Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Xavy_Cat
Posts: 350 Member
This can apply to any version of Sims, really. When you create a new sim or family, do you just make them at random, or do you go in CAS with a plan? Do your sims have a back story or do you just kind of go with the flow?
Just something I've been curious about for awhile, because lately I swear I'm having CAS block or something.
Just something I've been curious about for awhile, because lately I swear I'm having CAS block or something.
1
Comments
My Characters are inspired by Tv shows and I plot. Back stories are tough though because they're hard to play out.
One family I can't wait to play are, the Kings.
Once upon a time, In another realm, a two young Sorceresses were on the run from a Wrathful Queen, mother to one of the girls.
He latest attempt was abducting her Daughter's best friend and threatened her Life to force her to stay. So Stella the Daughter of Queen Cora, broke Juliana out of the Dungeons and they ran. Created a portal to a new realm.
Briarwood (Willow Creek) 1790. On the outskirts of town they arrive to a Mysterious Town.
they Spend two centuries starting over. in 1985 Juliana Meets two men. Hunter Dior and Trent King.
At First Hunter and Trent battle it out both trying to win Juliana's Heart Ultimately Hunter lets Trent go when he learns about her secret, that She's a Sorceress, and travels to France (Windenburg).
Trent and Julia On their First Date At the Red Queen Night Club.
Trent and Julia get together. Trent's parents, well his father won't approve of Julia (Racism). Trent Disowns his father,
And his Mother gives Trent and Julia her Blessing.
They Get married
the Night of their Wedding at the reception of their new House, Julia takes Trent aside and tells him, her Secret, that she's a Sorceress.
although they thought it was impossible Trent's love for her intensified. He's a Geek, a bookworm and Adventurer, the fact that there's magic in his life makes it even better.
Julia's Parents (Using Magic) buys them a house, of their own to Start a family.
They're going to have two kids (would have been three but there was a miscarriage with the Second Child. Child 3 is going to be a Tough one.
As Julia goes into labor to deliver her son, Trent's Father dies, a few moments after (Cardiac Arrest).
Trent Says, Good Riddance.
Both Kids are going to be born Sorcerers, and Trent and Julia will raise them together.
fast forward 10 years later.
Trent is a Detective on the Briarwood PD, and trained Fire Fighter.
One Night was on scene of a house fire.
there was a little girl trapped in the upstairs.
Trent Goes in, The Little girl Get out but He doesn't.
waiting in the flames is a witch, She casts a spell, Making the building explode, and abducting Trent, But making it look like He died in the fire.
leaving His Badge and Wedding ring and a pile of human remains behind.
Julia was depressed.
Desiree, went goth for a short phase.
Mason, the son was broken and isolated himself.
cut to 7 years later.
Stranger Events begin to take place in Briarwood. creatures come out, Magic Hunters, Demonic attacks, the normal chaos.
Mason, takes after his father and Uses his magic to save the town from supernatural attacks, alongside, is his best and Loyal friend Tyler who is a werewolf and Stella's 1 of 6 sons.
My Mood:
I, too, get inspiration from all the creative Simmers on the forums, Gallery, and YouTube. I am amazed at what they are able to build and how creative they get in playing out their stories with all their different styles. It's captivating, and is a constant reminder to me of how wonderful The Sims series is, no matter what version one prefers. I'm so glad this game is there for us!
Doing a particular player-created challenge, or participating in one of the many Sim or Building competitions can bring a whole new perspective and purpose to game play. Other sources of inspiration for me are novels, movies, T.V. and even real-life situations. I think to myself that I'd like to try playing out a scenario in my game, perhaps with a different outcome than what I read, saw, or heard. So, sometimes I do have a plan of sorts, but I avoid doing everything the same way over and over again, with each household or save, as it becomes tiresome. Then again something I find myself doing a lot is that I will just notice and watch a particular townie for awhile, and something about them makes me want to develop a story around them--to see what their life is about. Lol.
In CAS, I stretch my comfort zone in making Sims that aren't always so "perfect." I also try all the hair, clothing styles, colors, and accessories across all the categories. I vary the family structure options, too, to make every Sim and experience unique. It's interesting to see what I can combine together that I might not normally choose. It's delightful seeing the results and new discoveries, which make playing those Sims more fun.
I have created some real life people, but had mixed feelings about them. I like to come up with their personalities, but getting the looks right frustruates me so much!
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
With the name I'll think of an elaborate story that'd make them interesting, still taking their name into account. For example, a couple of my convict sims I have for townies; Jin Ruan and Rico Cabello.
Rico, stemming from the name "Richard," for hardiness. He has "Shameless" as a trait, since I took it that he's more bold in taking action... Or things. His backstory was that he was arrested for theft (kleptomaniac) and he isn't fond of going back to prison, so he enjoys his time outside (Loves Outdoors). His last name is "Cabello," which apparently meant hair. Look at his hair. LOL
Sometimes, I'd just give it to my brother when I'm bored and he'd make pseudo celebrity sims or something with questionable origins. I say questionable, because they're obviously things that are um... Touchy subjects in history, for one.
