Producer Blogs: Grim's Ghastly Blog (Perhaps Designer Alan's BEST blog yet!)

SimGuruTaterTot: I always love it when Designer Alan Copeland write blogs for the exciting store releases, but I think he might have outdone himself this week. We've teased this all last week, revealed a killer sneak peek, and I know you are all DYING for more (pun intended). See for yourself! This Thursday will be full of tricks and treats! Available on The Sims 3 Store October 17th!

Ever wonder where the Grim Reaper lives? I have too. He’s such an elusive fellow that we wanted a place where players can always go to look for him, even if their Sim hasn’t gone and kicked the bucket. To get to know Grim on his turf and maybe, just maybe, make a new friend.

See, Grimmy’s not all bad, he’s just got a job to do. Once he’s done working he just wants to go home, kick back, feed the ill-tempered pit monster and play a game of foosball down in the secret crypt just like everyone else. As a matter of fact, he’s a pretty handy guy to know.

With that in mind I’m thrilled to tell you about our spookiest venue yet, Grim’s Ghastly Manor!

Grim’s Ghastly Manor has a few new outfits, an exciting array of beautifully creepy objects and most incredibly the Door of Life and Death where you can summon the Reaper!

The Door of Life and Death really helps you understand that Grim really has a part to play in the circle of life. Sure, he’s there whenever a Sim dies, but if you gather up the tombstone of a Sim that’s left this mortal coil, you can go ask Grim to Reincarnate them. Reincarnation isn’t like anything that’s ever been done in the Sims 3 before. The reincarnated Sim isn’t simply brought back to life like they were, they are reawakened as a baby with many of the skills (possibly at a lower level) that they had in their previous life!

Reincarnation can occasionally have some unexpected results, like maybe your Sim will change race, gender… or maybe even species if you have the Pets Expansion Pack installed. But hey, who wouldn’t want to come back as a kitten? And while that baby may start with a glimmer of recognition, you’ll need to rebuild the relationships you had in a whole new way.

If you Reincarnate your Sim you may find that “Mary” is more of a “Bob”, so you can also rename your Sim right at the Door.

But let’s say your Sim doesn’t need anything that heavy and just wanted to chat with Grim about his day? You can just go Call for the Reaper and your Sim will knock on the door and see if he wants to come out and play. If he’s not too busy in the ethereal plane he’ll answer the door and you might become fast friends. However, there’s a slight chance that if he’s busy you might run into his pet pit monster, Emmie, that lives under his doormat. Emmie, isn’t always the most welcoming to new guests, but your Sim might be quick enough to avoid her rather lethal hug. The good news is that Emmie really hates your enemies, paparazzi and zombies. I mean REALLY hates them. So if your Sim is a celebrity just put this on your lot and don’t worry about those pesky shutterbugs. On your next full moon zombies may spawn on the lot, but the Door attracts them like a bug catcher, Emmie pulls them down to her watery abyss and spits them out when they stop acting all zombified.

Does your Sim want a child but doesn’t want to go through all of the hassle of trying to adopt or deal with all of the headache of having a relationship? Well for starters your Sim’s probably a loner, but Grim totally understands your dilemma. Just go knock-knock-knocking on Grim’s Door and he can help your Sim Simulate a Genetic Merger. You get to pick what type of occult you’d like your baby to be (from available installed Expansion Packs) or which Sim you’d like to use the genetic template of and a powerful bolt of lightning comes down to zap your Sim into a truly cryptic pregnancy! “But…” you might ask, “what if my Sim is male?” You think a little thing like gender roles is going to stand in the way of Grim and his mad skills? Hell (or heavens) no! Male Sims may wonder where that extra weight is coming from until their new bundle of joy arrives.

Do you have a Sim who’s so epically good at guitar that they are destined to be a rock legend till the end of time? Nobody wants to lose a Sim that can rock that hard, not even Grim. So when you think your Sim is big and bad enough to challenge the Reaper himself to a Guitar Duel, it’s time to put on your Sim’s big boy pants and see who really knows how to rock.

But you better know what to expect. Grim doesn’t just show up with any guitar, Grim will show up with his enchanted flaming bone guitar that was forged in the fires of Hades, tuned by the angels of heaven and regurgitated by the swamp monster of Antioch. Yeah, you may think your Sim knows how to play, but do they ROCK? If they win, Grim’s gonna give them a free pass for their next reaping courtesy of a Death Flower, but if they lose they might just have to take their chances against a rather tone-deaf Emmie.

The Door of Life and Death also has all of the standard door interactions, so if you want to set it as your front door, slap on some holiday lights, or lock it so only you (and Grim) can use it, you totally can.

Also, all of those new objects I mentioned before? They really are awesome. There’s a new coffin in the secret crypt that’s down below the Manor (this just so happens to be where Grim keeps his foosball table.) There are also some really cool roof sculptures that would go perfect in whatever gothic setting you want to put them in.

Now, to answer some questions from the forums and Twitter:

Q: What type of lot is this?
A: This is a Graveyard but you can put the Door on any type of lot. Grim’s Ghastly Manor comes on a 50x25 lot, which should fit nicely in place of most graveyards in your game.

Q: Will this kill off all of my Sims?
A: The good news is that Sims don’t mess with the door much on their own. So you won’t have a Sim who doesn’t have the Guitar skill pick up a guitar for the first time and challenge the Reaper to a duel they will surely lose.

Q: Can playable Ghost Sims bring their own tombstone to Grim to be reincarnated?
A: No, you’ll need another Sim to do that for you.

Q: What is the skill bar in the image that was posted of Pitty pulling someone down to their demise?
A: In that picture the Sim had just lost a Guitar Duel, so they were still getting a skill bump before they died. This is important in case someone wants to reincarnate them.

Q: Where does the Reaper sleep?
A: I’ve never seen him sleep, but he has a bed with pink lamb sheets and his upstairs is rather bachelor pad-ish. In the attic are the burned out remains of a nursery hinting to something dastardly from a long time ago.

Q: Is the Reaper playable?
A: No. His job keeps him far too busy for that.

We are less than 24 hours away from this ***** new venue hitting the digital shelf, so I look forward to all of your cool screenshots!