Sam Pelgrift worked on some of the promotional videos you’ve seen on The Sims social network channels, as well as in-game videos for The Sims 4 that can be seen on TVs or computers.
The Sims 4 – TheSims.com Design by Abigail Arcilla
Abigail Arcilla worked on a website design for TheSims.com that was unveiled during the E3 season of June 2014. Down below you’ll see some of her work, and if you look closely, you can even find one of the early versions of the current The Sims 4 box art!
Enjoyed by gamers for sixteen years, The Sims is a life simulation video game series which features open-ended simulation of the daily goings-on of its quirky, engaging characters, the Sims. It is one of the most successful and longest-running franchises at Electronic Arts (EA). I was tasked to revamp the Sims brand and generate pre-launch interest in The Sims 4, the newest and most exciting addition to the franchise. This involved partnering with the Maxis Marketing and web development team to design, test and optimize the thesims.com website. I was the online Visual Design Lead throughout the go-to-market cycle and helped map multiple site iterations to a comprehensive digital marketing campaign.
Examples shown:
Website
• Brand Development: The critical challenge I faced was to create a new destination to combine The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 products into one common space that would delight loyal fans while attracting new players. The task involved overseeing the new brand identity, creating new fonts, localizing logo variations & other visual assets, and making sure that all components conformed to web standards. I collaborated with an external agency to carry out a consistent look-and-feel across all channels, and thus thesims.com was born: a fully responsive site optimized for both desktop and mobile that captured the brand identity for The Sims overall franchise and each individual iteration.
• e-commerce: The Sims 4 website was hard-hitting from the start, as it was the first EA studio to feature an e-commerce presence. It allowed for more organic search and eliminated protracted clicks, which created a friendly, on-brand and easy-to-use experience for players and a smooth path to purchase that drove increased revenue. Standardizing the games catalog was also key, as for the first time all The Sims games were easily presented at a glance. Each product had its own product detail page which displayed unique, curated content such as in-game screenshots and gameplay videos. Additionally, customized hero images were included to highlight promotional content.
While introducing the shopping cart on the site was unique for its time, it soon proved to be very successful. The e-commerce presence made shopping much easier and also allowed us to gather player shopping behavioral data to optimize targeting for our audience and enabling curated player-specific messaging.
The Academy
The Academy campaign was a digital curriculum within thesims.com that uses “edutainment” to showcase how the new, smarter Sims lead the user to more fun, quirky stories. To meet the goal of creating heightened user engagement and increase the potential for shared content, I collaborated with an external partner to design an interactive campaign called What Kind of Sim are You? for both desktop and mobile platforms. Asking entertaining questions which highlighted the new Sims allowed gamers to learn more about the features of The Sims 4. Answers could then are shared via Facebook posts, strengthening the reach and amplifying the sense of community.
The Academy was carefully and successfully positioned to drive pre-orders of The Sims 4. It also won an award for Best Digital Marketing Campaign at the 2015 Game Marketing Awards.
The Sims 4 Rewards
The Sims 4 Rewards campaign was a loyalty program designed to encourage gamers to engage with The Sims 3 suite of products leading up to the launch of The Sims 4. Purchase data showed that the more players are engaged with the past iterations of a franchise, the more likely they are to convert to the new iteration. Through these learnings, we developed a virtual “thank-you” for playing The Sims 3 by rewarding the user with in-game digital content in The Sims 4 based on ownership of The Sims 3 expansion packs. The main incentives were colorful plumbob trophies for their home in The Sims 4 upon completing their suite of The Sims 3 expansions. The campaign helped in promoting a seamless transition from The Sims 3 to The Sims 4 among users, and heightened their curiosity and excitement over The Sims’ next adventure.
The Sims 4 Gallery
The Gallery is a companion app to The Sims 4 which facilitates the sharing of user-generated content and encourages community interaction. I assisted in the development of online and mobile companion versions of the in-game community gallery.
The Sims 4 Base Game has a new standard price in US
After almost 2 years of its release, The Sims 4 has a new standard price in the United States! Instead of being $59.99 which was the original price since the release, The Sims 4 now costs $39.99, which can be compared to a price of a Sims 4 Expansion Pack.
If you get it now you’ll even save $20!
However, EA hasn’t changed anything for folks living in other areas. The Sims 4 costs €59.99 (euros) in Europe and £49.99 (pounds) in United Kingdom.
The Sims 4: 12 things you should try during the Triple Boost Week
The Triple Boost Week that started on August 23rd 2016 gives you an option to make The Sims 4 a little less challenging. With job performance bar and skill bar progressing 3 times faster you can achieve a lot more in the game, and here are 12 things we recommend you to try during this week!
