Maxis outlines how those Sims 4 Creator Kits work and clarifies the makers do get paid

The first round of Sims 4 Creator Kits is rolling out soon, and developer Maxis explained how these user-created kits work. The team also clarified in the blog post that yes, the Creator Kit makers do get paid and are ‘fairly financially compensated according to competitive market standards at every stage for their time, input, and expertise.”

What those market standards are and which market Maxis is referring to – the graphic design market is rather different from the game artist market, for example – the blog post didn’t say.

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Maxis said this first round of Sims 4 Creator Kits is a pilot to help work out how to make the process effective for the Sims team and the makers, and it certainly is a process. Maxis picks a few creators to work with, which, for this initial round, meant choosing creators who were already well-known in the Sims community for their “high-quality” creations and, by extension, who already understand what a good Sims creation should be.

The creators – Myshunosun and Trillyke for the first sets – put together a pitch and a mood board that communicates the story or tone they want for the set with a list of all the items they believe need to be in the kit to achieve that vision. The Sims team evaluates whether it’s something they can make happen and, if so, deliver a template to the creator to work with. Everything, from color and texture to interactivity, gets documented, and after the creation process, the Sims team performs extensive quality testing to make sure everything works.

“As a self-taught creator, understanding how the team develops content for The Sims was an invaluable learning experience,” Myshunosun said. “This project helped me improve various aspects of my content creation process. For instance, I'm now much more confident in creating 3D models.”

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“A pleasant surprise was how much freedom I got from The Sims team,” Trillyke said. “From brainstorming on kit ideas till creating the final last touches I was given a free hand, but the team was always ready to encourage me and help me, whenever I needed assistance. Being able to express my creativity has been absolutely amazing and I am very thankful for that.”

The makers also write descriptions for any build/buy items, which get localized into the 18 languages The Sims 4 supports. Every creative decision is up to the creator as well, Maxis said, including clothing designs and color palettes, though they do have guidelines to work within that determine how much goes in each kit and what standards it has to meet.

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Myshunosun’s Cozy Kitsch and Trillyke’s Sweet Slumber Party launch on November 14, 2024, for all platforms where you can play The Sims 4, and Nintendo Switch still isn’t one of them.