Mid-Century Tudor Modern
The Sims 4 Get Together Expansion Pack* introduces Windenburg, a
European-inspired world complete with ancient ruins, Cafés, and
discotheques that look nothing like what you’ve seen in The Sims 4.
We knew really early on in the development of the expansion that we
wanted to go with something more Euro, but it took a lot of
experimentation to get from those early discussions to the version
that’ll ship with the game in December.
Europe is a huge continent with countless architectural styles and
sub-cultures, so we realized we needed to create something unique, but
still authentic. We want Windenburg to feel like it could be found in
many different parts of Europe while still feeling like its own,
distinct location. We gathered some concept art that shows how we ended
up where we are, from first sketches to fairly complete images. Not
everything in the concept art is going to end up in the final game, but
we want to show you the whole process.
Early on, our concept artists explored a bunch of different ideas to
figure out how Windenburg should really look. Maybe it should have an
“Old Town” area, or maybe there should be a traditional open
countryside. Maybe part of it should be on hills? Maybe it should have
all of the above?
As we started to flesh out this entirely new place it became very clear
that the rules of architecture in classic Europe are very different then
the things our Sims worlds have been filled with before. Namely, the
variety – since many of the cities we referenced are centuries old, many
of the buildings date back hundreds of years. Peppered between old
buildings are new ones, creating an incredibly unique aesthetic that we
really wanted to embrace. This mixture of old and new feels distinctly
European, and we wanted to make sure we captured it in Windenburg.

To embrace this mix of styles we needed to bend the classic rules of
architecture and find a way to merge those disparate pieces. Our artists
began to experiment with different styles of residential architecture,
playing with different motifs to see how they could work together. In
the end, we went with something that was sort of a Tudor Modern – a mix
of contemporary construction and the kind of buildings built during the
16th century in England.

Once
we’d decided on the aesthetic and how it’d look on a small scale, we
had to take a few steps back and think big-picture. Here’s a look at
what we wanted the map to look like – and this is actually pretty close
to the layout you’ll see in game! There’s a lookout spot on the Pier in
the Business District where you can see indications of every distinct
neighborhood, from the Countryside with rolling pine-covered hills and
electric windmills in the distance, the Old Town with quaint Tudor
buildings and repurposed fishing canneries, and the high-end residential
Island that sits in the middle of the Windenburg Lake.
On one side of the island, sandy flat areas with fishing docks. On the
other, a mansion overlooking the sea (and if you’re lucky, you might
catch a view of Windenburg’s elusive sea monster).
Once we’d finished sketching maps and architecture, we started to create
some visual snapshots to really show off the districts. There’s one
here (and one in the opening of the blog) that serve both as
explorations as to how these places could look with Sims living in them,
and also provide a visual target to the team responsible for building
them in game. We’re really happy with how closely we were able to
recreate these in game and even more excited about the different
elements we were able to build out as development went on – even that
statue made it!