NOTE: As the Triple Boost Week is temporary, we advise that you do all of these steps in a save game that you plan to play later as well.
1. Forget about your previous households – start a brand new family!
2. Have your unemployed Sims earn money by publishing books and selling paintings!
3. The Landgraabs don’t deserve to be that wealthy – bulldoze their house, limit their simoleons to 20,000 and make them work from scratch!
NOTE: You can change the current amount of simoleons by entering the testingcheats true cheat and entering this following cheat: money 20,000
4. Reach maximum Gardening skill and earn your simoleons by planting and harvesting fruits, vegetables and flowers!
5. Try controlling one Sim and have him/her reach Level 10 of any career in just one hour!
TIP: It’ll make your job easier if you only have one Sim in your Household. Also, have your game run at Speed 3 at all times!
6. Discover all social interactions from Mischief, Comedy and Charisma skills by maxing them out!
7. Unlock ALL career objects with one household!
8. Woodwork your way to a wealthier life.
9. Get Together: Live your life as a DJ by earning money exclusively from DJ tips!
10. Create a big household with each Sim working on a different career…
11. …and build them a house made out of different career styled rooms!
12. Reach Level 10 Handiness Skill and discover Oasis Spring’s Forgotten Grotto!
The Sims 4 Forums: Ask a Guru is back!
SimGuruDrake wants you to learn more about The Sims 4’s game development and communication, and that’s why she re-introduced the Ask A Guru thread, allowing you to post your questions that are exclusively related to game development / communication!
Not only SimGuruDrake but other gurus as well will pop in from time to time to answer your questions, so make sure you keep checking this thread regularly!
The Sims is among TIME’s 50 Best Video Games of all time
One of the best selling franchises didn’t go unrecognized!
In honour of video games and their history, TIME, United States’ most popular magazine, created a list of 50 Best Video Games of all time, with The Sims taking the 31st spot! Here’s what the editorial team at TIME has to say about the game we all love:
Game designer Will Wright has said The Sims, first released in 2000, was intended as a satire of American consumer culture. Millions of players seem to have missed the joke, happily occupying themselves with the mundane tasks of running a digital minion’s life—from kitting out a new pad to managing bathroom breaks (or else). It innovated both the “sandbox” category of game in which “goals” are loosely (or not at all) defined, as well as the kind of minutely detailed task management that’s a common feature of so many games today.
The Sims 4: All about the Triple Boost Week
The Sims Team has introduced a brand new limited event for The Sims 4 that will allow your Sims to progress through their skills and work/school performance three times faster than the usual!
This Event lasts from August 22 at 10am PT until August 29 at 10am PT and requires the latest update!
After ensuring that you’ve updated your The Sims 4 game to the latest version, you’ll be greeted with this screen in The Sims 4 Main Menu:
To gain benefits from the Triple Boost Week, you’ll need to find Jasmine Holiday, event coordinator for The Sims 4. She can be found as a townie walking around with a special Triple Boost Week plumbob icon on her jacket. If you can’t find her on any lots, calling her on the phone will do the trick!
She’ll immediately show up knocking on your door:
As she’s a special NPC character in the game, she only offers interactions depending on the event happening in The Sims 4. For the Triple Boost Week, you have two interactions:
- Ask about Triple Boost Week
- Request Boost…
- Job Performance Gain
- Skill Gain
You only get to choose one boost per Sim. If you choose to activate a different boost, the previous boost will be overriden with the new boost.
You can check your moodlets in case you forget which boost you’ve choosen. Each moodlet lasts for 6 Sim days and can be renewed by requesting a boost again.
The Skill gain boost will make progressing through any skill three times faster!
The Job Performace boost will raise the performance bar three times faster! This boost is also valid for Child and Teen Sims and will just as well make their School Performance progression three times easier.
The Sims 4 Triple Boost Week: Skills and Careers is Live
Via TheSims.com
Ever want to level all your Sims’ Skills but they’re all “I’m too tired to paint” or “I’m too sad to Exercise”? What about trying to climb that Career ladder but your Sim just… isn’t feeling it? Well, clear your schedule for the next week, because The Sims 4™ Triple Boost Week: Skills and Careers is now live, free* for all players!
So, what does this mean? Simple: from August 22 at 10am PT until August 29 at 10am PT, your Sims can gain Skills at a whopping three timesthe usual rate, or gain a triple Job Performance Boost for base game Careers. All they’ll need to do is head over to Jasmine Holiday (or call her on the phone) to get granted with seven in-game days of Skill or Career Boosts. You can do it as many times as you want during that period, giving your Sims plenty of time to reach the top of their Career, or Skill up enough to write the next great novel. You’ll only be able to have one at a time, though – asking for a Skill Boost when you already have a Career boost will cancel the other one.
