I absolutely agree with you on that. I read it’s in pre-alpha stage so I hope that they plan on refining the character models a little bit.

It's in it's pre-alpha stage right now so I'm pretty sure it won't look this way once he's done with it.

The art style from that twitter gif reminds me of MySims for some reason.

The art style is not that bad for a pre-alpha indie game in my opinion:


Heck, I bet some of those objects have a higher polycount than some TS4 objects. And the lighting is pretty cool too. Grass is WAAAY better than TS4's.
They do need better character models though (for what little I've seen).

Other screenshots I found:





GRID-LESS CONSTRUCTION? CURVED WALLS? INTEGRATED SPLIT-LEVELS? What kind of sorcery is this?

Right?! Lol I'm really loving the art style tbh. I know its not done but it's refreshing.

Oh the objects are quite nice. The screen-shot of the home from an top-down view could almost be from Sims 4. It's the people in the screenshots that don't wow me right now. And in a Sims-style game I'm more interested in how the people look and move than the surroundings.

But yeah, it's pre-alpha right now and there are many indi games where the characters look nice, so let's hope this will be one of them once it is finished.

I can only assume the developer is focusing more on the building and environments at this current stage. I’ve been keeping an eye on the discord server and from what I’ve read, the developer has some ambitious plans for this game with regards to the characters and simulation. He also seems to welcome suggestions from the community. It’s refreshing.

Thanks for posting those screenshots Naus. Stunning! I’ll add them to the OP

This definitely will be amazing to see finished.
I don’t care about graphics I’ll take anything that gives me DECENT building & a life living game.
I still play Sims 2 UC to this day, Sims 4 is nothing but a sad attempt it’s mainly EA’s cash cow.
We need this, as long as it has loads of building options & a live mode of some amount I’m fine.

This small team is doing things Greedy EA wont. For that if this game comes through they may lose many buyers to this team.

On twitter he answered LOADS of things.
One time price.
There will be aging, babies & toddlers.
There will be a color wheel you can color all the things.
Things like everything can be manipulated resized & recolored.
The tire swing & curtain in one gif have movement physics.
He hates dlc, updates adding things for free, one was brought up adding occult’s.
Dogs, cats, horses.
Curves, from the houses walls to the pools & the slide coming off the roof is functional.
Built in seasons no dlc !
Personality’s.
Cars & open worlds !
I’m sorry but if this succeeds, I’ll stay with Sims 2 & then jump to buy this.
It may not be Sims as we all know but least all the core features will be there.
Virtual families kinda is like Sims but not much to it at all.

If this team succeeds, if this one small team can accomplish things a Giant can’t then EA is just lazy or greedy.

(Sorry, but I have to fix possible mistaken implication)
It knows as a fact they are lazy and greedy even if it doesn't succeed. With the already leaked images and ambiguous ideas, it will mean that this team, failed or succeed, at least tried. Nowadays, maxis could barely implemented the simplest things without crying out like a teenager that's going through puberty and complain that lifes hard.

Unless the genetics are like sims 2 then im afraid i wont be very interested in it. and no story progression!

Cell shading can be so so pretty.

When it comes to TS4 I'm obsessed with realistic CC. At first just for Sims, but recently I have begun swinging that way for Buy/Build as well. And yet I kind of really like the graphics on this thing, just as they are now. I'm so confused.

As far as I know, this is a solo project thus far. ONE PERSON has accomplished this. It’s looking very promising to me. I am, however, desperate for my beloved life sim genre to return to its former glory. I’m so ready for this. EA will never bring it back as far as I’m concerned.

Okay on a different note. I am anxious to see how the characters themselves turn out. I love the cell shaded art style (can confirm the developer is in fact inspired by BOTW). My only reservation is would this art style allow a detailed enough character customisation? Who knows, but mods will be supported for this, and I’ve seen mods that remove BOTW’s cell shading and reveal a more “traditional” and detailed style, so the option might be there one day for those who prefer realism.

Well BOTW characters do look flat texture wise but if a proper face/body manipulation system is in place they too could be edited to look diverse. However... here I'm concerned that the need for low poly characters won't look good with this style.

BUT... I've always wanted a sims game that looks like this for some reason, idk why.

