MICRO-WORLDS | SURVEY
We’re about to take the next step in how we create worlds for The Sims 3 — but before making that decision on my own, I genuinely want to hear what you think about this idea.
Until now, I’ve challenged myself to build complete Tiny Worlds, fully playable, with terrain, roads, vegetation, lots, and builds designed to deliver a finished experience.
But what if the next evolution wasn’t about delivering everything ready-made?
What if, instead of a single complete Tiny World, you received a package with 4 Micro-Worlds (Tiny Worlds) — with carefully planned road layouts, terrain shaping, and strategic infrastructure, ready for you to transform into whatever you envision?
Think of it as something closer to The Sims 2 experience, when you’re starting a brand-new map from scratch.
Imagine:
• Within this set of 4 Micro-Worlds, each would have a different yet cohesive composition, almost as if they belonged to the same larger world.
• The street layout would naturally suggest zoning and district identity.
• Total freedom for you to decide architecture, vegetation, and density.
It wouldn’t be an empty world — it would be an intelligent foundation to start from.
An urban framework for storytellers, builders, and players who enjoy having real control over the setting where their stories unfold.
The idea is simple: give players even more authorship over the world they’re playing in. It would be less of a closed product and more of a modular system.
But before making any decisions, I want to hear from you. I want to know if this is something you’d actually like.
I’m considering pricing this set at $6.99 — which would position it $2 above an empty Tiny World and $2 below a fully completed one.
Additionally, I’m thinking about including the CAW files for more ambitious players who want to personalize these foundations even further.
So here’s the question:
Would you use this type of structure to build your own stories?
Would you be interested in a pack of 4 modular Micro-Worlds?
Your feedback will help me determine whether this is a project worth investing time into.
Let’s decide this together.
Thank you so much for your time and support.
Note: Please consider that the images shown above are only a small example of the variety of terrain shapes each Micro-World could offer. My idea is not to replace the current formats, but if there’s interest from the community, we can explore and invest in offering different formats.
Comments (2)
I don’t know if this the right place for this thought, but one thing I’ve always been surprised by in TS3 CAW modding is a lack of small or micro worlds where the out of bounds area and long distance terrain give the illusion of a much larger, thriving city or town. You know like how Boroughsburg has a densely built-up aesthetic that exists beyond the edge of the playable map? It seems to me that doing that for a small world (having a pretend extended city around the playable area) would be an amazing way of having a performance friendly urban environment that still looks just as full and realistic as a bigger world. Micro worlds are such a great idea but I think there’s more we could do with them. Anyway, sorry, just wanted to hear your thoughts on this seeing as you specialise in tiny maps.
Wow! Thank you for the excellent comment, Amy! I agree with you that worlds would become much more immersive with distant terrain. This would probably make the experience even more satisfying. Currently, I haven't been working with distant terrain for two reasons: 1 (and I'll be honest xD) I don't know how to create it. 2: I deduce that using them would require skill to fill them in using Blender with pre-rendered models. If the distant terrain were simply terrain, without details, trees, etc., it would probably be extremely feasible. When we stop to think that just that, without any decoration, would seem bland, then we realize that other skills are required to make the visuals even more interesting, as in the example you cited in Boroughsburg. Which implies that it would take much more time. So I kind of like to see my tiny worlds as small models or maps from SimCity 4, where we can see their boundaries, because I see this perspective much more as a model of real life than the game itself xD but I will seek more knowledge about distant terrains and if, based on my current skills, I identify that it is feasible, it will be more than a pleasure to take this step forward in the development of our tiny worlds!!