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samuraidan just make two basic NPCs in a house that follow a routine and occasionally interact with each other. then, if you manage to finish that, imagine scaling that to an entire town.
Why imagine? Yep, that's the concept I intend to follow.
samuraidan for the most part people who want to play the sims play the sims. and then keep playing the sims. and then buying the bazillion expansion packs. and then adding in mods. and they never branch out because the sims is practically endless.
I look at the situation "from the inside" and it is not quite so. If you give players the ability to create and share content, a lot of people will drop the Sims for a game like this.
Did you know that Sims players create a kind of visual novels? One of my tutorial games is based on that kind of work.
If players can easily(!) create such novels in 3D — it will be a significant advantage of the project.
And, Warzone 2100 is also a fairly well-known game.