When Maxis revealed The Sims 5 (opens in new tab) (now nicknamed Project Rene) in October, it said it would continue to share sneak peeks throughout its development. That has obviously already begun. Because it appears that at least one member of those small groups has shared some photos.

One deleted account posted 11 photos on Reddit (opens in new tab) that it claims are Sims 5 playtests, consistent with early footage Maxis showed off in a public live stream. All interfaces and objects are identical to those in the official presentation, so this is most likely the real deal.

What we had not yet seen is the neighborhood view, of which this screenshot seems to show just a small part. There is a city block with a two-story apartment building, and there are cars on the street - although we are not sure if these cars are supposed to function or if they are just for show.

One of the tutorials in the interface says, "Customize your apartment with walls and furniture. Furniture created by the player can be found via the "Discover" button, and furniture created by Maxis can be found via the "Buy" button. This seems to imply that apartments are intended to be part of the Sims 5 base game, a feature added in the Sims 4 expansion (open in new tab) City Living.

The integrated "player-created furniture" is also interesting: based on the modular, customizable furniture tools that Maxis had already sneak peeked at the time of release, the "discover" feature may refer to that style of sharing presets. The "Discover" menu also includes a section called "Trends," presumably for finding popular furniture presets by other players.

"This playtest focused primarily on new buildings and furniture features," the original poster said in the comments section (opens in new tab)." There are four preset studio apartments, within which you can play freely or build in an empty studio apartment. There were no sims in this one at all.

Given the early stage of development, it is not surprising that Maxis was the first to test only part of the next Sims game.

Whether officially announced or leaked, the next "Sims" game we have seen so far is still years away from completion. Everything from the interface to the visual style to the features are still expected to be in flux. But I'm happy to hear that the "Create-A-Style" tool (open in new tab) from "The Sims 3" will be back in full force.