The Time Has Come To Head Off To University!

Launch day has finally arrived! This is an extremely exciting time because we finally get to see how you’ll play University Life and hear the new stories that you’ll tell with all the exciting content in this pack. We enjoyed reading all of your submissions for the Inspiring Creativity Contests and we hope this pack will be just as inspiring as previous expansions. Last month, we hosted a sneak peek for some community members and we were really excited to see their positive reactions to the game – now it’s your turn.

One thing that really excites me about the launch of University Life is that this expansion pack has a little something for everyone. The new university world provides lots of objects, venues, skills, and gameplay to reveal untold stories. Your Sim can be an academic genius or a social butterfly. They can live in a variety of different housing options – dorms, apartments or a sorority or fraternity house and be a member of different social groups, from jocks, to nerds to rebels. Dabble a little bit in each social group or gain top influence with one, it’s up to you.

For the studious Sims – the entire campus is their classroom. Sims will have to balance their lives and work hard for good grades. To advance through the educational process, Sims will have to attend classes, take notes and try not to fall asleep during lectures. Maybe your Sim will cheat to pass a test? Outside of the classroom, Sims will participate in study groups, and interact with special major-specific objects. Being an artistic person myself and always doodling, one of my favorite additions is the new sketchbook for Fine Arts majors!

For those Sims who are more focused on making their University Life a social experience, there are lots of new things to do. Your Sims can build influence with one or all of the social groups, play kicky bag in the quad, flirt or fall in love, and use their new smartphones to tap into all the latest activities going on around campus. The smartphone allows your Sims to build their Social Networking skills by blogging, texting, taking photos and streaming videos. Sims can also use their smartphone to check their influence among the new social groups.

For Sims who want to explore the campus there are new venues like the bowling alley, Student Union and Keith’s Komics. Rebellious Sims may find their niche at the Grotto where the rebels like to hang out. Here they can gain special Street Art skills by painting walls, ground murals and spray painting graffiti.

For Sims that are really ambitious, there is an opportunity to join my favorite new career – Video Game Developer. I began creating computer animated short films and video games while I was attending university and I quickly learned that making fun interactive experiences for people to play and explore was what I really wanted to do for my career. I am really excited that players will now be able to create a similar story in their game. Sims that love to play video games and have an interest in the arts will thrive in this new career.
In The Sims 3 University Life, your Sims are sure to meet new Sims and experience the ups and downs of college, like choosing a roommate, throwing amazing parties like a juice kegger or bonfire or even spearheading a protest on campus. Maybe your Sim will have their first kiss? See what happens when you experiment with the new dare system in the game!

All of these stories and more are possible! We hope you love The Sims 3 University Life as much as we do! Share your stories with us on the forums, Facebook and Twitter! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures in this game! The Sims 3 University Life will be available worldwide across retailers and on Origin.com this week.

Happy Simming!
-Sarah Emily Nelson, Lead Producer for The Sims 3 University Life
 

 

The Sims 3 University Life: Building, PlantSims, and Additional Fun Facts

Building in The Sims 3 University Life
Along with all of the amazing gameplay and new objects, The Sims 3 University Life adds several new options for builders to use, mainly in the form of new lot types. These new lot types allow for a huge range of buildings, from dorms to hangouts. Here’s a brief run-down on all of the new tools for you amazing builders out there!

Let’s start with dorms, sorority and fraternity houses. In The Sims 3 University Life world, players can build their own dorms. The sky is the limit as you make a place for your Sims to call home during their stay at university. With the new roommate functionality, Sims will automatically occupy dorms to act as roommates for your household (or you can make and move your own roommates into your dorm via edit town). A dorm can hold up to eight Sims, including your household. Sororities and fraternities act very similarly to dorms and follow most of the same rules. The big difference for these lots is that they are not co-ed – sororities will automatically search for female roommates and fraternities for male roommates. These lot types also have a little bit more of a party atmosphere than regular dorms – juice keggers and dares will happen here more frequently. By the way, dorms, sororities and fraternities are free for Sims to live in while at university!

While dorms are specific to the university world, there are tons of new lot options available for your home worlds as well. With the new social groups come new places for these like-minded Sims to gather. Build your own Rebel hangout where Rebels can relax and graffiti the walls to their hearts content. The Arcade is the place for competitive Jocks. This lot type encourages Sims to play all kinds of games from bowling to pool. And of course, every Nerd needs a Nerd Shop. Place a Roentgen Register in your Nerd Shop to allow your Sims to buy and sell comics! Sims of all types will love the Java Hut – which would not be complete without the new Quick Croissants Coffee Bar. Watch as the barista serves up new food types like bagels and brownies or new organic brews from harvestable coffee beans!

Another option for builders to enjoy in home worlds is the new Apartment lot. Similar to dorms, once you build this lot, the game will automatically pull Sims in to be roommates. Like dormmates, these roommates are not part of your active household, and you can use the new bed and door lock options to set aside areas of the apartment for each roommate to use exclusively. Apartments differ from regular houses. Instead of buying the lot completely when you move in, your Sims will pay rent each week just like paying bills. The rent cost is determined by the overall value of the lot.

