E3 Sims 3 Trailer
Todd Stallkamp, machinimator-turned-pro working for Electronic Arts, told me to expect this awhile ago, and at last it’s here. The trailer for the upcoming The Sims 3 currently being showcased at E3 2008. Produced months before the game’s full camera controls have even been coded, this sharply edited piece has Todd’s fingerprints all over it, showing off what appears to be larger scale “sets” and outdoor environments.
If you’ve played The Sims 2, you know that things are fairly compartmentalized into residential and commercial lots of relatively small size. It looks as though one of The Sims 3’s improvements will be a bit more of a seamless experience for neighborhoods as the emphasis shifts a bit from micro toward macro.
Congratulations and well done, Todd!
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Damn that is amazing!! - what a great job he did! Hope he’s getting paid the BIG BUCKS! LOL

Comment by crystalwitchery — July 16, 2008 @ 10:55 am
um… sims 3 looks like it might be one freaking helluva machinima tool. i drooled a little. just… a little.
Comment by Zuckerman — July 16, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Way to Go Todd!
Comment by Jovial — July 16, 2008 @ 11:12 am
Damn that is amazing!! Wait, someone already said that. Damn that is cool!! Now we know why Todd’s been poring over his copy of the “Three C’s of Cinematography”: man, nice work, Todd. And S3 looks pretty good to me. Hope they’ve upgraded the tools as well as the look, etc.
Comment by Ricky Grove — July 16, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Thanks for the shout out Phil.
But it’s got more then my finger prints on it, starting with the amazing talent designing the game (who are paying great attention to the needs of machinima makers), the camera is a brilliant step forward. But the magic IMHO is in the customization, from characters to the ability to modify any object in the game (an art directors dream).
It was a thrill to be able to work on it.
Comment by todnyc — July 17, 2008 @ 1:36 am
http://the-sas.org/
Kind of a shame no one in the community is talking about this. I’d love to support the games that all my friends are making, but I won’t at the expense of the dangerous DRM software that’s now being included.
Comment by CJ — July 17, 2008 @ 3:56 am
Great video, love the interconnected neighbourhood.
Comment by Kate — July 17, 2008 @ 7:39 am
Great ad, Todd.
Any word on if EA are planning some kind of Machinima license like Blizz and Microsoft? I’d love to be able to recommend Sims 3 as a Machinima tool.
Comment by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock — July 18, 2008 @ 8:20 am
While I can’t speak for EA, I can say that it is certainly a conversation we have in the corridors of the Sims Label.
Comment by todnyc — July 18, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
woow this looks good but look closely when u see that guitar guy at the concert on stage
you can see a notebook.
i wonder what it could be
my guess it would be homework [comparing it to the sims2] but y is it there
Comment by matt — July 31, 2008 @ 2:25 pm