from dawn to dusk would never believe that one day her work would be in the game that she adores!

What does this mean for free CC and mods?

The Sims Team: No changes! We’re simply excited to bring more possibilities to all players.

What’s next for Creator Kits?

The Sims Team: We’re just getting started! We’re really excited to hear what the community thinks, and we have more Creator Kits coming in 2025. Our whole team loves working with creators and we’re planning to expand this program in the future.

Is there any advice you have for other creators, or anyone who is looking to learn more or level up their craft?

Myshunosun: If you’re an aspiring creator, I encourage you to engage with the community of fellow creators. The Sims community is a treasure trove of knowledge and passion. The best way to learn something new is to try it yourself and openly share with others. For example, Tumblr is an excellent space to build that type of connection.

Trillyke: Just start it! I know it sounds overwhelming, and it is not something you can master overnight, but why should you anyway? Learning is the fun part! Through the small steps you can learn so many new things and gain so much experience! Even after creating for over 8 years, I still find myself learning new things! Especially now, when there are so many materials available for everyone, there really is nothing that could stop you trying something new! So yeah, just start it! 🙂

Looking to the future, we’re excited to continue to explore new ways to work together with the community to shape the game into something that speaks to players across all walks of life! We’re hopeful that The Sims 4 Creator Kits will serve as another way to uplift the amazing work being done in our communities and let their creators reach a wider audience.

Don’t forget to check out The Sims 4 Sweet Slumber Party and Cozy Kitsch Creator Kits when they go live on November 14th.

The Sims 4 Cozy Kitsch and Sweet Slumber Party Creator Kits will be available on November 14, 2024 on PC via EA app™, Mac® via Origin, Epic Games Store and Steam®, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One systems. The Sims 4 Cozy Kitsch and Sweet Slumber Party Creator Kits require The Sims 4 base game, available free to download with all game updates. See minimum system requirements for the pack.