WE HAVE SOME
NEWS TO TELL YOU
announcing
and
SMagazine is now working with SimNation, a site that is your first stop for resources and tips in SimCity and The Sims. We’re excited to announce the new SMagazine Lounge on the SimNation website (simnation.tv/smagazine) which is a quick and simple way to see all of the new issues of SMagazine, as well as all the latest
posts on our blog. SMagazine is now all about design and architecture in The Sims, and we hope you’ll love these new changes as much as we do. Check out SimNation’s website now or follow them on Twitter, @SimNationTV. We’re super excited for these new changes to SMagazine, and we hope you’ll love them too.
TO SMAGAZ
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EDITOR’S WELCOME I cannot believe that we are almost at the one year anniversary of SMagazine. It’s been an amazing ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Our new partnership with SimNation is really exciting and is just one example of all the exciting things in store for SMagazine. This issue, before the big anniversary issue and the launch of The Sims 4*, we’re taking one last look at the best of The Sims 3, and going on a tour around the world. Our team has picked their favourite countries and built homes to go there, and we’re also seeing what the community can do with this theme. And, as always, I hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. GEORGE B Editor
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JAPANESE APART 16
OCEANFRONT 24 28
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VILLA LU
SIDETRACKE 38 46
ROGERIN AROUN 48
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A
CAIT
SUBURBIA BU
LE MAISON AVORN 76
SIMS
INE ISSUE 8
TENTS
HOTOBOOK
TMENT BY PRALINESIMS
T PARADISE BY TOM
ASK DAN
UX BY ARELIEN
ED FOR A SECOND
NA BY LILLIEBOU ND THE WORLD
THLINSIMS
ABOUT STAFF Zeeanna - writer TheSimsFanatic - TSF photobook Alex - writer Will - builder Tom - builder George B - editor-in-chief
UNGALOW BY WILL
NALINO BY SHAKESHAFT
S 2 VS SIMS 3
CONTACT @smagazineofcl facebook.com/smagazineofcl smagazineofficial.co.uk ISSUE 8 Editing commenced 24th August 2014 Published 7th September 2014
TSF Photobook
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Japan Ap
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nese partment by Pralinesims
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BAMBOOZLED Lots of Asian countries are home to lots of plants such as bamboo and orchids, so these are your best bet when using pot plants.
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TOTALLY FLIMSY Paper doors and walls are common in Asian designs. The doors commonly slide and have wooden ‘beams’ in them.
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“Pick your favourite place and decorate a room or rooms to go there. They can be in a city apartment, a beach house, a shack in the countryside, anywhere in the country you picked. It can be any types of room you like; a lounge, a kitchen,
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bedrooms, a large bathroom; knock yourself out. Take adequate screenshots and write two or three paragraphs to go with it, talking about the design process, the rooms, and why you chose that place.�
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Hey guys, If you haven't checked out my channel - which you probably haven't, I'm Tom and I have a channel called Simteractions! I don't have any videos up at the minute but I have been working on a few projects, many of which include this one.
Being tasked by George, I was asked to create or design an interior that suited a specific location in the world. With lots of people uploading speed builds of Beach houses and things alike, I thought to my self, "Why not try designing an interior of a Beach house/shack my self. So, I guess I ended up with what you are probably looking at now. I was inspired by a few simmers, particularly Deligracy and obviously with my own creative boundaries if that makes sense. I started off with trying to get the floor down.
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I wanted to allow as much natural light in to the house as possible and I wanted the house to be bright, mainly to reflect the most probable environment in which this style of house will be situated in. Once I had the floor sorted out, I moved swiftly on to the kitchen - being my weakest room I thought that I may as well get that out the way. I used a light-ish blue tile on both the floor and the walls to both brighten up the room and to mirror the colour of the sea. I used white counters as I thought this would give it a contemporary feel and wooden counter tops to add a different colour and it reminded me of a ship wreck.
