It’s been 20 years since The Sims opened our eyes to the world of digital home making, and this best-selling life simulation game is still going strong.
The Sims is a classic ‘sandbox’ game, which means that players are able to use their own creativity and imaginations to build the playscapes and generate the drama for themselves. In this case, we have a world of virtual dollhouses, either pre-constructed or self-created homes, inhabited by virtual characters, who are also created and controlled by the players.
There is a real satisfaction to setting your own goals and having control over the drama in your characters’ lives, and many players also love the capacity to plan, build, and decorate the digital play space. The Sims is full of potential and inspiration for lovers of landscaping and interior design.
To pay tribute to the game that has inspired so many digital households, the home improvement enthusiasts at Angie’s List produced realistic renders of six classic homes that fans of The Sims will remember.
5 Sim Lane – The Goth Family Home
This two-storey Neo-Queen Anne style house was The Goth family’s original home, with a real Addams Family vibe. It even had its own graveyard, but this realistic interpretation has focused on the enchanting 3-tier stone water feature, instead.
215 Sim Lane – The Pleasant Family Home
The Pleasants’ Tudor-style house with Federal stone extension had some great features, including full-length windows and beamed dormers. But behind this textbook facade of suburban middle-class domesticity there was a very dysfunctional family that proved that appearances can be deceiving.
Sultry Springside – The Caliente Household
The 1920s Mediterranean-style mansion of Sultry Springside was the home to plenty of digital drama. The terracotta tiled roof and stucco walls are perfect for a summer climate, and the tangle of lovers shared between housemates Luisa Libros and twins Dina and Nina Caliente certainly kept things hot!
Affluista Mansion – The Landgraab Family Home
With echoes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra, the natural veneer of this three-story modernist ranch suggested a level of taste that the gaudy interiors soon dismissed. The grounds are protected from intruders by palm trees and tall fences, but Sim’s fans might already know that there’s a grotto hidden round the back.
101 Road To Nowhere – The Smith Family Home
This down-to-earth New-England-style four-bedroom family home was the perfect place for Strangetown’s resident alien, Pollination Tech#9 Smith to settle with his human wife and their offspring. With a swimming pool and golfing machine in the back garden, Mr. Smith could live out his modest terrestrial dream.
150 Main Street – Don Lothario’s Home
A true bachelor pad, the living space is all downstairs in Don Lothario’s, leaving upstairs for the bedroom and the rooftop deck, with it’s all-important hot tub. There’s a second deck above the bedroom, where Don’s observatory and telescope suggested dreams of a universe beyond the digital realm.
These homes are a familiar part of the beloved landscape of The Sims. Will Wright and his design team gave players a chance to explore a world of possibilities in domestic dynamics, home and interior design.