These Showtime tips and tricks initially were published as news items in the My Page Wall, but if you missed them there we’ve collected them here for easy reference.  From Magic Gnomes to making new performance venues, this is your guide to some of the little known features of Showtime. Did you know them all?

• Try to have your performer Sim compete at a SimFest at each of the different venue types and collect all of the unique trophies!

• Know your audience!  While your Sim is performing, keep an eye on the audience requests via thought bubbles. Performing requests will result in a better performance and increase long term relationship status!

• If  you can manage to set up your Sim’s (or a visiting Sim’s) stage, using all of the props available in a complete stage set, you will get an initial boost in the performance!

• Another way to get an initial boost is to place a new magic gnome on stage as part of the set-up!

• You have 24 hours real hours to accept a SimPort Tour Request, before it expires. If you don’t accept within the 24 hours, your friend who sent the request will get a message that you never made it to the show!

• If you throw something on stage during a friend’s visting Sim’s performance, they will most likely have it in their inventory when they return!

• If your Magician Sim dies while performing in the Box of Danger, he/she will finish the show as a ghost!

• It’s all who you know! Developing a relationship with proprietors prior to auditioning will increase your chances of getting a gig.

• By the time your Sims gets to level 7 in their performance careers, they’re a pretty big deal and will no longer need to audition to get a gig. Proprietors will be calling, begging your Sim to peform at their venues!

• If your Singer Sim is multi-talented and wants to perform with a guitar, all you have to do is buy one and put it in his/her personal inventory!

• Sims (including visiting Sims via SimPort) are not restricted to performing in Starlight Shores, as long as you have the appropriate venue. These can be accessed in Edit Town, under the Community Lots Tab. Place a Big Show Venue, Live Show Venue, Coffeehouse, Private Venue, or Big Park in any world.

• The Hypnotizer from The Sims 3 Store gives your Magician career more options! Add this item to your stage to mesmerize your audience. Never been to The Store?  Try it out by downloading our special poster (info below).

And, as a special thank you from The Sims 3 Store team, click here to claim your Katy Perry inspired Showtime poster!

Who is Freezer Bunny?

Some of you may remember Freezer Bunny's first appearance in The Sims 2 when Sims would spot the little pink guy in the freezer section while doing some grocery shopping. Since then he's been spotted on various clothing and gnome form! In The Sims 3 you might see him being pulled from the toy chest or on a Sim's pajama top. Even the little Sims can dress as our favorite bunny!

So what's all this talk about this little guy anyway? Well, we declared that today is Freezer Bunny's birthday!  How does one celebrate the birth of a bouncy-looking pink bunny with irregular-shaped eyes? Some celebrate by having their Sims treat themselves to a Freezer Bunny-shaped popsicle.


Some opt to have their Sims show off the bunny's likeness on their clothing.


Maybe you might channel the mind of Freezer Bunny and immortalize him in your notebook during class lectures. However you celebrate Freezer Bunny's birthday, why not share it with us?

Happy Birthday, Freezer Bunny!

...continued from "Team-Wide Content Creation on The Sims 3 (Part I)"

This is a two-part post. Please check out Part I first!

We had submissions from artists, modelers, producers, designers, gameplay programmers, world builders and engineers. And the variety was wonderful!

For example, one gameplay programmer submitted some of his own childhood watercolors:

This was perfect, because we needed art that spanned all Sim skill ranges, from scribbles on paper to oil masterpieces. He also submitted higher skill pieces like this nice city boat scene:

One of our world builders painted a triptych. This added another element of collection to the painting skill because you will only randomly paint one segment at a time. Based on your skill and luck, it may take a long time to get all three. (Collectability can do wonderful things for engagement, especially when you craft your content and systems for this purpose).

And our localization producer submitted some Photoshopped photography as chic modern art:

In all, we received more than 65 submissions. I also used an incredible painting program called ArtRage to make 30 more to fill in the gaps in skill areas, from childish on up:

In the end, we had more than 150 pieces to work with. Far more than originally budgeted. The best part was everyone who contributed was super excited. They jumped at the chance, and then spent their free time working on or gathering submissions. They didn't view it as work because it wasn’t work. It was a chance for them to immortalize their art in a game that millions of people would play.

It was self-actualization.

Then, to get variations for different personality Sims, I ran all of these through Photoshop filters. All Sims could paint the “normal” version of a painting, but if they had a specific character trait, then there was a chance they’d paint the modified version for that trait. Here are some examples:

                       Normal                                    Artistic                                     Insane

                       Gloomy                                  Neurotic                               Computer Whiz

The full set gave us 1,580 paintings, a seemingly endless number to find that helps players project onto their Sims and tell interesting stories about why their Sims paint what they paint.

And there are some art critics out there who have taken the time to replace the entire set of 1580 paintings with works from the web and deviantART. I love our community and I’m constantly surprised about how much time and effort they put into modding The Sims 3.

This approach of appealing to the team worked so well that in The Sims 3 World Adventures Expansion Pack, we had everyone submit fortunes for the fortune cookie machine. It led to some gems like, Help me! I’m trapped in a game development studio! and Never trust rugs.

Bottom line, if you could find one feature in your game that everyone on your team could contribute to, what would it be? If you can find something, you’ll get plenty of creative content leading to a richer game experience and an overall happier team.

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Ray Mazza was co-lead designer on The Sims 3, lead designer of many expansion packs, and is an author of fiction.