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    Curious about EP budget allocation

    jimbbqjimbbq Posts: 2,734 Member
    in The Sims 4 General Discussion
    Playing island living again and I just admire how pretty this pack is. It makes me wonder how their budget is allocated in making a pack like this. The gameplay of this pack is very minimal I wonder if they say spent 70% of the budget on making it pretty and just 30% on gameplay ? What do you think ?

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      cheescaekscheescaeks Posts: 902 Member
      i think most of the money was spent on making the water areas swimmable.
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      SindocatSindocat Posts: 5,622 Member
      It isn't minimal - it just isn't obvious at first glance just how much there is.

      EA/Maxis is not about to divulge budgetary matters. That is always going to be behind the NDA veil.

      Swimmable water was, indeed, development-intensive. So was the dynamic environment of Mua Pel'am. Two different water vehicles (not counting pool floats). Mermaids. Dolphins. Community events. Island Spirits. Kava and Kava Parties. Sunbathing. Conservationist career.

      Then there are things like neighbors just dropping in with extra food. It's really not so much a ONE BIG THING pack. It's a tapestry of little things. Yes, it's gorgeous. And also someone really did their homework on Polynesian cultures. But I think it throws people because it isn't a vacation/resort pack which they seem to expect. It's Sim life at a different pace, with different priorities. Island Living - its' right there in the name.
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      TS1299TS1299 Posts: 1,604 Member
      cheescaeks wrote: »
      i think most of the money was spent on making the water areas swimmable.

      THIS. Water in The Sims 4 is like VFX, just like the Cars, the boats and everything else in the game. To make them available for swimming they have to re enginer the engine to make it possible. After that, they have to make sure that the water looks different and clear since all waters in Sims 4 are not transparent. Then make sure that sims are able to path in these waters, trigger the animations, etc. So yeah probably.

      The only thing I wanted them to do is since game development is full of limited resources, they should have use the resources on the features that people would really want. Honestly, instead of dynamic Island as a main feature, I would rather have Scuba Diving area for example.
      Ways on how to improve The Sims 4
      http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
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      jimbbqjimbbq Posts: 2,734 Member
      @Sindocat yes there are minor features like these but they don’t seem to have meaningful impacts on the game. Dolphins are just there for visual and animation. Suntan changes skin colour which is also visual. Kava is just another drink which we already have plenty. Etc etc.

      Perhaps I am not their main target audience for this pack. :)
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      OnverserOnverser Posts: 3,364 Member
      edited May 2020
      I'm guessing it's more about time rather than budget, it's clear from the pack that the sims team set out to do a lot with Island Living but EA demands a certain amount of expansions, game packs and stuff packs per year so I'm guessing they had strict deadlines which didn't give them time to finish the pack before EA made them move on. EA cares more about the dollar than the quality of what they're giving out sadly, people give the Sims team too much hate for it when it's really beyond their control. I think they want the game to be good and fully fledged because it's their game which they're passionate about, but they simply don't have the time or the staff numbers thanks to the higher ups.
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      NorthDakotaGamerNorthDakotaGamer Posts: 2,559 Member
      Sindocat wrote: »
      It isn't minimal - it just isn't obvious at first glance just how much there is.

      EA/Maxis is not about to divulge budgetary matters. That is always going to be behind the NDA veil.

      Swimmable water was, indeed, development-intensive. So was the dynamic environment of Mua Pel'am. Two different water vehicles (not counting pool floats). Mermaids. Dolphins. Community events. Island Spirits. Kava and Kava Parties. Sunbathing. Conservationist career.

      Then there are things like neighbors just dropping in with extra food. It's really not so much a ONE BIG THING pack. It's a tapestry of little things. Yes, it's gorgeous. And also someone really did their homework on Polynesian cultures. But I think it throws people because it isn't a vacation/resort pack which they seem to expect. It's Sim life at a different pace, with different priorities. Island Living - its' right there in the name.

      The SIGNFICANT GAMEPLAY features are what is minimal. It is obvious as I got all the significant gameplay completed in about 3 hours. First impression given to me is that they really only focus on making a pretty backdrop and any actual gameplay comes secondary. It is one reason why I don't buy new content at launch and wait for a sale. I also watch videos on the actual gameplay to see how much I believe the content is even worth. Island Living was only worth $15 to me.
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      GracieO312GracieO312 Posts: 1,292 Member
      #makemermaidsfun

      I just wanted an underwater area for mermaids...
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      Dakota1377Dakota1377 Posts: 29 Member
      I found the Island Living spend most of money in the water and mermaids. There was some design on the building, it wasn't enough for my liking. The pack lacked a lot of the finesse as we find in the previous packs. I love the game.
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      jimbbqjimbbq Posts: 2,734 Member
      I would have been very happy for this to be a GP. No way it is a EP.
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