“I took the time to use Create-a -Style, a feature I will certainly miss in The Sims 4.� On the furniture I mainly focused on pastel colours and made some of the furniture look more rustic, like the bookshelves by using two colours. I also used a lot of whites and blues on the furniture as well as mints and peach/orange colours. I tried to use as many decor items to make the place looked lived in, but with the whites it still allowed the house to look clean. Finally I used a lot of geometric patterns on some of the furniture and took the time to use create a style, a feature I will certainly miss in The Sims 4.
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Ask Dan
Dear Dan, I’ve finally moved away from home and into an apartment in a new shopping estate in Bridgeport. I have loads of space and a huge budget (what can I say, my parents are rich!) but the landlords idea of ‘furnished’ was a little different to my idea of ‘furnished’. There’s nothing there! The flat has great views of the city but the landlord covered all the windows with these ugly blinds. There’s a tube TV and crate sofa, and a really uncomfortable brass bed. I urgently need you to help me do up my flat! It’s gotten so bad, I’m having to stay with my parents! I’m a beauty vlogger and I need a cute flat to record in!
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BEFORE
Tina, Thank goodness you had a big budget! This place needed a lot of work. We instantly stripped the room of everything so we could have a clean slate. It may look like a large apartment
whilst it’s empty, but it is actually quite a small space to work with. We put up some fake walls to split the flat into three areas - living/ dining/kitchen, bedroom and a bathroom. The green sun reflectors outside the building don’t do us any fa-
vors in terms of letting natural light into the building, so we made one simple change to the light fittings we put ‘flame’ coloured bulbs in the fittings opposed to the bright white bulbs already in the fittings. The new bulbs gave - 25 -
Ask Dan
AFTER
off a warmer glow, which helped us keep the room feeling warm and cozy, despite the blue walls and white furniture. The lounge and dining area are completely connected, so Tina can watch her rather large television from the - 06 -
dining table as well as the sofa. The Wi-fi router is also located in the living room, so Tina can have the strongest Wi-fi signal possible whilst she uploads her videos. Unfortunately there’s no space for a desk here, but the four-seat din-
ing table will work just fine whilst you’ve not got guests over. Speaking of guests, there was no space for a guest room, but the sofa will do just fine. The dining and living areas are surrounded by windows, so Tina can
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really enjoy the great city views her apartment offers. The kitchen is just off to the left of the living area, and is really quite small. There’s space for a fridge, oven, sink, trash compactor and of course space to prepare food, so there’s enough
space for one person. We did use wall-to-ceiling mirrors on one kitchen wall to make the whole apartment seem a little bit bigger.
which, there wasn't space for a dedicated recording area, but there is space in both the bedroom and dining area to record.
There’s nothing too special in the bedroom, apart from a nice vanity, perfect for recording videos. Speaking of
I hope you like what we’ve done!
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ENJOY THE SUN If you live somewhere with such a beautiful climate, be sure to include lots of outside spaces! The canopy here also protects you from the harsh midday sun.
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RUSTIC AND MODERN Lots of homes in places like Italy tend to stick to their traditional roots in terms of furnishing. Why not try and infuse some modern styles too?
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Sidetracked for a Second
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and layout by george
SIDETRACKED
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a
SECOND
e time of me writing The Sims 4 is almost nd the negativity is in wing. People are still to see that it’s unfair mpare a day one base to a game that has built upon with 5 years of patches and sion packs.
er to see just how new novative The Sims 4 is e case has been for new base game) you o go back to basics and re it to not only The
GOING BACK TO BASICS Sims 3 base game, but even The Sims 2 and the original The Sims games. In 14 years the series has come such a long way.
missing from The Sims 4, the result will be a much, much more stable game. The open world caused a whole load of the problems in The Sims 3, The Sims 1 was a solid and The Sims 4 looks a lot foundation for the next 14 more stable. years of Sims games. The Sometimes you need to step Sims 2, in my opinion, was back and look back down the the most innovative of all the timeline of The Sims before base games. The Sims 3 slating The Sims 4. It’s much continued to build upon The more innovative, and like all Sims 2, with basements, the the past base games, brings a open world and Create-a- lot more new features to the Style. Whilst it might seem table. like these are huge features
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ROGER
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RINA
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BY LILLIEBOU
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VIRTUALLY CC-FREE For once, we’ve found a house with very little CC. The only CC present that we could find were the roof tiles!
