How The Sims 4 devs built Lovestruck for the authentic “rush” of dating

We spoke with The Sims 4 dev team to glean some insight on what went into developing the new features in Lovestruck as well as the inspirations it drew from, and more.

Since the original Sims 1 days, romance has always been one of the core features of the game. The idea of having your Sim build a relationship with someone they like was always exciting.

The only problem was… after having your first WooHoo, relationship, or marriage, you were likely to notice that there was some kind of pattern. Your Sim meets another Sim, you talk to them until you exhaust all options, and voila, in just a matter of minutes, they’d go from a stranger to someone who wants to spend their life with you, which can obviously feel unrealistic at times.

Fast forward to 2024, however, that’s no longer the case thanks to The Sims 4 Lovestruck expansion. I had the opportunity to chat with Lead Producer JoAnna Lio and Senior Creative Director Anna Huerta to learn more about how this pack changes relationships and how it reflects real life better than ever.

Learning from real-life

As a hardcore Sims fan, some of the new pack features somewhat reminded me of the “Wants and Fears” feature from The Sims 2. Hence, my curiosity led me to ask the team what initially inspired them to develop the new features for Lovestruck.

“It’s really about real life, right?” JoAnna said. “We want to do a pack that’s inspired by modern dating, modern romance. So we really look at what’s going on in the world around us. Obviously, apps are a big part of people’s lives, so we wanted to build Cupid’s Corner as a way to find matches really easily.”

Like a “recording in progress,” Sims can just “create a date” by putting their preferences and finding their match. Though dating in the game isn’t merely a social interaction where you exhaust all the options. You might have a great time and want to make the date longer. Or not, depending on how things go. 

“Those are all things that you can do in the newly created date system, even things like the concept of romantic satisfaction, you know, not everybody feels the same way about a relationship.

“So, just the whole idea that I could be really happy with something and the other person’s not really feeling it, that adds a ton of nuance. That’s really what inspired us to make Lovestruck.”

A touch of diversity

One of the thrills of jumping in The Sims 4 after downloading an expansion pack is exploring the new world. Not being able to help but notice how aesthetically pleasing Ciudad Enamorada is, I asked the team what influenced them to make the world filled with romantic getaways.

“Our players are coming from all over the world, and we’re making more deliberate decisions to bring more diverse worlds to life,” Anna mentioned. 

Many of the team members were from Mexico, and they were “really excited” to bring “this particular world to life for The Sims 4,” which led them to look at different major cities that were “more modern.”

“Typically, when we see some global regions being represented in the West, they tend to be more traditional or from just a different time.”

Knowing how The Sims 4 players “come from modern locations and big cities,” the team wanted to make sure they could capture “some really fun places,” Ciudad de Mexico being one example.

Anna explained: “If you’re from there, you can see where those locations are being inspired from. And if you’re not, you get to learn something new, which for me is like the magic when you see players talking online and discussing some of these local regions.”

Incorporating different communication styles

Developing any new pack is not without its fair share of challenges. For Lovestruck, the team was open to unveiling some of them and how they managed to push through. “We really have to become experts in the topics that we’re telling stories about,” Anna explained.

In the case of The Sims 4, this means getting really “deep” about dating, what it means to “nurture a long-term relationship” and “the very intimate topic of WooHoo,” as these are “very personal” to people.

As Creative Director, Anna’s approach involved creating a “space for the team to have those conversations” by giving them the tools to “go really deep and think about the psychosocial perspective of these topics.”

Not only that, but the team also had to take those and make them in a very simple way – something easier said than done. “And then a challenge I would say is tangential to that is attraction and sexuality are very intimate topics in general.

“We just want to make sure that we’ve created a space where the team can be curious and ask questions. In some cases, how do we talk about our lived experiences for a path like this and bring that to the table?”

Finding the sweet spot for new features

Lovestruck introduced a plethora of new features that players can customize right away in CAS, allowing them to alter the way Sims get attracted to one another, build relationships, and more. 

All these new additions, combined with the new Romantic Boundaries feature from the free update, can be a little overwhelming to navigate at first. With that in mind, I asked the team what goes into balancing a fun experience when exploring all the new options while also keeping it exciting.

According to Anna, the team has been listening to the community and what players are looking for. “Downloading a new pack is a rush for players, and they want to see all of the features upfront.”

“But there’s also a slow burn to this pack as well. And so when players are first getting this pack, they get to fill that rush initially.”

“But one thing that we are seeing more is slower play, having the Sims really trying to get to know each other beyond those first impressions.” 

So, instead of having players “see everything that’s in the pie menu,” the pack allows players to take their time to discover “the communication style, the turn on, turn off of another Sim,” among others.

Another factor involves “looking at the ebbs and flows of nurturing that long-term relationship” after establishing a relationship. 

The team wants to make sure that the pack is delivered in a way where players can decide “how the relationship might go but also be surprised by some of the consequences of how they work with the Sim.”

The future of The Sims 4

In the future, as the team releases more packs for The Sims 4, new additions will also be available to Lovestruck. This includes new turn-ons, turn-offs, and “many places you can go for a date,” JoAnna said.

In addition, the team is looking forward to building “lots of secret stuff,” and they’ve already got this “big list” from listening to what players are interested in.

“So, there’s perpetually exciting things for us to do, and we’re always looking forward to getting those out to you all.”

Anna also mentioned that the team will continue “delivering some really exciting updates for years to come.” Overall, the franchise has “a lot of exciting news and updates” that the team is keen to share soon.