Behind the Scenes: Belladonna Cove | Episode 1.1

Maria Marsh enjoying the sunny Monday morning while Jessica Peterson's at work.

So the first episode. The beginning of the journey.

This project has changed a bit. Originally, I wanted something a bit different for Belladonna Cove. And I dove into that idea. Made plans, wrote down ideas. Formulated a few rules. Discussed some of the rules in question with other simmers. Then I started playing: I created a University sim and sent her to La Fiesta Tech, but then she reached junior year, and I started to question my project, having doubts and so on.

See, my project, the original vision for Belladonna Cove was this: an ambitious University graduate from the desert arrives at Belladonna Cove, and her goal in life is to live as long as possible, experience as many careers as possible, and so on. How long can I keep this sim alive? You see, I wanted the neighbourhood to age with this University sim. Wanted the other families to expand, children to be born. And while the other sims age and die, my ambitious sim lives on.

That would be a long-running project.

But I decided to scrap this idea just before D-Day - just before the University sim would graduate.

Why? I felt that the idea would be better suited for an original, custom-made neighbourhood with a few original, custom-made families. Also, I felt that I would play favourites with the University sim, and because of that I wouldn't get that invested in the pre-made families of Belladonna Cove. So the original idea has been pushed aside, for now, and I'm playing with all the families in Belladonna Cove, which will be interesting because I normally focus on my own sims, my own creations.

But I've wanted to play with pre-made sims for a long, long time now, and I've finally started the journey.

I'm excited! Also, I was so excited during the filming of the first part of the first episode that I forgot to take screenshots. (I so regret not capturing a certain moment in the first part of the first episode!) And I love taking screenshots. That's what we simmers do! But hopefully I'll do better next time. I did film footage of Jessica's neighbour - Maria Marsh - enjoying herself on the swings, and while I felt that it didn't quite fit in the episode (since there's a lot of cutting and that moment was drawn out), I'm happy I captured the moment.