Meet Alice and Kev, a father/daughter pair of homeless Sims, struggling to survive in a Sim city that wants nothing to do with them.
Alice and Kev are the creation of UK game development student Robin Burkinshaw, who decided to see how the old poverty challenge idea from The Sims 2 played out in the recently released The Sims 3. Robin set the pair up in a lot made up to look like an abandoned park, gave them a couple of park benches to sleep on, and then stripped them of their money to see how they would fare in the simulated world. Thanks to some insightful writing from Robin and The Sims 3's new living community and traits system, the story of Alice and Kev is nothing short of completely enthralling.
Alice is a good-natured, affection-starved girl with a penchant for falling asleep anywhere imaginable, while Kev is a crass, inappropriate miscreant who blames his daughter for all of his failings. Their adventures are often as completely heartbreaking as they are humorous.
I mentioned that Alice is feeling stressed out now that she's a teenager. When she was a child, she used to always get her homework done on time, worked hard every day at school, and got constant A grades. She would often come home from school feeling strained, and the only way she could relax after working that hard was by cuddling her teddy.
She's too old to cuddle teddy now. All she'll do is hold him, but gets no enjoyment from it. She can't even pretend that somebody loves her any more.
See? I am tearing up just re-reading that bit right now.
Alice and Kev have gained quite a following since Robin launched their blog, which is kind of depressing in and of itself, as you generally won't find a real homeless family on the receiving end of this kind of attention. Perhaps the fake family will help raise awareness of real families in similar situations. If not, perhaps they should.
You can follow the entire story so far at the link below, where you can also download Alice and Kev, placing them into your own Sim town to see how they get on.
Alice and Kev [Robin Burkinshaw via BoingBoing]