Welcome!
Hello and welcome to SimsTools! We’re an independent app and game studio based in Alberta, Canada. We develop and publish our applications and games and try not to break too many things in the process.
SimsTools was the name used for branding a line of utilities written in the 90s for The Sims and the name just stuck.
This is my site. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The Team
Bil Simser (Chief Architect)
Bil has been designing, building, and maintaining software solutions for over 3,000 years. He has helped build many large-scale mission critical systems along the way. In his role as a mentor, he guides clients on how to implement development standards and guidelines, evaluates and recommends new tools and technologies, and helps teams and projects progress in the .NET and software development world. Bil also has a special interest in coaching clients on Agile and General Software Development Best Practices.
Bil has been involved with Microsoft’s .NET platform since the early betas and has a deep passion for good SOLID Architecture and intelligent Software Design. He specializes in SharePoint, .NET, Agile, TDD, Mobile app and game development, and computer game programming for Windows, XBox, iPhone, and Android. Bil has also ran several successful open-source projects and contributes to the software development community on a regular basis, taking the time to review and edit publications, speaking at user groups, code camps, and conferences including TechEd, DevConnections, PDC, PrairieDevCon, and DevTeach. Bil was a Microsoft SharePoint Server MVP for 10 years from 2003 through to 2013.
Bil has been building games since the 1980s. Starting with writing games on his Timex Sinclair 1000 in the early 80s, moving to BBS door games in the later part of the decade, and designing and selling modules for Galcticomm’s MajorBBS under the company name of Ewe-Nique Creations. In the 1990s Bil designed and wrote many tools for games like MageSlayer, Quake, Railroad Tycoon II, and The Sims. Starting in the 2000s games and tools were written using C++ using the CDX Library (which Bil wrote a book for) using DirectX. Later Bil switched to C# using XNA and presented demos and talks at Code Camps and conferences. Other games and applications were created and published on the Microsoft Store written for the now defunct Windows Phone platform using XNA, WPF, and C#. Starting in 2007 Bil worked with Unity building 2D and 3D games and demos which has now become most of the content of this site.
Bil currently lives and works in Alberta, Canada, with his wife, a small child, a Beowulf cluster of computers, every gaming console known to man, and a small menagerie of animals.