The Sims 4 is heading back to school with its next full expansion, but there's more to High School Years than studying.
Fashion is one such component that plays a significant part in the teen Sim experience, and the developers teamed up with Depop, a fashion marketplace app that's incredibly popular with Gen Z shoppers, to allow Sims to explore their sense of style and set trends.
"One of the core pillars of the pack is identity expression," senior game designer Jessica Croft told Digital Spy. "Being a teen is about figuring out who you are and how you might show that to the world. Fashion is a key vector of that identity exploration and expression for Gen Z."
In that regard, Depop was a natural choice to work with to make the most out of the concept and ideas.
"Given Depop's huge Gen Z user base and our focus on fashion as a core part of High School Years, the collaboration made a lot of sense," Croft explained. "Aspirationally we also share some core values with Depop, in particular a belief in sustainable circular fashion ecosystems and elevating individual creators.
"Being able to work directly with Gen Z Depop creators lends a lot of authenticity of the pack."
Five Depop sellers, including Selena and Jeremy, contributed designs of clothes that Simmers can discover in ThrifTea, Copperdale's thrift and bubble tea store. Sims can put together outfits and then sell them on the in-game Trendi app.
"There is no shortage of talent within the Depop community to choose from, so it was important to us that the five sellers we worked with had distinct aesthetic perspectives, represented our global community, and could confidently condense their style into a handful of designs," said Depop brand director Steve Dool.
"You can see each of their sensibilities shine through, pulling inspiration from original designs, vintage Y2K and '70s garments, and spray-painted artwork that reflects the customised pieces they sell in their actual Depop shops."
Pack lead producer George Pigula confirmed that outfits can be sold through Trendi to Sims living in the world, meaning that NPC characters could be wearing something you put together.
It's not the first time that the immensely-popular life-simulation game has collaborated with others when it comes to fashion. For example, a large number of Kits have seen partnerships with the likes of Jazzy Cho, Shruti Sitara Singh, Pabllo Vittar, Paola Locatelli, and Stefan Cooke.
"Create-a-Sim is a place where you can spend hours upon hours crafting unique looks, and even experimenting with styles that you yourself might want to try," Croft said. "With that in mind, collaborations with major names in fashion makes a lot of sense."
Figuring out who you are isn't just tied to fashion, either. This month's free base game update, coinciding with this expansion, not only adds sexual orientation (including the option to create asexual and aromantic Sims) but also allows Sims to explore romantically – meaning their sexual orientation may shift through gameplay.
Making friends, finding love, and joining clubs, as well as the addition of ThrifTea and a large theme park in Copperdale, make the high school experience fleshed out beyond just classes, studying, and exams.
And all of this helps High School Years to distinguish itself from Discover University, a 2019 expansion that also centres on a significant part of a person's education.
"Certainly there were valuable lessons learned from Discover University," Croft said. "We wanted High School Years to feel dramatically different, despite both being related to education. One way to look at it is that the high school experience is the spine of the pack – while the drama, discovery, and excitement of being a teenager is the soul of the pack."
The Sims 4: High School Years will launch on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on Thursday, July 28.