When it comes to houses, I usually make them to suit a family I have in game.
Then this one was for a family of three.
This one was for two sisters.
And this one was for a couple I had that just had their kid age up into a child. I built this one recently
They're all on the gallery if anyone likes them, too.
Twitter . Gallery . Simblr
🌌 Remember Me Until Tomorrow - Ongoing || 🔪 White Lies and Half Truths - Hiatus
I get inspiration from the stories I write
So for me writing has always given me inspiration to create Sims
Matthew.
Sometimes I have a really clear idea in mind of what I want a Sim to like and what their story will (although, that last bit can change as I play). For example Sadie, who turned out exactly as I wanted her:
At other times I just randomise until I get something I can work with, tweak it a bit or a lot, give them some better clothes.
Sometimes I go for traits first, when I sort of have a type of Sim in mind, give them the traits and aspiration and then randomise until I get a Sim that suits them.
I'm also really fond of the genetics generator - I just made brothers and cousins for Stephanie and also a sister and a brother for Adam
Stephanie's brothers:
I also like coming up with backstories, but that's just to make them sound more interesting, I don't always play them according to their backstory.
I just realised none of this really answers your question, does it? Sometimes, characters have existed in my mind for ages, like Stephanie and Adam or, more recently, Finn:
Aside from that, I usually just randomise and sometimes there's a Sim I like that, the moment I see them, immediately gets a background, plans for the future, etc. Like Jing-Mei:
Comes from a traditional Chinese family, recently moved to Newcrest, now lives with a roommate called Molly. She's creative, loves to cook, but none of your typical take-away food, haute cuisine is more her style - although she still needs to learn a lot about cooking.
I can go on and write up an entire story, for me, once I get started the ideas often keep flowing.
My advice to battle your CAS block: randomise (and don't be ashamed to click that button 60 times or more - I have done that, I'm very picky I guess).
On the flip side though if I'm not in a good, lower stress or depressed type of mood I can't tell stories at that time, so I play less sims and more kill-em questing or busy type games... if I play games at all.
When I made the move to Sims3 I also played with this family, I brought this couple into my game again. I was very excited when we were going to be able to form a band. However, there was no singer allowed. I moved them out of Bridgeport and just used the ability to play instruments to have the family jam together. Then when ST came out I was ecstatic. I played the base family from the ground up, moving in the potential spouse to the household for better control and then had the new couple leave the family. When the only daughter (fourth child) got married, I moved her second older brother in with the couple so I could play him, too. (He became my singer Sim.)
I loved him so much I've recreated him in Sims4. I was very happy to discover that if you had OR (which I do) he could learn the guitar from the ground up by singing songs, which also by level three improved his singing voice. Yay! Not quite the same, but at least he can sing decently.
I've also gotten very heavy into my genealogy. In some branches of the family I have gotten all the way back to the 13th and 14th level of great grandparents. I have fallen in love with one family a bit closer in time to me. 18th century. I created them. He became a somebody, so I have an image of him. I also stumbled upon an image of his second son and one of his third son. His first wife died early, just after their tenth child. By looking at the images of the sons, one looks way more like his father, the other one not so much. In fact, his eyes and nose are very different. Using Sims4 CAS, I believe I now know what their mother looked like. I already had information she was small and blonde. These types of things are what provide my inspiration.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I don't really do backstories. I let the Sims develop through the gameplay. This means that sometimes I've made a potential partner for a Sim, but they end up not being together because someone else that worked better came along.
Because I find the baby stage really boring, I often create children directly in CAS rather than having the future parents "Try for baby...".
- myself
- other simmers
- TV shows
- Movies
- Books
Sometimes I have a story for my Sims from scratch sometimes I make a prequel to a TV show and sometimes a sequel.
-sims I had in TS3 I recreated or
-stereotypes
As I mostly play teens with their families, high school stereotypes are a common phenomenon in my game. There are the geeks, the jocks, the cheerleaders (who are mostly mean to everyone else), the goths/emos/rebels and the ones who don't care at all. I just love these stereotypes and they are so funny in the game. The club system from Get Together especially comes in handy with this. I just created a club with emo kids whose activities are mostly being mean to the cheerleader club.
The stereotypes also continue when my sims become young adults. For example a snob who spends his whole time criticizing art and drinking whine (nectar), or the girls who love to meet at the spa.
I also like to create sims from other medias. I for example created characters from fanfictions I've read. Or one day, I felt like creating a male counterpart of one of my female sims. He wore the exact same hairstyle and the same clothes. The only difference between these two were the body shape and that he wore sunglasses for every outfit. I think I created him for messing around with the gender patch that just came around back then.
Tl:dr: Stereotypes are the best inspiration for me.
I like to build stuff