Celebrating 25 Years of The Sims: JoAnna Lio

For the past 25 years, our team has poured its passion into deep, thoughtful, and authentic experiences that reflect life’s many possibilities (as well as a few fantastical possibilities we wish existed). But life, as it turns out, is pretty darn big, which is why we’re constantly introducing new content and features to expand The Sims universe into a story-telling platform that’s representative of its player community. 

As part of our ongoing birthday celebration, we’re talking to our team members about the most meaningful projects they’ve been a part of since joining The Sims family and exploring the ways in which their unique perspectives have informed the features and updates we’ve added over the past 25 years. Twenty-year Maxis veteran JoAnna Lio, for example, fondly remembers her early work on The Urbz and talks about the  inclusion of Sexual Orientation and Romantic Boundaries to The Sims 4. Learn more about her journey from intern to production director below!

What was your first role and how has it changed over time?

I started at Maxis as a production intern on The Urbz: Sims in the City. As an intern, I helped with the localization process, assembling the information needed for voice recording sessions, exporting and importing text, and whatever else the team needed that I could help with. I deliberately stayed after hours because I noticed that’s when engineers were wrestling with the toughest bugs. Senior Engineers would be packed into our lead engineer’s office as they chased memory stomps. I wanted to see all aspects of how the sausage is made and I loved the work. Moreover, I loved how different The Urbz was from any other game available at the time.

The dedication paid off. After The Urbz, Maxis hired me as a designer where I helped with the cooking system in The Sims 2 on console. Over the years, the scope of my work has broadened, ranging from owning features such as Parties in The Sims Mobile to overseeing full games such as The Sims 3 on console and expansion packs such as The Sims 4 Cottage Living and Lovestruck.

What’s the first thing you worked on?

My first project at Maxis was The Urbz, but the year before, I had been a community manager for EA Games, which was a great introduction to the industry. I definitely wanted to try out the game development side of the business, so I was stoked to get the opportunity to work on The Urbz. At this point, I’ve been at Maxis for more than 20 years. The whole time has been so engaging and rewarding because there’s endless good we can do in representing people and life and empowering creativity!

What’s the most meaningful thing you’ve worked on and why?

One of the features that has been the most meaningful to me is the addition of Sexual Orientation and Romantic Boundaries because it highlights the diversity of these experiences for people in real life. Through the research we did for these features, I learned about asexuality, which is not often represented in the media. The Sims 4 now enables players to make Sims who are not interested in WooHoo and/or Sims who do not experience romantic attraction. 

How does your personal experience help shape your work?

Working on The Sims 4 Horse Ranch Expansion Pack was very personal and a dream come true because I’ve been a big horse fan since I was a kid. I grew up in Kentucky, where I was surrounded by events such as the Kentucky Derby and all the horse farms in the Bluegrass region.

I used to read horse encyclopedias that talked about riding, the hundreds of breeds, and how horses are woven into the fabric of human history. I also had taken some riding lessons. I was able to apply a lot of that to the Horse Ranch Expansion Pack since it features Riding Skill, dozens of breeds (including my favorites, such as the black Friesian), and breeding so you can have super cute foals (baby horses)!

How important is it for Maxis to allow players to see themselves in The Sims?

Representation is a core value for Maxis. This hit home for me when I got to meet some players via Breakthrough T1D (formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation or JDRF) who have type 1 diabetes. They talked about how impactful it was for them to be able to put glucose monitors on their Sims. The availability of medical equipment and hearing aids also helps to introduce other people to these and normalize their usage.