June 13, 2012

Hello Simmers! My name is Kari St. John and I am the Senior Producer on The Sims 3 Supernatural Expansion Pack. I’m really excited about today’s announcement, and I want to share with you a sneak-peek of what to expect in next expansion from The Sims 3. First off, we’ve introduced an all-new world called Moonlight Falls – home to some very unsuspecting Sims. This is no ordinary town, as you’ll soon find out. The inhabitants all possess unique and magical characteristics that set them apart from their ordinary Sim neighbors. For the first time in Create A Sim, you can create werewolves, fairies, witches and more intriguing vampires that each harbor special abilities and rare traits. In addition to introducing Moonlight Falls and a variety of new supernatural Sims, The Sims 3 Supernatural brings new lots for Sims to explore, new objects for Sims to interact with, a fortune-teller career, new skills and so much more.

The Sims 3 Supernatural taps into the darker and eerier side of The Sims while maintaining its core principles and zany humor.  We are always interested in the feedback and requests that come from the community, so when we first set out to create this pack, our team spent time digging through the forums and reaching out to Sims players with specific questions to help us understand the themes, content and features that interest our fans. We chose “supernatural life” as our inspiration because it is a visually rich and diverse fiction, enabling us to create unique types of supernatural Sims as well as some outstanding content from the original The Sims. Bringing the Sims into this world is very exciting because so many great stories have been told based on the lore of magical worlds and the mysterious characters that live in them – as well as the characters that don’t.

We’ll be rolling out more information about the new content and features soon, but first I’d like to mention a few of the new things that I am having a lot of fun playing with as we test the game. I am really enjoying creating new types of Sims in Create A Sim, using the new customization options and selecting from the new clothing styles. In The Sims 3 Supernatural, I am able to create Sims that can be any of the supernaturals: modern or classic versions of witches, werewolves, fairies and vampires. It’s easy to come up with some really wild families and households. I personally like to create a werewolf Sim in Create A Sim and what’s really cool is creating supernatural children. For example, I created a little werewolf child, who is not only really cute, but loves to howl, scratch and practice hunting when no one is looking. And there are several all-new traits that make life rich and interesting, such as the new trait of “Supernatural Skeptic.” Sims who possess this trait dislike anything that has to do with the supernatural. They prefer things that aren't too different from their current understanding and will go to great lengths to let supernatural Sims know how they feel.

Once I’m in the game as a werewolf, one of my favorite things to do is send him out to hunt for rare collectables that can be used as ingredients to create powerful elixirs, which are also new in The Sims 3 Supernatural. I have a tendency to go straight for the zombification elixir once I have all the required ingredients so that I can transform James Hoppcraft, my “Supernatural Skeptic” neighbor, into one of the living dead for a while. One of these days, he’ll learn not be so judgmental! There are several fun secrets to discover in The Sims 3 Supernatural. One of my favorite secrets will be familiar to players of the original The Sims, but I won’t spoil things and reveal what this is yet.

In this expansion, Sims will explore a fresh new world in Moonlight Falls, where the mysterious and sometimes dangerous inhabitants will feel right at home. Of course, what eerie world would be complete without a full moon to make the evenings interesting? One of the first things I buy for my Sims’ house is the new moon dial object, because keeping track of the lunar cycle is important, especially if one of your werewolf Sims happens to be on a date. After all, transforming into a hairy beast under a full moon during a date is not ideal for making romance blossom (unless, of course, your date is also a werewolf). There are a host of new supernatural Sims that live in Moonlight Falls, some with amazing powers and potent elixirs that can either simplify or complicate life (in interesting ways, of course!) for your Sims. Help your supernatural Sims develop their “special” abilities or let your ordinary Sims find out what it takes to live among their mysterious neighbors. No matter how you like to play, there will be fun, exciting, romantic and even dangerous stories to tell, as well as new achievements and hidden secrets to be revealed.

This is just the first of several posts that we’ll be making before we launch The Sims 3 Supernatural. Check back in the coming weeks for new blogs, live producer broadcasts and sneak-peeks of the game.

Thanks,
Kari