Alice and Kev

In 2009, Robin Burkinshaw launched his blog-styled webcomic about a family he made in The Sims 3. Inspired by the Poverty Challenge invented by players of The Sims 2, he 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.


 * Abusive Parents
 * All Of The Other Sims: With (very) few exceptions.
 * Arc Symbol: The Yeti in people's thoughts, in reference to Kev.
 * 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.
 * Bi the Way: Kev
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Kev dies of old age, but one touching act before his death is bitter-sweet for sure. And although she has a tough life ahead of her, Alice will be able to have a (relatively) stable life.
 * One episode, Ghost Story, involves Kev finding a woman he seems to really hit it off with. She thinks he is funny, and they talk for hours — but she is also a ghost, and vanishes forever the moment sun comes up. The only woman that could love him is dead.
 * Byronic Hero: Kev. Deconstructed, because his byronic traits are shown in a very negative light
 * Casanova Wannabe: Kev. However...
 * Child-Hater: Kev
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Kev and arguably Zedadias.
 * Crazy Homeless People: Kev. Alice is also homeless but not crazy at all.
 * Dirty Old Man: Kev becomes this after becoming an Elder
 * Dojikko: Alice has the Unlucky and Clumsy traits, meaning she's always tripping over her own feet or breaking things.
 * House Amnesia: Kind of. When Alice is a child, Kev asks her to leave the room when they are both outside.
 * Jerkass: Kev
 * Kavorka Man: Kev can be this at times
 * Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: Kev
 * Machinomic
 * The Messiah: Alice
 * 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 colouration.)
 * Nice Guy: Zedadias. He's one of the only people who seems to really like Alice.
 * Parental Abandonment: the missing mom, above.
 * Pet the Dog: Kev helping Alice with homework.
 * Schedule Slip
 * Stealth Pun: Alice and Kev's last name is Bindiver. Think about it.
 * The Woobie: Invoked Trope. Every one of her traits sets Alice up as this.
 * Even Kev gets a few moments of Woobieness.
 * Throw It In: Virtually all of the events in the game happened without the author's control. All he did was take a step back and watch the story unfold.
 * Video Game Caring Potential: yes, indeed. Of course, the entire Sims franchise is founded on players getting invested in their sims.