Discord Stream Recap: Our Developers Dive into the Goth Galore and Castle Estate Kits

Sul sul Simmers!

This week, we hosted our first-ever Discord exclusive stream where we took a closer look at our latest Kits for The Sims 4 as voted for by our community - Goth Galore and Castle Estate. Our developers Stephen, Salo, and Colin walked us through all items available in both Kits, shared the inspiration behind their creations, and offered fun ways to add the Kits into your gameplay. 

Also, don’t miss out! We’re hosting an official shell challenge over on our Discord server where you can win any Kit of your choosing just by sharing how you decorate your castle. Check out our #announcements channel for more information and the rules. 

Read on to learn more about what was shared by our team!

Goth Galore Kit

Final concept art for a few pieces featured in the Goth Galore Kit

We explored all the different pieces in the Goth Galore Kit including the color options, and our developers gave us some inside information! 

Stephen dove into the inspiration behind the development: “one of the questions we had to answer early on was how to take a fashion style that is largely black and map it onto our covar (color variation) sets. The solution had to do justice to the various subcultures and eras without diluting the main theme of contemporary goth culture. After researching goth subcultures, we made the intentional decision to go in the direction of nu goth. It was a great middle ground that allowed us to lean into more subcultures via the swatches.”

Stephen continued, “we compiled a guide of iconic materials and used these to help inform our variants and with this template in place, we were able to maintain a consistency across the entire suite of assets. We got to explore nu  goth, tech goth, pastel goth, and even some mall goth within our swatches.”

Colin added, “Our key inspiration also came from Lilith Pleasant in Sims 2, and Central Station in Urbz.”

Salo added, “These decisions made it possible for you to mix and match the pieces while still having a cohesive look. We also added pastel colors for our pastel goth players!”

Colin was excited to call out the fun elements that are included such as the Bonehilda shirt, skeleton Freezer Bunny, and the skull belt buckle.

Fun fact: The platform footwear in this Kit are the highest platforms in the game taking your Sims’ style to new heights!

Here’s some fun ways you can add the Goth Galore Kit into your gameplay:

• Give the Goth Family a makeover in the Base Game.
• Create a vampire squad.
• Express your teen’s rebellious side in High School Years
• Highlight different subcultures and individuality in City Living. 

Ready to get started? Add the Goth Galore Trio to your game directly from the Gallery today

Castle Estate Kit

Final concept art for a few pieces featured in the Castle Estate Kit

Our developers are so excited about the building diversity the Castle Estate Kit brings to the game and shared more about their process. 

Stephen spoke on what drove their inspiration for this Kit: “our aim was to create a suite of assets that most people recognize from movies and shows. Several revivals meant basic forts were updated to become residences for the ruling classes and we wanted to capture this transformation to allow the player more versatility in the story they want to tell.”

Colin was so happy to see everyone’s builds on the Gallery to date, and he called out how the Kit can be used for a multitude of other builds outside of castles such as museums, homes, gardens, weddings, and more! He can’t wait to see everyone’s builds in Tartosa, Forgotten Hollow, Glimmerbrook, Britechester, and Henford-on-Bagley. He pointed out how the materials can be used anywhere between a medieval dwelling to a modern backdrop to tell compelling stories.

Salo added, “We learn so much from every single project. I worked on The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Pack where we investigated how to visually integrate columns, friezes, roof fences and roof sculpts in order to create Art Deco buildings. This knowledge helped me ideate how to tackle the crenellations for this kit. The investigations we did for the Courtyard Oasis Kit also helped us ideate how to leverage our spandrels tech to create ornamental arches.”

Colin added, “We got to add fun elements like the llama gargoyle and the image on the crest. Adding those little surprises is so fun!”

Here are some ways the Castle Estate Kit can add to your gameplay:

• Build anything from a cottage style home to a castle in the style of late Medieval Gothic.
• Get inspired by those historical dramas and create the perfect aristocratic manor complete with all the drama
• Live in a grand castle as a dorm or tenant with Discover University or For Rent.
• Create your own occult fortress with Vlad or for your Werewolf to hide out in.

Ready to live your best castle life? Download the Grand Castle Estate from the Gallery!