PlantSims
As many of you now know, The Sims 3 University Life’s new creature is… PlantSims! PlantSims have special relationships with plants and can converse with harvestable plants just like they can a Sim. PlantSims are unique and have different needs than normal Sims. For instance they don’t need to eat, but do need to stay hydrated. To keep their water need high and prevent drying out, PlantSims absorb water. They can do this by swimming, bathing, absorbing puddles and photosynthesizing!

PlantSims have unique ways to socialize with other Sims too. Flower Kisses can cause obsession and Poisonous Kisses can make another Sim sick, ew!

There are a few ways to add a PlantSim to your family. It is possible (though rare) to meet a PlantSim around town, and Sims brave enough to volunteer as a test subject at the Busche School of Science may have some leafy side effects. My favorite way to make a PlantSim is to grow one of course! Forbidden fruits may become PlantSim babies for you to grow and love.

Fun Facts
Since this is my last blog before The Sims 3 University Life launches on March 5, I thought it would be fun to end with a random assortment of fun facts and info about the game.

• Sims in the Nerd Social Group can play some sweet new video games: SSX and FIFA on the video game console and computer and SimCity on the computer.
• With the new Social Networking skill comes the ability to blog! Sims can select a blog theme and attach photos to their blog. The more they blog, the more followers they get, which can help them gain influence with social groups faster, have better attended protests, and get more simoleans for donations and buyouts of their blog!
• Build Social Networking skill to unlock different smart phone apps. The Sim Finder app helps Sims easily find an unmet NPC Sim and get them to their lot! The coolest app to unlock is the Relationship Transmogrifier which allows Sims to set nearly any relationship status they desire with any Sim!
• All Commercial Dumpsters placed throughout any world can be used to dumpster dive. You can also place new dumpsters in your world to dumpster dive and find cool items from bugs to TVs!
• Sims with a high enough computer hacking skill can use a computer to find exam answers the day before an exam.
• Making friends with The Sims University mascot can lead to an apprenticeship with the mascot to learn their sweet moves!
• Want to avoid that awkward “it’s not you, it’s me” speech? Send a break up text instead!
• Ingesting too many herbs at once can cause herb sickness and herb nausea, so experiment with caution.
• Sims who want the benefits of a degree without all the university experience can buy an honorary degree as a lifetime happiness reward.
• The Movie Theater now comes with different types of movies for your Sims to enjoy. Use the new “Attend Show With” interaction to catch a chick flick or thriller with your friends!
• Your Sims’ new Smart Phones come with a wide range of new skins to apply. Build your Sims’ Rebel influence and Social Network skills to unlock and apply new skins on their phones, including an exclusive Mass Effect 3 version!

I can’t wait until the game launches! This expansion pack was so much fun to make, and I love all of the great questions, comments, and ideas everyone has posted for us. The Sims 3 fans are amazing! Thank you, and I hope you enjoy The Sims 3 University Life.

Brittany Henry, Associate Producer, The Sims 3 University Life
 

 

University Life soundtrack star Blaise meets UK Maxis team

Earlier this week all of us on the UK Maxis team met the singer/songwriter featured on the sound track for the next Sims 3 Expansion Pack, The Sims™3 University Life. We asked Blaise a few questions and showed her the Sim we’d made of her. Enjoy 🙂

Q: Are you a fan of The Sims, and have you played it before?

A: Yeah definitely! I used to play The Sims 2 all the time. I haven’t really played The Sims 3 but I used to play The Sims 2 all the time. I got really into it at one point and had all the expansion packs.

Q: Did you prefer creating the Sims, building the house, or playing with the Sims themselves?

A: I hardly actually used to play with them. I used to like making them, and making the house they lived in. So I used to do that, I like making it all, then I’d play with them for about 10 minutes, and then I just wanted to make a whole new family!

Q: How did you get the opportunity to be on the sound track for The Sims 3 University Life?

A: It’s all down to my great manager, he sorts out all the stuff like that and when he told me I was like ‘oh my gosh’, I couldn’t believe it because I didn’t actually know you could be on the sound track, and then when I heard about it I was like ‘wow!’. I heard about Pixie Lott doing one so it’s great. I’m quite excited, everyone I’ve told had been like ‘oh my gosh!’ and can’t believe it!

Q: What was it like recording your song in Simlish?

A: It was really funny. I picked it up quite quickly though. I didn’t think I was going to pick it up that quickly. But it was crazy, I felt like I was speaking in… I felt like I was making it up as I was going along.

Q: What’s the process of making the song? Do they give you a ?

A: They gave me the lyrics translated, so it had the English and then in Simlish. So I knew the rhythm and everything of what I was singing. So that made it a bit easier, but I had a few mess ups.