Arnie Sims Plus

Arnie

SIMS PLUS

In the beginning there came Will Wright and now we have Arnie from SimsPlus. When it comes to content creators Arnie has got to be ranked up there amongst the best. Not only are his Mods well thought out, they are amazing in graphics and interaction.

Arnie is proving what CAN be done in the Sims previously said was impossible IS POSSIBLE and we at SimmedUp had the honour of speaking with him about Life, Modding and Movies.

Hi Arnie, and thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview. We wanted to start by asking, Where are you from, and how did you discover the Sims?

1Hey SimmedUp Magazine! Thank you for the invitation to this interview! It’s a pleasure to chat about the Sims today. My name is Arnie, I grew up in France and moved to Mauritius Island where I’ve been living for years now! I discovered the Sims when I was a kid, a friend of mine was playing it on her Windows 2000 PC back in the time ahah! And I thought « this is so cool! You can do what you want in this game!!! ». So I bought a Sims 2 CD I found at a flea market a few months later and I have been playing every single Sims game since then! I think it had a huge impact on my life, allowing endless creativity and storytelling, which became my job when I reached Adulthood.

And what an amazing job to have! What or who inspired you to become a Modder? Was it difficult to learn at first? Who was your ‘go-to’ Modder to help you learn?

I lost my job at the beginning of the pandemic, and it was a great way for me to finally have some free time to finally start learning new things, like how code works... that I wanted to learn for years!

It was not hard because I didn’t realise I was learning! I just started small with tiny mods, and came to the idea of creating a mod pack a few months later, combining my passions! It was a great time. One of the people that inspired me the most is the amazing modder TwistedMexi, especially the upcoming Project Raven of his!

2020/21 has been difficult for so many, how have you been coping during the lockdown, and has been stuck at home, given you more time to work on your mods?

lock-down, slowing down on the crazy life we all live, a time to focus on others, reach out to the ones you didn’t have the time to, and learning new stuff (modding!)

I tried not to focus too much on the bad things that were (and are still) happening all around the world. I am very sensitive and these things have a big impact on me. Plus I had the chance to be in lock-down with my close friend and roommate, and she is the most wonderful person to share moments with.

Everyone is talking about your ‘Farmland Mod, not only will this Mod enable you to grow your own crops, you can have a multitude of animals from Horses to chickens as well as getting your very own tractor license’ what inspired you to create this mod? And what other wonderful things can our Sims do in your mod?

Thank you for the kind words! The idea came from my Patreon supporters actually! I had a poll last year with a few ideas for mod packs and farming was WAY up in the poll! Plus I grew up in the french countryside, surrounded by cows and chickens, and it felt like going back to my childhood sometimes while creating it.

There is also in this mod pack an open world where you can go to the supermarket or at the horse ranch without a loading screen! But my favourite part is the story mode. The story of George and Adele came really early to me. Inspired by the relationship in the movie Up, I wanted to tell the story of this caring elder, when he met Adele and how they grew up and old together, like flowers blossoming in a field. Their story is the story of all the living beings on earth. Growing up, growing old, and returning to the earth, like animals, plants, or us. Farms are in my opinion such lively places, where all beings share the same space, and it felt so right to talk about life… in the Sims!

Community is very important to us too, When I watched the Trailer for Farmland, I honestly had tears in my eyes, you have a wonderful gift for story telling to go along with your modding skills. You have created some amazing Mods from BrookHeights to Farmland, What other surprises do you have in store for the community, and are there any ‘sneak previews or hints you can give us?

Well, I can tell you I have a very long list of things I would love to do! It’s hard to choose! I wish there were 100 hours each day for me to do it all!

But I can tell you the next one is a smaller Mod Pack about technology, inspired by Apple. More about this soon…

Now that sounds super exciting and we cannot wait to see what you come up with. When you first started creating mods, there were a lot of negative people who tried to say you were not really making anything at all. How does it feel to finally show everyone what can be created in the Sims, and what would you say to the people who doubted you?

I didn’t know there were « a lot » of them… It doesn’t really matter what people think anyway. I’m creating things for the pleasure to create but also especially because it feels so good to know a creation of yours can bring thousands of people hours of gameplay, of joy, and just knowing these people are feeling emotions playing it, all around the world, it feels like sharing a piece of life. And I am very grateful for that. What a wonderful job to have!

With how fantastic your creations are, even one ‘doubter’ is a lot to us! So tell us how long did your farmland, and Brookheights mods take to create?

They both took at least 6 months to create! I think I lost count for Farmland though since it might be closer to 8 months… It felt like weeks though! When I was working heavily on the development I couldn’t see the days go by! I looked at a calendar instead of a clock while working ahah. Asking my self « WAIT? Are we in *insert month* yet? »

We can imagine you must have to be super focused to be able to do all of this on your own and stay motivated, I also get lost when creating magazines, but I know your work is so much harder than mine! You’re also a very creative person and a little bird tells us that you work in Film Production and you have a film you have been working on coming out real soon. Can you tell us what that is? Is anyone famous involved?

Ahah you are right I have been working in the Film Industry for years and one of my projects from 2020 is about to come out!

I was working on the latest Alicia Keys’ movie called « Resort To Love » that was shot entirely in my country, Mauritius! It’s a rom-com about a girl who sings at her ex-fiancé’s wedding! That was such a fun film to shoot! It will be out on Netflix Worldwide on July 29th! Watch out!

Alicia Keys WOW! You must be so chuffed to have your name associated with movies like this! are there any big film projects you wish you had been able to work on?

Of course! All of my favourite movies! Jokes aside, I can’t wait to be able to direct my own feature film one day… I am also very interested in new technologies and think I could go towards making a VR movie or even something more experimental! I love to experiment!! I guess only the future will tell us what I’ll come up with…

A VR movie, sounds very interesting we are watching you very closelyl Arnie, we can see big things ahead for you. We all know The Sims team do an amazing job, and have been bringing us a steady supply of Packs and entertainment with the Summer of Sims. If you could choose just one thing for the Sims team to work on, what would it be and why?

I would love to get an official create a world tool, but I don’t think it’s ever coming for TS4. Most simmers are feeling like they belong to a favourite type of gameplay (CAS, Build/Buy, or Live Mode). But I think we forgot « World » players in TS4. Back in the Sims 3, I would spend most of my time designing worlds in the CAW Tool or even in-game! That was my favourite type of gameplay and it no longer exists in this iteration of the game. So I learned how to mod them, but I really wish there was a feature like this in the next generation of the Sims!

Start small! Try tiny things! Lots of them! And you will learn along the way without even realising it! There are also hundreds of good tutorials on how to start anything in modding! Then, once you get to know the code, you can explore, try new things, experiment!

After all your hard work with BrookHeights and Farmland you have taken a well-deserved rest to catch up on some sleep. If you could take a break anywhere in the world where would it be and why?

I am finally taking a real break for a week with my partner! We are going to a Theatre Festival on the french Riviera!

And this is the place I choose to be in the world! I am so happy and grateful to be able to share moments with my relatives in these times we’re living. The best place is next to them, wherever they are in the world.

Well we hope you both have an amazing time, get plenty of rest and we really cannot wait to see what astounding creations you have coming for us next.

Again I just want to say thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with us Arnie, your support means the world to us.

Thank you so much for this interview! I had a great time remembering these memories and telling them! Thank you for your kindness!

Take care!

Did you know You can download All our backissues From our website

Visit www.simmedup.co.uk And gr ab any copy You want Today.