The Sims 3 World Adventures Preview - Exclusive Details on Create-a-World

By Andrew Park, GameSpotPosted Oct 29, 2009 5:26 pm PT

Get the exclusive first details on the next big addition to the Sims 3 community.

The Sims 3 was released earlier this year to much fanfare and acclaim. The third game continued the tradition of letting players create little computer people who led little computer lives as they love, laugh, work, and buy property in the virtual suburbs just outside of SimCity. All versions of The Sims have had a "build mode" editing tool that lets players construct housing and alter terrain. The upcoming World Adventures expansion pack for The Sims 3 will also let players create "adventure" zones with switches and buttons that trigger different events, such as revealing secret passages and treasures. But later this year, the publisher will release a separate new editing tool called "Create-a-World," which will essentially let players build out not only a house, but also an entire neighborhood from scratch.

The Sims 3's Create-a-World utility will let you build entire neighborhoods from the ground up.

Create-a-World is intended for serious Sims enthusiasts willing to devote enough time to build entire neighborhoods from scratch. The tool is actually the same one that the development team uses to create the playfields for The Sims 3 and its expansions. Because it's the same tool that the developers use, it can create areas similar to those that appear in the base game and expansions, in four different size levels. (The Sims 3's default neighborhood of Sunset Valley is the largest of the four world sizes.)

Like with the build mode of The Sims 3, you can manipulate terrain by raising it to create mountains or lowering it to create valleys and then "paint" the terrain using either the textures or terrain types available in the editing tools. Or, if you're ambitious enough, you can use image-editing tools, such as Photoshop to create your own JPEG and PNG textures to map onto your custom neighborhoods. Once built, these areas can be exported from the tool and then either imported into your own game install (you can have as many custom neighborhoods in your game as your computer's hard drive space allows) or uploaded to the Exchange community site to share with other users. It's not yet clear what the average file size of a custom neighborhood will be, but EA community representatives assured GameSpot regardless of how big they are, custom neighborhoods will be subject to the same sort of community-plus-EA-oversight content moderation process used for other custom content.

While giving users the ability to create entire lots from scratch will give hardcore fans the ability to create huge new areas to explore, the EA team clarified that the tool will work off of each user's installed games. That is, if you wish to create a community lot using the adventure-based gameplay of The Sims 3 World Adventures, you must own World Adventures and have it installed; the created lot can be used only by players who also own that expansion. In any case, EA states that Create-a-World is not intended to replace the new gameplay features that traditional Sims 3 expansion packs typically introduce, such as the new careers and adventure gameplay in World Adventures. EA plans to continue to work on full expansion packs that not only add new terrain and areas to explore, but will also introduce new gameplay concepts that will be unique to the expansions themselves.

Create-a-World will be a separate utility that will weigh in at about 130MB and be free to download from the official Sims 3 Web site. The tool is planned for release in a beta state this December in all languages--EA plans to support and improve the utility over time as it receives feedback from the fan community.

26 Comments

  • austinite04

    Posted Nov 4, 2009 6:41 am PT

    @ pilouuuu2004: I couldn't agree more, The Sim3 is way better in many aspects. I have Galactic Adventures and the planet/level design tools are VERY difficult to use. I have yet to create a Spore level worthy of 100 points and have yet to make a tunnel that is lined up perfectly even on flat terrain. The Sims 3 is a much better and easier game to use. I can't imagine why I would want to pay for another add-on for Spore, given how hard Spore:GA was. I hope TS3's neighborhood editing tool is an easy flexible tool. I can't wait for World Adventures and the editor to release. This pair of add-ons seems to be worth the money. I wonder if they will have neighborhood sharing on the main website like they do for houses and sims?? One can only hope.

  • pilouuuu2004

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 10:08 pm PT

    Wow, The Sims 3 is so much better than Spore and now it gets even better. It is definitely one of EA's best games.

  • moksrs

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 9:32 am PT

    great...

  • Flonne_N_Etna

    Posted Nov 2, 2009 4:16 am PT

    EA is clever, by providing the community with editors,they do not have to add any additional content to keep the game going.

    I still have to thanks them for creating such a wonderful game.

  • BlackTargetmark

    Posted Nov 2, 2009 2:40 am PT

    Indeed this seems time-consuming.

  • jat94

    Posted Nov 1, 2009 9:39 pm PT

    woo i want

  • SimulationStim

    Posted Nov 1, 2009 11:00 am PT

    All games, including consoles, should have something like this or at least a somewhat robust editor. It's a win/win situation for the players and devs, cause it offers unlimited replayability as long as the gamers keep being creative. Great news for Sims lovers.

  • gooptyking

    Posted Nov 1, 2009 7:25 am PT

    this seems pretty cool/time consuming.

  • Vojkan80001

    Posted Nov 1, 2009 3:25 am PT

    awesome

  • dogders

    Posted Oct 31, 2009 10:58 pm PT

    this renews some faith I had in this license, although I think it shouldve been ready to go upon Sims3 initial release. Key word here being FREE download.

  • Gelugon_baat

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 10:08 pm PT

    Sims is one of the actual few good franchises from Electronic Arts, who otherwise produce crap.

  • TRBO_RAD

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 8:18 pm PT

    Sounds LIke my wallet just cried alittle......bc im def buying this NOVEMBER 17

  • nsibbs

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 2:58 pm PT

    Good report, finally a legal mod :/

  • Bedizen

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 1:18 pm PT

    Seems they have really made an effort with the Sims 3

  • rckljohnson

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 1:03 pm PT

    Awesome! So glad this is finally going somewhere!

  • BrandonC3000

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 11:13 am PT

    @Mr_Versipellis: THANK YOU. Absolutely correct.

  • diamond2206

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 8:33 am PT

    Great! Can't wait to see what the other players come up with. I'm not to good at building but I'll give it a try when this comes out.

  • Mr_Versipellis

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 8:26 am PT

    Uhhhhh... Couldn't SimCity 4 owners already import maps into the Sims 2? This is hardly revolutionary; it's just re-adding an older feature that should have been there in the first place.

  • Creasy1903

    Posted Oct 30, 2009 6:33 am PT

    First we need more detailed Jobs&School(University)life and other litter things such as pets and seasons.I don't want to buy an expansion package to have a pet,or see snow man.EA tell me why can't I control 2 or more family in 1 save game,this sucks.

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