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USE A SET Our top tip fo is to always use a matchin set. As long as you CASt e so it matches, you’re all go bedroom department!
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or bedrooms ng bedroom everything ood in the
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Around The World
REDCLIFFS Redcliffs is a beautiful world created by Awesims for The Sims 3. Although it may seem small at first, the possibilities are endless, and this town is amazingly expansive.
AWESIMS
the town centre, or up in the industrial area, , except the Bistro. You need to place that yourself! There are also some charming little townhouses outside the town. Just outside the centre are two smaller communities filled with homes and parks; one richer and one less well-off. This is where you can find starter homes and family homes if the townhouses aren’t your thing.
The town centre is where it all goes down, and is home to many shops and bars. Amazingly, the populated version never fails to bring Sims to these venues, be them hotspots or not. Every rabbit hole can be found either in To the east of the
town is a small farming area, with a distinct Tuscan charm and plenty of large lots, including some ready for legacy players. To the west is a small beachfront area, with a grocery store and a few shacks. All these areas are far apart, but yet aren’t too long a drive away for your Sims.
The only downside is there is a large CC file for this town, but I would recommend it!
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caithlin sims “My first name is Caithlin and my last name isn't actually Sims. Now we've got that bombshell out of the way, I can let you know that I'm a just a YouTuber who basically makes a fool out of myself on the internet via The Sims.”
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Tell everyone a little about yourself and what you do. My first name is Caithlin and my last name isn't actually Sims. Now we've got that bombshell out of the way, I can let you know that I'm a just a YouTuber who basically makes a fool out of myself on the internet via EA's franchise of games, The Sims. I think I'm really funny in my videos, however, on later review of them, I'm actually just a try hard loser. But in all seriousness, I've been doing YouTube for over three years on various channels, my most popular channel being 'CaithlinSims' in which I do a few series including Let's Plays, Renovation Station and Speed Builds. I absolutely adore TS3 and try to create the best content out of the game. I've also been given some incredible opportunities from the EA Australia Team to go to Sydney several times this year for preview events, and also to hang out with fellow Aussie simmers James from the 'The Sim Supply' and 'Deligracy'! I'm usually known amongst the Sims community for my whacky sense of humour, my incredibly low voice for a girl, and the inclusion of many of my musical instruments in my videos! Apart from that, I'm a full time acting student from Australia who absolutely adores cats! When did you first start playing The Sims? What do you like most about it? To be completely honest, I only started playing The Sims in late 2012. I owe this to my incredibly censored home life (my parents never understood what the point of video games were) and my incredibly slow iMac computer (to which I was still using until about a month ago). I was absolutely obsessed with the game as a child though, and I'd used to go over to other people's houses just to play it. But to my parents credit I didn't spend the majority of my childhood on the computer this however resulted in terrible gaming skills at the age of 12, which I'm still really catching up on till this day.
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But to my parents credit I didn't spend the majority of my childhood on the computer - this however resulted in terrible gaming skills at the age of 12, which I'm still really catching up on till this day.
Not many people know this, but I do about two or three hours of research on an architectural style before I actually start building.
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What are you thinking about The Sims 4? Seeing as it just released today (in American) while I'm writing this interview, I'm absolutely loving it. I was invited to the Australian Sims 4 Preview night last week in Sydney, and got a couple of hours with the game, which was an incredible experience! I honestly really love The Sims 4, it's just phenomenal to see the stuff they've done with the human emotion and connections between the sims! I really love the art style of it, it kind of reminds me of Disney's 'The Princess and the Frog', which has this gorgeous New Orleans 1920's style that's so surreal yet naturalistic too. I'm honestly not too fussed about the missing toddlers or pools, I'm sure they'll be added in later expansions, and I'd love to see a bit more diversity with the stuff in build mode later down the track. What is the creative process behind each of your builds? Not many people know this, but I usually do about two or three hours of research on an architectural style before I actually start building. In my latest builds, such as my Spanish Colonial Casa or my Norwegian Huset, I had to learn a whole new way of furnishing and building to fit with the traditional designs. Whilst I'm building, I love to have pictures on my computer than I can flick through for reference and ideas, it helps a lot when I have a 'building block' (enjoy that cheeky pun please). However, I'm such a slow builder I take at least 6 hours per build to get something I actually feel happy to commentate over and upload!
