I happened across some potentially interesting documents online. Somebody posted the internal company documentation behind the creative process of designing one of the most popular games of the 2000s, “The Sims.”

http://www.scribd.com/collections/4050497/The-Sims

I was never into the Sims, but it’s pretty ambitious as games go. First there was Sim City, then eventually Sim Earth, and ultimately just “the Sims.” It’s about the simulated inhabitants of a simulated household.

What’s important here is 1) the documents come from one of the best game design teams around, 2) there’s some time-series aspect to the documents, and 3) the final product is public and can be compared to the documentation.