Last week, we chatted with Jennifer Lane
(@SimGuruJenn) and King about Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats. It’s a lot more than a stuff pack but it’s not quite an expansion pack, and despite the crazy screenshots we’ve been seeing, it might have a lot more for players who like “ordinary” games than you think…
Sww (Platinum Simmers): There are lots of crazy items in all the screenshots we’ve been seeing, are there any items that fit more into a normal house?
Jennifer Lane: There absolutely are, there are a lot of things that we have been showing where it has been a candy explosion and you can absolutely do that. What I have been doing is picking out pieces here and there and putting them in my home. Some of them will stand out more than others, but the ones I want to stand out I have been doing that on purpose, there are a lot of accents in here, wall items, candy bins that will fit very very well into your home. Some of the others I consider more like sculptures that are like statement items.
Sww: When you chatted with Heather in January you talked about how Master Suite Stuff worked really well with any expansions the player might already have. Are there any items that would work particularly well with other expansion packs in Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats?
JL: I think the items can work well with any or all of them, it really depends on what you want to do as a player and the story you want to tell. There are also 3 new venues that I think will work well with a lot of the worlds from the expansion packs, certainly will work well with Showtime.
Sww: You mentioned in the chat last week that Graham Nardone built the venues. Are there any quirks in those venues that only Graham would think of?
JL: Graham did all 3 venues and he did a great job. One of the things the cake pleasure dome, which is a hangout. The roof that he built he designed the roof to be a giant cake with a birthday candle on it. I don’t think anyone else would go “I am gonna make this roof a cake”, I cannot wait to show it to you guys and I’m sure he can’t either.
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You can see the Cake Pleasure Dome in the background!
Sww: Where did the partnership between Katy Perry and EA come from?
JL: I don’t know exactly where it came from, and we were excited to work with her again. I am going to guess and this is just purely my guess, it probably started when we made Hot N Cold (A 2008 Katy Perry single which the Sims Team created a Simlish music video for in The Sims 2, and which was featured in The Sims 2: Apartment Life). Our Audio team works with a lot of celebrities, so I think that is where it started. But that is purely a guess on my part.
Sww: Where did the inspiration for the different themes in the pack come from?
JL: A lot of the items are based on Katy Perry’s California Girl video and her tour, there are different elements there are a lot of candy items and ice cream items. Look at the video and you will see a lot of pieces we took from there, there is a peppermint table, there is an evil gingerbread man that comes out of a gingerbread house and we built that into a dollhouse for kids.
Sww: Sounds cute!
JL: Yeah it is cute, we haven’t talked much about the number of items for kids.
Sww: How many are there?
JL: The clothing is young adult and adult only, but we do have a peppermint bike, dollhouse, teddy bear, and all of the park items.
Sww: My favourite dress that you showed in the chat has to be the long sparkly one…
JL: The red one? Yes that has to be one of my favourites as well, it fits so well in the Sims environment and it’s just gorgeous.
Sparkly and Sexy dress!
Sww: And the freezer bunny fountain, I just adore that. For those that don’t know the story, where did the freezer bunny come from?
JL: You know, that is a long story, we should actually write a blog about it, the history of the freezer bunny…
Sww: Are there any other freezer bunny items in this pack?
JL: We try to sneak him in a little bit in every pack there, but in this pack there is mainly the freezer bunny fountain.
Sww: How many items are there in this pack?
JL: We don’t give numbers but there is approximately 50% more items for both clothes and objects in this pack.
Sww: This pack has caused quite a bit of controversy in the community – especially among Simmers who simply don’t like Katy Perry – what is your reaction to it?
JL: We were excited to work with Katy Perry again and had this opportunity. It’s all about choice and the story you want to tell, that is why we offer so many varied expansion packs and stuff packs. We try to make something for everyone. I think the items in here people can use, or can use just a few pieces but it really is up to the player.
Sww: What about hairstyles, what is the coolest new hairstyle?
JL: I really like the sweetheart hair that has a little heart on it and we have our first very obvious wig-like hair in the game. We have some really cute ones with flowers, one has an ice cream tiara. So I think we have 5 new hairstyles. That’s a number!
Do you see the icecream tiara? very cool hair in this pack!
Sww: With all this work you do on The Sims, do you even have time to play the game?
JL: Yes… not as much time as I used to before I came onto the team. I do try spend some time playing, and not playing to look for things that are broken.
Sww: Anything you want to say about the pack that you are dying to tell the community but people are not asking?
JL: Oh, that is a really good question. I’m sure there is. [To King] What I have been talking about that I wanted to tell the community?
King: About this pack?
Sww: You can also talk about future packs of course…
JL: Nooooo!
I’m really excited about showing the cake pleasure dome, it’s such an interesting architectural shape and its really fun inside.
King: Even as a guy player. The more I take a look at this pack and the content, initially I looked at it and it looks very stereotypical female orientated. But when you look at the sexy clothes in the apparel and even everything about the venues, we have done something similar that was really well received in Town Life Stuff and of course the venues were ready-made. We have so many new fashions, so many new objects and also 3 venues, which is the reason why there are more objects in this game, because we added on fan-favourite kind of stuff.
We knew this was Katy Perry, but the 3 venues were also new way to provide for gameplay Also to add new ways to customize your town. So the way I position I like to call it “Sinfully Sweet” rather than play in too “Cutesy Sweet”. So the way I like to play in my town is to play around with like deep red colour palette and kind of make a hyper sinfully sweet décor around my Sims’ lot. That is something I have been playing around with. Maybe I’ll take a screenshot…
JL: and as far as like a single object, the one I got most excited about, we made a bike. Not only did the team surprise me with a child version, along with the adult version. When we first looked at it, you know, if you create a style on its going to look just like another bike in the game. We wound up taking the wheels and putting these giant peppermints in the wheels. When we were actually using it and testing it, it spins! It’s actually a very cool effect.
A very cute kids bike
So will you play Sinfully Sweet or Cutesy Sweet? Coming June 8th (US: June 5th, EU: June 7th). Do not forget that on May 24th there is another live chat about Sweet Treats with @SimguruJenn and King. Thanks once again to EA UK for setting up this interview for us. Thank you Jenn and King for your time – we had fun!
If the Sweet Treats pack still is not for you at all – check out the slightly more “normal” Diesel Stuff Pack coming July 13th (US: July 10th, EU: July 12th).
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