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Interview
What do you think sets your builds apart from anyone else’s? I really don't pride myself as an amazing builder or decorator, there are so many other Simmers out there who are much better at that kind of stuff than me. I think I pride myself on my in-depth research process to get a styled house, and I feel so rewarded when I get comments saying that I've actually been able to create a house that is similar to real life versions! I also pride myself on my humour throughout my videos. I absolutely adore making people happy, especially by laughing, and I feel so pleased when I know I've brightened up someone's day! I think there should be a lot more humour within the Sims community, I know there is within my YouTube circle of friends, but we must spread the laughter round! What tips do you have for aspiring builders?
If you're just a builder (not a YouTuber), I'd say to do lots of research if you're doing a stylized house. Also don't feel too pressured to start and finish a build in one sitting, I often take several months to build just one house! Try something new and different, you never know, it might look absolutely amazing! AND ALWAYS USE CHEATS. I literally could not live without the 'moveobjects' cheat. If you want to do YouTube, I'd say have a nice microphone, a decent computer/ recording equipment, and just try and find your own niche within the community! I found mine through weird and wacky humour (and not actually talking about the build during my videos) and musical instruments - see if you can start a certain style of video that no one has tried before!
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I think there should be a lot more humour in the Sims community, I know there is within my YouTube circle of friends, but we must spread the laughter around!
Interview
What is your favourite building technique?
Any final messages for everyone reading this?
I'm not actually sure I have a favourite building technique. I'm pretty indecisive when it comes to building anyway, but apparently I do some pretty weird stuff in my builds! People find it a bit odd that I like to recolour all my objects at the end of a build, and add flooring and wallpaper after everything is placed. To me, I find it to be a combination of having a laggy computer that hated Create-A-Style, my own laziness to colour as I go, and my head gets a lot clearer with colour schemes when I recolour everything at the end of the build!
Umm... Follow your dreams and your passions and eat lots of chocolate because you only live once. If I could take this sneaky time to plug the hell out of my crazy internet life, I run three YouTube channels: A Sims channel (CaithlinSims); a general gaming channel (MsCGRules); and a vlogging channel (Caithlin Vs. The World), if you're interested in the YT side of this. I also have Twitter (@CaithlinSims and @CaithlinTweets) where I'm always favouriting and retweeting ridiculous things, and if you love a bit of photography I have Instagram as well (@thelifeofcaith). Thank you so much to the SMagazine team for letting me have this cheeky interview, it's been an absolute pleasure!
How much does the community affect what you do with your channel?
The YouTube community has definitely affected my channel! Whether it be the ~ amazing friends I've made through the site, or the comments and incredible supThank you to Caithlin for taking part in port I receive from my fan base (Shout out this interview, it’s been a blast! to my wonderful 'Caithlinators'!), I honYou can follow her on Twitter here if you estly feel so, so lucky to be part of such a want to find out more about her or you kind, caring, hilarious and helpful commu- can also subscribe to her YouTube channity. I'm constantly in contact with my nel here to check out all her content. subscribers, whether chatting over Twitter or YouTube comments or even Instagram - everything I do is for their entertainment, and I would never give up on such an inspirational and influential network!
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TRÉS FRENCH It is common for French countryside houses to have red tiled roofs and yellow brick. They also commonly have a small outbuilding.
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MANGE TOUT A fridge/freezer combo always looks more realistic in a kitchen. Sims need to freeze things too!
