Outside my Sim’s front door stands a statue of Moppy the Goat, a beloved animal who was instrumental in the found𒐪ing of Ravenwood. It’s unusual for a goat to found a village, but this place is just as bizarre. Walking around the neighbourhood you’ll see traditional countryside staples: wooded areas, a river and inlet, a town square, and some stunning architecture. It’s only when you look closer that you see the secrets that lie beneath.
Spectres roam the playground by the town square, often joined by fully-fledged ghosts of Sims long dead as they play games of chess or relax by the fountain. Down the dirt paths you’ll find a crypt, an ominous looking well, and a lectern holding a tome that tells of an ancient society, bound 🌃by a shared and sacred mission. There are also two houses near the town hall with some interesting and uninvited occupants. And this is just one of Ravenwood’s three distinct neighbourhoods.
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168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Sims 4: Life & Death is one of the most packed expansions we’ve seen in a long time. I’ve been playing for a week now and still find myself discovering 𝔉tiny secrets in its world. To find out more about what the expansion has to offer, I caught up with production director Dave Miotke and producer Morgan Henry to talk about life, death, and if the Baleful Bog is truly scarier than the netherworld rifts and numerous crypts.
“We really wanted to play with death.” Miotke explains. “Our tagline's ‘Play With Life’ and on൲ the death side we really wanted to do some fun stuff with Grim Reaper. We knew funerals were a space that was lacking in The Sims and could be added, so it [the initial idea] was just the general concept of death, and then we kind of built several pieces around that.”
Funerals have never been tackled in the series before, so I had to ask, why now? Miotke says the team felt like it was the right time. “We kn🌳ew that we'd have a Halloween launching pack. So we wanted to tie into that spoopy season a little bit. And we had all the pieces. We felt that this was a pack that we could make at a technical level.”
After exploring the pack on my terms, this direction makes sense, since Life & Death expands on several existing features. The Reaper career is based on the existing active career engine, while funerals draw from the holiday event and wedding systems. Exploring crypts utilises the choose your own🐻 adventure text system we see in many existing hidden locations already, while the Souls Journey mechanic is an extension of wants, whims, and aspirations.
Getting down to specifics of Death himself, aka the Grim Reaper, is a frequent staple of The Sims, and thi🍸s pack gives him time to shine as your༺ Sims can now join the Reaper Career path and usher their own clients into the afterlife. This is a fully active career that gives you a lot of options, and is apparently not dissimilar to Miotke and his team working on The Sims 4.
“I'd say probably our own work life,” says Miotke regarding influences for the new career path. “There's a lot ofꦅ good off𝓰ice humour and office hijinks. I happen to be Morgan's boss. So as she's joking around about how grim is her boss, that always makes me laugh.”
Given the similarities, I asked if the pair feel they’d be able to shine on the new career path, if it were available in real lif♎e of course. They chose to commen👍t on each other's suitability.
You'd be terrible at it [the reaper career] because you have such a big heart and would have ꧅to meet♉ your quotas - Morgan Henry
“And then it would 🧔be like, Dave, again, you haven't met your quota. You haven't taken a single soul.”
“I'm a little anti-authority, so I think I'd rebel against the quotas for sure,” ag🎀rees Miotke. “I think you'd do great, Morgan. The only thing that you wouldn't do great on is you'd burn eve♔rybody."
You've got the fire bug, so you'd have no prob꧟🃏lem reaping, but it'd always be by fire. - Dave Miotke
Henry’s penchant for setting fires, especially on livestreams, is renowned 🔴in The Sims community and was only emphasised when preparing, which result𒈔ed in an additional two fiery deaths. In case you were wondering, she decided to roll with it.
“I was at first really upset,” Henry confesses. “Because I w🌊as like, I don't remember the last time I sa🃏ved. I'm going to have to restart. And then I was like, nah, we're going with it. I think people think I do it on purpose, but I genuinely don't. I'm just really unlucky.”
Getting back to the contents of the pack, Miotke explains that they had three core features: the Grimಞ Reaper career, the world of Ravenwood, and the Souls Journey system. These form the pillars of the expansion, with the world in particular a true focal point.
“We wanted to make a♎ best in class world. Not just size and number of lots, but [also with] lots to do there. Lots of activity, fun festivals, interesting NPCs, and points of interest to interact with. The world was very, very important to us.” explains Miotke.
“Our world is loosely inspired by Romania.” Henry continues. “We have three neighbourhoods. The first two are a little bit more realistic, and you can probably see more of the Romanian influence there. One's countryside, the other'൩s a village. Then the third one is the afterlife. It's really scary with the vines and the sounds and the bog. That one's a little bit more fantasy. I think they took inspiration from different areas and media for that one.”
“Also, we were inspired by previous Sims games,” adds Miotke. “This is a lore heavy pack and I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the deeper you dig into it, you're going to find some really inter𓃲esting r🐷eferences from the past.”
When playing I’ve mostly been in the countryside neighbourhood, which is my natural home, but both Miotke and Henry tell me they’d settle elsewhere if given the opportunity. “Crows Crꦅossing.” says Henry, without hesitation. “I don't want to live in a spooky ghost neighbourhood. I think that might be a little much for me. [While] the countryside is lovely, I like some amenities, so the village is a happy medium. Just a little haunted, so it's still a little fun, and beautiful.”
Miotke meanwhile is much cagier about settling down. “I'm going to move every couple of weeks,” he tel💜ls me. “I don't want anybody knowing where I rest. I'm going toꦏ keep them chasing.”
The world also has some unique spooky features including explorable crypts with dark secrets, the baleful bog, where a quick dip can turn you into a ghost temporarily, and netherworld rifts, which hide all manner of things. But which would you rather face? It’s a tough decision but since bothꦰ Miotke and Henry aren’t horror fanatics, both are cautious about their choice.
“I saw this question ahead, and I did a lot of serious thinking” Henry informs me, much to my delight. “Not the crypt. I would be way too scared to actually do that, and I think I would be too smart to put my hand into a fissure. I would probably do the baleful bog. If I knew that I could do it🏅 once and be safe, it'd be really fun to be a ghost for a little while.”
Miotke disagrees. “I'm putting my hand in the fissure,” he decides. “That feels natural, like nothing's going to happen. The crypt's too scary because nop✅e, that's a trap. And the baleful 𒆙bog, just the thought of something under the surface, like brushing my leg. I can't see the bottom. I don't want to swim in it. No way.”
Personally, I’m on team Miotke for this one. It took a while to brave letting my Sim put their hand in the fissures, but it was worth it. So far the rewards outweigh the risks, so it’s ꧟fissures all the way. Now I’m off to find those lore secrets. I’ll let you know what or who I uncover.
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All images in this article are taken from an alpha build of Life & Death, and may be subject to change.