The Sims 4 Triple Boost Week: Skills and Careers is live right now, so grab some snacks and settle in; it’s time to make your Sim the master of everything!
15 reasons why The Sims 3 was ahead of its time
Even though The Sims 3 was released back in 2009, the features it introduced allowed for endless creativity and possibilities, and because of that, there’s still a large portion of the community that still plays.
Here are 15 reasons why this game was waaay ahead of its time:
1. Huge worlds with beautiful scenery.
2. The entire world is your playground!
3. You can fish anywhere…
4. …or swim anywhere.
5. But enough of world talk. Did you know that your Sims could wear a bathroom tile pattern for their shirt?
6. Or sit on a chair made entirely out of gold!
7. You mean to tell me that not all lots are flat and that we can edit the terrain? I’m shook.
8. Did you know Ghosts can try for a baby?
9. They’re masters of shortcuts and can pass through literally anything
10. Toddlers. Need I say more?
11. Teens that are shorter from their adults?! What kind of sorcery is this?!?!?!
12. Ownable AND drivable cars?! I don’t believe this.
13. Grocery shoppin’
14. Swingset swingin’
15. Clipping for coupons – only 2009 kids will know.
The Sims 4: Send your Teen Sims to Prom with this Mod!
Brittpinkiesims created an Event Mod that lets your Sim throw the perfect Prom for your teen Sims!
To install the mod, simply extract the mod .zip file to Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Mods. Brittpinkiesims also offered her Prom Lot for downloading that you can extract in the Tray folder (Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4 > Tray).
The Mod is packed with new reward items, moodlets and, of course, the new event. It’s made specifically so you can invite only Teen Sims from all the worlds (you don’t have to even meet them in order to invite them).
You can learn more about this mod and download it by clicking the download button below!
[mks_button size=”large” title=”DOWNLOAD!” style=”rounded” url=”” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#1e73be” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-arrow-down” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”0″]
The Sims Team explains The Sims 4 Announcement Factors
You’ve probably been wondering ”What’s taking EA so long to announce EP3?!”. There are multiple factors behind their announcements for The Sims 4, and Lyndsay Pearson and Rachel Franklin explained all of them during Gamescom on their Sims Panel.
The quote down below has been provided by JulyVee:
Of course we as simmers want all the information at once – when will we finally get toddlers, seasons and pets, huh? But after this panel, I’ve realised it’s not that easy. Especially with the team wanting to keep things interesting with new ideas rather than just warm up the usual expansions. But in terms of announcing here are a few key points that show why they don’t announce a pack as soon as it goes into planning.
- Things might not work out. If the team realises they have to change important things in the pack due to technical reasons or add other stuff to replace it, many fans might be disappointed. Retracting statements is never good. So they decide to show a pack when it’s clear that no considerable changes have to be made and that things work out the way they are supposed to.
- Be able to show stuff. If a pack would be announced just when the sims team starts planning it, there would be nothing to show – no animations, no items, no art. As long as that is the case, it’s just words. So the teams decides to announce packs when they have something real to show us. At this point they also said they don’t want to make fans wait too long between the announcement and the release.
- Keeping track. If the team would communicate every step of development to the fans, their heads would be spinning. Since there are so many projects at once it might be hard to keep track. So the policy is quality over quantity.
- The perfect timing. This means that, e.g. a tropical island pack would rather be announced and released in the summer rather than winter (though Rachel said it almost never happens that finished packs are held off because of this). It’s also about the feature space on origin – EA has other games too and they have to make sure to find a good time to talk about the sims. So announcing a new expansion when they just launched a new battlefield game might not be a good idea.
The Sims 4 Panel @ Gamescom 2016: List of Articles and Impressions
The Sims Team’s Lyndsay Pearson and Rachel Franklin attended the Community Lounge at Gamescom where they were able to talk about The Sims 4’s production. They explained the process of developing a certain pack, phases of development, how they choose their pack themes and their announcement strategy.
Down below you’ll find a list of articles / videos of Simmers who attended this Sims Panel and got a chance to write down / record what was happening. We’ll be updating the list as new content related to the Sims Panel gets released.
Articles
SimTimes
- The Sims 4 Development Insight (Translated German)
JulyVee
SimsOnline
News-Sims
- News-Sims at Gamescom (Translated French)
Platinum Simmers
Videos
LittleMissSimmer
If you attended the Sims Panel and have an article/video to share, comment on this post with a link!
