The Sims 5’s Character Creation Needs to Get Ahead of the Curve

Highlights

• The Sims 5 should strive to set a new standard for character creation in the franchise, allowing players to customize every aspect of their Sims’ appearance and personalities.
• The upcoming competition in the life simulation genre, such as Paralives and Life By You, threatens to steal The Sims 5’s thunder, especially with their innovative character creation systems.
• To maintain its genre dominance and cater to its diverse fanbase, The Sims 5 needs to offer a more inclusive character creation system with a wider range of customization options, including diverse skin tones, hairstyles, and even the ability to create characters with prosthetic limbs.

As work continues on EA and Maxis’ The Sims 5, franchise fans have already begun speculating about what new features the long-awaited game will include. From new Sims families to a more robust way to customize characters’ houses, gamers have already offered up suggestions for plenty of possible improvements to the game. While it’s safe to assume that nearly every gameplay mechanic will receive some enhancements when The Sims 5 finally releases, one aspect of the game that Maxis should pay particular attention to is its character creation system.

While the franchise has included fairly robust character creation systems in its recent entries, The Sims 5’s character creator should strive to set a new standard for the series. Expanding on The Sims 4’s Create-a-Sim, or CAS, feature and allowing players to customize every aspect of not just their Sims’ appearance, but also their personalities, could give the game an edge in the face of new competition. By introducing a genre-defining character creation system for The Sims 5, Maxis could make it the franchise’s most customizable and inclusive entry yet and ensure the series stays a success.

New Competition Means Maxis Can’t Afford to Rest on Its Laurels

The Sims 5 is going to have more competition in the life simulation genre than ever before whenever it finally arrives. One such competitor is the artsy indie game Paralives, which takes the calm and cozy gameplay The Sims is known for and gives it a cel-shaded makeover. With its unique art style and a Paramaker system that will let Paralives players customize everything from their characters’ clothing to their tattoos, it has the potential to steal some of The Sims 5’s thunder.

The biggest threat on the horizon to The Sims 5 is likely to be Life By You, a new life simulation game by Paradox Tectonic. While Life By You looks to expand on many familiar elements of the genre, with the developers promising it will be one of the most customizable life simulation games ever, some of the game’s biggest potential innovations look to be in its character creation system. Not only will players be able to customize their character’s appearance and personality, but they’ll even be able to create custom dialogue in Life By You for interacting with NPCs.

The Sims 5 Needs a Genre-Defining Character Creation System

This influx of upstarts into the life simulation market is why Maxis should ensure that The Sims 5’s character creation system isn’t just better than the competition, but also sets a new standard for the genre as a whole. The franchise has already made some great strides in customization and representation in recent years, such as adding pronoun selection to The Sims 4 in 2022, and the CAS in The Sims 5 should expand on this. The Sims 5 should strive to let players create their ideal in-game avatar, no matter what form that may take.

Since fans of the franchise come from all walks of life, The Sims 5 needs to ensure that all players have the ability to create a Sim that reflects them. This means giving players far more options for customizing their Sims, such as a wider range of skin tones and available hairstyles to reflect the game’s diverse fanbase. Maxis could even take a cue from Playground Games’ racer Forza Horizon, which lets players create characters with prosthetic limbs.

With innovative new competitors entering the market in the near future, Maxis needs to ensure the character creator in The Sims 5 is truly innovative rather than simply iterative. By delivering the most robust version yet of the CAS system and including customization options that reflect the diversity of its players, The Sims 5 could help Maxis maintain its genre dominance and give franchise fans more freedom than ever to create their perfect Sim.