Yeah, I agree with mixa97sr, the cellshading isn't a problem, there's heaps of games with cellshading that still have pretty character models. The low poly is the part where it might fail in aesthetics (not necessarily but might)

I mean I'm playing Sims 2 so I don't expect (or even want) any sort of photo-realism or high end graphics, but... well I need customizable faces that change expression, varied hairstyles, clothing, bodyshapes etc. I'm alright with the characters being cartoony and stylized, but they will need to have "life" to them.

I would be ok if they start small. All a character needs to have is a human body, hair, eyes, mouth, nose, lips, clothes as a basic start point. After alpha/bera stages are finished, than polygon and more detail customization (accessories and tattoos introduce, shoes indepented from clothing, etc) could be expanded on.

I wonder if they'll release programs for creating your own items (something like Bodyshop and Homecrafter, but more versatile like SimPE or S4Studio, or any of the other player-made programs) with the game if/when they finish it. Since they don't like expansions, I mean.

Having a game with all the stuff already included in the base game would've been great, but it would be even better to be able to make your own CC easily.

I think the graphics look better than TS4. Yes, they are what I'd call shallow textured, but the shapes and sizes are in proportion and the finished appearance is consistent. I went off TS4 when I saw the giant mailboxes - and they've not let me down since.

Those screenshots look much nicer than the gifs. I suppose the lower quality of the gifs misrepresents it slightly.

While I can see how some comparisons to Breath of the Wild's graphics are drawn, I'm afraid there's still a huge difference which makes this style much less desirable than BOTW's - that is that while BOTW is cel-shaded, it also has texture detail. Sure it's not anywhere near the highest level of texture detail in the industry, but it is far from being washed out and texture-less like this game's style is:




I know this is just one independent individual working on the game and thus I shouldn't be harsh. I'm sure it has a lot going for it, and it's great to see a competitor, but that artstyle just isn't anywhere near up to par, and it being cel-shaded doesn't save it. It needs texture detail, because without it just looks incredibly cheap. I can put up with some less than great graphics, but when there's just such low texturing like this it's too much for me to overlook.

I can't believe any of you are comparing graphic quality from a single developer versus AAA games or completely disregarding a game because of it. The least anyone can do is go into it with an open mind. If the final product isn't for you, then it isn't for you, but giving it a verdict because of very early screenshots seems pretty juvenile. I understand that to some people, graphics is 'everything' in a life simulator because of immersion. And, because of that, it doesn't matter how far it improves from here because a single developer will never be able to do enough to make you happy. I don't think you are this game's target audience, and honesty, there is literally nothing this developer can reasonably do to satisfy you beyond forming a company and hiring more people.

I think, for what it is, the graphics are top notch. However, nothing I have seen so far even matters to me in the long run. I'm not going to hype anything up until I see actual life simulation. I've had enough of games being hyped by how it looks; I'll wait to see how it plays. In the end, simulation is the hard part of making a life simulation game.

However, if you are disappointed because you are looking for EA to get some 'real' AAA life simulation competition, than you better hope that if this game gets completed and released, that it makes a killing. Proof that a life simulation game can make money without the Sims names attached to it would go a long way in order to get bigger companies to start developing something of their own.

I think you're misunderstanding my point. I'm not meaning to put down the game altogether, I'm just saying the graphics/art style aren't that great. The BOTW comparison was not started by me. I've actually been replaying BOTW lately so when a comparison is made to the graphics I can't help but have to comment.

Otherwise the game seems to have some neat building ideas and what it's said to bring sounds great as well. So I really hope that the game will be great. The graphics are just a bit jarring though, and I can't ignore that.

I honestly think that larger companies are worried about putting their foot in the door with a simulation game like the sims because of the consumers. Just take a look at the sims community and how faithful most of us are to the sims and think about how a company may see it. The expectations are extremely high with most simmers and it's pretty sad we have ones judging while a possible competitor is still in the early stages of development. I for one appreciate his transparency to how his progress is coming and love the fact that he's sharing the journey with us visually. It took a lot of guts for him to take that step and share his baby with us. Especially knowing how Maxis and the community are. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes. All of this is refreshing to me.

My reply wasn't directed just at you. Anyone trying to compare these graphics to BOTW blows my mind as well. I just don't see a reason to have that discussion at all. From what I've seen so far, it's far from ugly and I don't see a point in arguing about graphics when it just seems unreasonable to suggest that it should be better when it's just one dev.

Remember, the fact that it's just one dev also means it doesn't have to sell as many copies to be seen as a 'success' opposed to failure.