5 Features we’re hoping to see in The Sims 4 City Life
After the recent leak there’s no doubt that The Sims 4 City Life is happening, but the thing is, we have no idea what this Expansion Pack could bring beyond the City Life name that we got. Until The Sims Team officially announces The Sims 4 City Life and its features, here are 5 features that we’d like to see in this pack:
1. Apartments
Nope, we’re not talking about penthouse apartments from The Sims 3 Late Night, but rather the fully featured apartments that came with The Sims 2 Apartment Life. They were a perfect addition to The Sims 2 mostly because, just like The Sims 4, you had to go through a loading screen in order to load up a lot. What was great with The Sims 2 Apartment Life is that you could visit / move in up to 4 Households in one lot, giving the lot a feeling of one big happy family!
2. An Active Downtown World
The Sims 3 Late Night brought a beautiful world called Bridgeport. The only problem? It was almost empty, with a small amount of Sims that could only be found in Lounges or Clubs. It’s a really big world, and yet most of the time there are no Sims in sight while you roam around town.
The Sims 4 has the huge potential of bringing a new active Downtown world with lively areas/neighborhoods. Sure, you might experience a loading screen or two, but like the current Neighborhoods and Lots in TS4, the Downtown world could be just as active!
3. Fame & Fortune Lifestyle
No pack has brought the Fame & Fortune gameplay aspect better than The Sims 1 Superstar! This Expansion Pack came with a Studio Town, fame score rating system, 2 celebrity awards, usable objects for singing and acting, and even some real-life celebrity names like Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne, Marilyn Monroe and more!
With smooth animations and vibrant gameplay, these features would be just perfect for The Sims 4!
4. Reputation System
It’s important what the city thinks of your Sim. Originally introduced in The Sims 2 Apartment Life, the reputation system allowed your Sim to have an easy or hard life, depending on how they treat other Sims while being on community lots. Sims who are publicly nice to other Sims will get benefits such as a job promotion, cheaper objects, and so on, while on the flip side, all of that can work against them, and turn into a negative, if they’re being rude towards other Sims!
Other Sims forming actual opinions about your Sim that will effect your gameplay is just what The Sims 4 City Life could offer to the current emotion features to bring it to the next level!
5. Vampires
The Sims 4 City Life has an opportunity to continue the tradition of bringing vampires with city-themed Expansion Packs like The Sims 2 Nightlife, and The Sims 3 Late Night. Both packs brought something new to the table: Nightlife focused on traditional vampires that possess typical vampire abilities, such as turning in to bats, while Late Night focused more on the new-age vampires that you’ve seen/read in recent pop culture, such as Interview with the Vampire or the Twilight Book Series.
We only have 2 occult types currently in The Sims 4; Ghosts and Aliens, which were added, and expanded upon, in The Sims 4 Get to Work Expansion. The Sims 4 City Life has the real potential of bringing Vampires into the mix!
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What features do you want to see in The Sims 4 City Life? Come share your ideas in our thread!
The Sims 4: City Life is Expansion Pack 3 Theme!
UPDATE #2: Things have gotten pretty legal over this leak. Apparently, Sony DADC/Warner (EA distributors in Brazil) have requested the brazilian rating board to hide the Expansion Pack 3 listing from their website. The document down below is the proof:
According to the document above, EA has 30 days (until September 17th) to decide a new date to publish this listing or else the brazilian rating board has all the rights to publish it without their permission.
Also, it was found out that the rating was sent for approval on August 10th:
TIP: O Sim BR
UPDATE: The listing has been removed from the site mentioned below.
O Sim BR found the listing of The Sims 4 ”Vida na Cidade” which roughly translates to ”City Life”. The site which leaked this information is the official website for video game rating in Brazil. We checked if this listing is real and it sure is still there!
The site also states that City Life was produced in 2016!
If you remember, back in August 2015 we had a survey which listed several Expansion Pack ideas. One of them was Metropolis that had the following description:
Metropolis:
Move into a bustling, modern city! Live in new apartments and penthouses eat food at carts and shop at street markets and immerse your sims in the different cultures of the city by exploring the many diverse neighbourhoods.
It could be very possible that The Sims 4 Backyard Stuff was hinting at the upcoming Expansion Pack with the following CAS assets:
The Sims 4: How to get Grim’s Ghoulish Guitar for FREE
The Sims Team is currently having a really cool promotion where you can get a free object (Grim’s Ghoulish Guitar) by simply registering to their e-mail newsletter.
To get this free object, follow these steps:
- Visit the Newsletter page and sign up to your EA account. Make sure you tick the ”Yes, I want to receive emails…” box!
Note: if you’ve already signed up for the Newsletter before it doesn’t matter. Just do as prompted!
- You’re ready to rock!
Note: if you keep getting an error message, try clearing your cache or using a different browser!
- Your Grim’s Ghoulish Guitar is now waiting for you in your The Sims 4 game!