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BY ZEE
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EANNA
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Summer days, drifting away! As summer vacation ends for most of us, have no fear as you still have the opportunity for an eternal getaway‌on The Sims! Since the beginning of the Sims franchise, we have been granted with the expansion to take our Sims on luxurious trips and have them relax from their daily life cycle of wake up, eat, work, sleep.
brand new destinations are Take- a number of lodges, cabins, and mizu Village, Twikkii Island, and campgrounds, however the Three Lakes. mountains cannot be hiked. This Takemizu Village is a far-east is perfect for Sims who love the themed sub-neigbourhood, filled outdoors. Each of these three lowith many oriental community cations comes with their own lolots, markets, parks, gardens, and cal restaurants and delicacies that hot springs. Ninjas can sometimes Sims can dine upon, traditional be found on the lots, but quickly dances, and souvenirs that they teleport into somewhere else. can purchase to bring back to Twikkii Island is a tropical- their homes.
For The Sims 2 we had Bon Voyage, released in September of 2007. This new expansion featured three vacation destinations where Sims could visit to spend a relaxing trip alone or with their families and friends. The three
themed sub-neighbourhood with many beaches, hotels, and ancient ruins. Locals of this island are outgoing and cheerful, making this a perfect place for a fun getaway! Three Lakes is a mountainthemed sub-neighbourhood with
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Going on vacation doesn’t require any days off work because time and age continuity stops when they are away. Vacations last for a maximum of 7 days before Sims have to return home. The main attraction for vacations are the
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community lots, so make sure neighbourhood features activities your Sims gets a chance to wan- that compliment Chinese archider while on their time off! tecture and culture such as hot The Sims 3 equivalent to Bon springs, beautiful gardens, ancient Voyage is World Adventures. In tombs, and hidden parks and this expansion pack, the three va- caves. New exclusive features are cation destinations are inspired introduced in this expansion pack, by real world countries, although such as national Chinese dishes, the locations themselves are fic- martial arts, and books that are tional. These include Shang Simla, exclusive to Shang Simla. The next Champs Les Sims, and Al Simhara. retreat is Champs Les Sims, or “The French Fields”, which is a Shang Simla is a peaceful commu- reference to the Champs-Elysees nity set near a mountainous area in Paris, France. This town is modof China near the Great Wall. The eled upon small rustic towns in town was named after Shang Ri- France, and it features activities La and features the Forbidden that reflect French traditions. City which is based off the real This location also introduces exForbidden City in Beijing. This clusive features such as national
French dishes like crepes and frogs legs, a new nectar making skill, and a variety of different grapes that can be harvested. The final destination is Al Simhara. It is found in Egypt and features activities from the Egyptian culture. This town includes mummies, pyramids, hidden tombs, and even famous Egyptian landmarks such as the Sphinx and Temple of Queen Hatsheput. Sims can explore the tombs, but watch out for the mummy’s curse! National dishes such as falafel and shawarma can also be found at this location, as well as a secret snake charming skill.
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Ever wondered how SMagazine happens? If not, read this anyway (we had a page to spare). It starts with the editor taking a trip to some Sims 3 CC sites (thesimsresource.com was used for most creations inside this issue). Each time he finds something, it’s into Microsoft Publisher to write an article about it. This is where everything goes down, be it the designing of the cover or the writing of the articles. He might take to Twitter to ask people what they want to see (follow us @smagazineofcl) and he then tends to find more ideas from there. Once the issue is finished, he checks everything, and then exports it into a .PDF using Microsoft Publisher. Then it’s to Issuu.com to upload the magazine, and then to literally every single social network to advertise the magazine. And, then, you get to read it...like you’re doing right now! G
Copyright SMAGAZINE 2014 © Any copyrights mentioned throughout this publication are the property of their respective owners. ‘The Sims’, ‘The Sims 3’ and the respective brand assets are all the property of Electronic Arts and/or Maxis. SMAGAZINE is in no way endorsed or funded by Electronic Arts, Maxis or any other companies. This magazine is run not-for-profit and we do not collect any earnings. SMAGAZINE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This means that no derivative works may be made of this publication and commercial use of this work is not allowed. If you wish to find out more about our copyright policy or anything else to do with the magazine, please email the editor at smagazineofficial@gmail.com
This issue was published on September 7 2014 Editing on this issue commenced August 24 2014 Opinionated articles reflect the opinions of the writer and not the SMagazine team as a whole. Articles about The Sims 4 may be inaccurate as they have been written before the release of the game.
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