One Fan Just Proved Sims 5 Could Work in Unreal Engine 5, and He Did It in Two Weeks Flat

When EA confirmed there were no plans for a Sims 5, most fans were disappointed and moved on. Tytar decided to do something about it instead. With no background in game development whatsoever, he opened up Unreal Engine 5, gave himself a brutally tight 14 day deadline, and got to work building a playable version from scratch. Remarkably, he pulled it off. The result is a familiar top down experience where you guide your Sims through their daily lives, complete with a few pointed jabs at EA for leaving fans out in the cold in the first place.

The first challenge was getting the characters into the game in a way that actually looked right. Tytar used a free online tool called a model ripper to pull character models directly from his own Sims 4 save files, though what came out the other end was rough and needed a lot of work before it was ready for Unreal Engine. That meant getting into bone weights, which sounds more intimidating than it is but still requires a fair amount of trial and error to get feeling natural. Eventually he got his Sims to a point where they could walk, stand idle, and transition between poses without anything looking like it was about to collapse.

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With the basics in place, Tytar turned his attention to giving the Sims actual needs to manage. Energy, bathroom breaks, and hygiene all tick down at their own pace, and a basic mood system keeps you loosely informed about how your Sim is holding up. A plumbob floats above each character’s head and shifts color to give you an at a glance read on their state of mind, which honestly tells you everything you need to know without a single menu in sight. Sometimes the classics are classic for a reason.

The main game screen came next, and Tytar kept it clean and uncluttered in a way that will feel immediately familiar to anyone who spent time with the original Sims. A clock ticks away in the corner, your current cash balance sits in plain sight, and a little Polaroid style photo represents each member of the household. Speed controls are right there on screen too, with the 1, 2, and 3 keys handling the pacing just like they always did. Old habits die hard, and in this case that’s entirely the point

Clicking on a Sim brings up a small pop-up menu, and if you grew up with the original game you’ll immediately recognize the sound effect that comes with it. The options available shift depending on what’s nearby, and the go here command taps into Unreal Engine’s built-in navigation system to get your Sims moving around the lot in a way that feels surprisingly natural. Even the smaller animations hold up well, capturing those everyday moments that made the original so memorable. Watch a Sim crumple to the floor from pure exhaustion or desperately take care of one need while completely tanking another.

Careers and money came next, handled through a simple in game newspaper where job listings change from day to day. One morning you might find an opening in the culinary world, the next something a little more questionable. Pay comes in after each shift just as it always did, and for anyone who never quite played by the rules, the classic cheat codes are alive and well.

The final piece of the two week sprint was getting furniture placement and lot building into a working state. Buy mode lets you preview items in real time, rotate them with a click, and snap them into place with a satisfying precision that feels right at home in a Sims game. Build mode keeps things equally straightforward, giving you the tools to throw up walls and carve out rooms around a basic starter home layout. A free nature pack brought trees and grass into the yard, and a proper day and night cycle means shadows actually shift across the lot as the sun moves overhead, which is one of those small details that makes the whole thing feel surprisingly alive.

It all holds together well enough for a decent play session, long enough to appreciate some of the finer touches Tytar managed to sneak in along the way. Familiar faces like Mortimer and Bella Goth sit in their chairs and go about their business in a way that will put a smile on the face of any longtime fan. He even got a car driving around the lot, which is more than the official Sims 4 can say after years of updates. Even more impressive, not a single line of it was generated by AI. Every animation, every menu, and every line of code was built entirely by hand over the course of just two weeks.