The free-to-play game, The Sims 4, is a great place for players to explore not only a life sim but also an incredible building and design opportunity. With the option to create and live out the family of your dreams, the only thing that could make that better is the chance to design and decorate a gorgeous home for them to reside in.
Despite the lack of a color wheel – a much-loved feature of The Sims 3 – The Sims 4 undoubtedly has the best building mechanics of any Sims game thus far. Whether a novice builder or someone with experience spanning back to 2000, there’s always something new to learn, especially when it comes to building tips and tricks to create next-level builds.
The saying goes that “bigger is better”, but that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to building in The Sims 4. Instead, it’s often best to keep builds small – particularly if you’re new to the game. There are only so many items in the game, especially without all the DLC, so keeping things on the smaller side helps to avoid cavernous spaces with not enough items to furnish them or gardens that are unmanageable. Smaller spaces also have the advantage of being cheaper to build and decorate.
The Sims 4 has plenty of cheat codes and by far the most useful when it comes to the decorating process is the “moveobjects” cheat. This cheat allows for full freedom when placing all items, rather than forcing players to stick to the game’s grid system. To enable this cheat, you must first have cheats enabled.
Press CTRL + SHIFT + C to open the command box and then type testingcheatsenabled true, and hit enter. Finally, type bb.moveobjects and press enter to activate the move objects cheat.
While The Sims 4 offers the best building mechanics of any Sims game so far, the grid system can be limiting when it comes to creating realistic builds. While rotation is a built-in option, it is limited by individual 90-degree turns. To combat this, hold the Alt key while placing an object to move it more freely and rotate it 360°. While it won’t give as much freedom as the moveobjects cheat, it has the bonus of still letting players know when an object is too close to another.
While The Sims 4 team has improved the quality of the game’s new assets in recent years, the sizing of objects in the game is inconsistent and frustrating. The good news is that players can scale objects up or down using the [ and ] keys.
Simply hold the object and press [ to make it smaller or ] to make it bigger. Builders should be warned that this feature will take away the use of functional items like appliances, so it is best used for decorative items like plants and paintings.
In a similar vein to the shrink and enlarge technique, objects in The Sims 4 can be raised or lowered using the 0 and 9 keys. 9 lifts the object incrementally, while 0 moves it back down again.
This trick is perfect when it comes to placing paintings and wall decorations, allowing for more creative freedom to create features like gallery walls when used in tandem with other building cheats. However, its best use comes when creating realistic clutter, allowing you to place items on tables with ease.
In 2019, The Sims 4 team added a free feature never before seen in a Sims game: configurable stairs. After two decades of strictly straight or spiral stairs, builders are now free to experiment with stairs in The Sims 4 by twisting and turning them in any configuration.
Stairs can have multiple turns and parts of the stairs can be shortened or lengthened to fit wall configurations. While it can be difficult to master, this can completely change the flow of any home, making it well worth the learning investment.
Platforms were another feature patched into The Sims 4, this time in 2020. Different from foundations, platforms allow builders to have different levels within one room. They can be used to make anything you can dream of, such as a ’70s-style conversation pit, an elevated kitchen, or an unusual staircase. The platforms work the same as regular floors and can be set to different heights, but note that anything higher than one increment and sims will require a small set of stairs to get up them.
Roofs are undeniably the hardest part of building in The Sims 4. If a building is anything more than a basic square or rectangle, roofing is less likely to be cooperative and can require some fine-tuning to make it functional, let alone interesting. In addition to the different roof types, players can hold SHIFT + C to open precise controls that allow them the option to adjust the slope while holding ALT will adjust the height. Though this is difficult to learn, it is a trademark of professional builds in Sims 4 and worth mastering.
With 15 Sims 4 expansion packs, 12 game packs, 20 stuff packs, and 27 kits released so far, the full catalog of Build/Buy items is extensive and expensive. However, regardless of how many packs a player has, some hidden objects in the game can be useful to enhance a build.
To access the debug inventory, or hidden, items, enable cheats and type bb.showhiddenobjects. This will force hidden objects to appear throughout the catalog, but the items will vary depending on the DLC owned.
As the heart of the home, kitchens in The Sims 4 are one of the home’s most important features. One thing Sims 4 players might never discover is that the game comes with an automatic counter placement feature built-in. This means the game will automatically select the cabinet piece it thinks you want. Though meant to be helpful, it hides access to choices and can change what you intend to place. To disable, click the gear symbols next to any cabinet in the catalog and then enjoy the freedom to choose custom pieces in The Sims 4.