In 2009, Roburky launched their blog-styled webcomic about a family they made in The Sims 3. Inspired by the Poverty Challenge invented by players of The Sims 2, they made two Sims and placed them into a lot made to look like an abandoned park, took away their remaining money, and then watched over them, seeing if they could survive. These two Sims were Alice, a kind young girl who suffers from low self-esteem, and Kev, her hot-headed insane father who hates children and is desperately searching for love.
Not only did they survive, but the unique interaction of Sims 3's interactive neighborhood features gave the story unexpected twists and developments. It quickly gained a following as Roburky followed both of their lives and their search for love and a home.
You can read it here
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This series includes examples of:
- Abusive Parents: As her father has the Hates Children, Insane, and Mean-Spirited traits, it leads to him picking fights with Alice and making fun of her frequently.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Alice is a smelly Loser, which repulses other Sims.
- The Atoner: Subverted. As the end of his life approaches, Kev seeks out old acquaintances to say a few last words — it turns out he just wants to insult them again. Except
one. - Bittersweet Ending: Kev makes peace with Alice and then dies in his sleep. Alice has been traumatized by her rough childhood, but with her abusive father gone she should be able to move on and have a relatively good life.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Occasionally, Alice counters Kev's Jerkass attitude by calling him out for his behavior.
- Casanova Wannabe: Kev. His Ambition in life is to have girlfriends and be loved, but since he's has many undesirable Traits, most sane Sim women want nothing to do with him.
- Child Hater: Kev, as in it's a literal trait of his.
- Cloud Cuckoolander:
- Zedadias has the Childish trait, which means he likes doing things like playing tag, making faces, and being silly as a teenager.
- Kev, due to being a Crazy Homeless Mood-Swinger. One notable incident had him randomly decide to walk to the outskirts of the city, seemingly insulting or mocking some of the local landmarks, before eventually collapsing in a heap from sleep deprivation. Twice.
- Crazy Homeless People: Kev. Alice is also homeless but not crazy at all.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Alice has the Unlucky and Clumsy traits, meaning she's always tripping over her own feet or breaking things.
- Dirty Old Man: Kev becomes this after becoming an Elder - although he wasn't any less promiscuous as an Adult either.
- Good Is Not Nice: In spite of having the "Good" trait, Alice insults her own father as much as he insults her, since being "Good" means she can't stand people being mean and inappropriate. The author himself is surprised the first time Alice snaps, as he didn't think she could do any negative interaction with her "Good" trait.
- House Amnesia: Kind of. When Alice is a child, Kev asks her to leave the room when they are both outside.
- Hypocrite: Kev gets very uncomfortable when another lady with the Inappropriate trait tries to hug him at random.
- Jerkass: Kev, who never stops delighting in tormenting Alice or insulting people.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's VEEEEEEEEEERY hard to notice, but there are at least two times when Kev actually gives a hand to his daughter: the first is when, after Alice is busted by the cops for violating curfew, Kev argues with her, but out of a legitimate concern for her behavior - which the author notes was surprising, as he didn't think Kev would be the sort to care. He even mentions how Kev had "quite a sane evening" for his standards, and even helps Alice with her homework that night. He's back to his usual self in the morning though.
- The second time is when Kev talks to Alice one last time, desperately trying to make amends with her. Alice understandably is reluctant to accept it, but still watches over him that night. By the next morning, he's passed away.
- Kavorka Man: Kev can be this at times
- Lethal Chef: Alice, who has no skills to speak of having grown up in a park.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Kev, since he looks for love in every place.
- Machinomic: Probably the foremost example amongst the Sim community.
- Manchild: Zedadias has the childish trait.
- Missing Mom: From a game-mechanics standpoint, she never existed. In-universe, it's likely that she died when Alice was very young. If you're up for a bit of Fridge Brilliance, the only person who ever seemed to love Kev was the ghost woman.... (That person died of hunger, by the way. You can tell by her ghost’s coloration.)
- Mood-Swinger: Kev. He has the Inappropriate, Insane, and Hot-Headed traits, which means he's likely to go from laughing hysterically to screaming violently at the drop of a hat.
- Nice Girl: Alice, upon getting her first paycheck for her part-time job, immediately wants to donate it to a charity.
- Nice Guy: Zedadias. He's one of the only people who is genuinely kind to Alice.
- Noodle Incident: Although never explicitly confirmed, it is likely that the job Kev did for Rhoda that landed him in jail twice was a sort of theft. This is due to the fact that the Bagley family is a family of thieves(both Rhoda and her mother Ma Bagley work in the Criminal career.)
- Parental Abandonment: The missing mom, above.
- Pet the Dog: Kev helping Alice with her homework.
- The Pig-Pen: Both at times, although justified because they're both homeless.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kev spends his last days dishing these out to people he hates. Heartbreakingly averted with the last person to whom he speaks.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Yes, indeed. Of course, the entire Sims franchise is founded on players getting invested in their sims.
- Vocal Dissonance: Zedadias is available for download and has a deep voice, similar to that of Beau Andrews.
