Sims Voice Actor Reveals Hilarious Secret About How Simlish Works

A voice actor who worked on The Sims has peeled back the curtain on the craft and revealed a hilarious secret about how the game’s language, Simlish, came to be. When it comes to life simulation games, The Sims easily ranks among the best of them. EA and Maxis have been giving players god-like powers for over two decades now, with the latest installment, The Sims 4, offering even more freedom over character creation than ever before.

But while The Sims series as a whole has made several advancements since its debut in 2000, including the ability for Sims to actually age rather than exist in the perpetual state that they were created in, there are some things that have stayed the same. Most obvious of all is the fictional language spoken throughout all games in the series: Simlish. This language, since the first The Sims game, mostly entails Sims blowing raspberries and making other indistinguishable noises. However, according to one voice actor who supplied hours of voice acting for The Sims 2, there is more to Simlish than may be first assumed.

Former The Sims voice actor Kidbeyond shared with his followers that he worked on The Sims 2, and during that time he was told a “lil’ secret” – Simlish does not exist, and there are no scripts for The Sims games. Rather, the actors are all just talking gibberish. However, this gibberish can not sound like gibberish from any dialect other than American. “Swedish, Japanese and random nonsense” is off the table. Therefore, kidbeyond had to become creative with his job of crafting a language that sounded both fabricated but also American at the same time in The Sims 2. In the end, he would find a magazine, turn it upside down and “read some juicy backwards words.” This technique was repeated until The Sims 2 became a fully voiced game.

This news surrounding The Sims and its in game language will no doubt amuse many fans of the series. It will be interesting to see if this same technique is adopted by pop star Bebe Rexha, who is set to perform her latest single “Sabotage” (or Egatobas) in the Simlish language on The Sims 4. This performance is part of an in-game musical festival that takes place between June 29 and July 7, that Rexha is headlining.

While new performances in The Sims will be a fun inclusion to the game, many fans are mostly hopeful for more news on The Sims 5. The Sims 4 has now been available for over six years, which is the longest of any other game in The Sims’ history. While there have been multiple DLCs for the latest title, it is often criticized for its lack of replayability. What fans really want is a brand-new Sims title to reignite the spark once more. Maxis and EA should definitely keep the Simlish though, especially now that everyone knows just how it was created with those “juicy” backwards spoken words.

The Sims 4 is available across PC via Origin and Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms.

Source: kidbeyond/Twitter

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