Sistergirl's tutorials: Writing Sim Stories

This is a short tutorial on how I write stories using The Sims as illustrations. This is MY way of
creating, and you may come up with a variation that works better for you. This tutorial may not
cover everything you want to know and it assumes that you understand basic game playing. If
you need information on alternatives to the game's camera for taking photos, see the tutorial at
http://www.thefantasimtales.com/pictures.html

For this tutorial, my story, "Sherlock Jones and The Case Of The Dead Men Do Tell Tales" , will be
used as an example and I will explain step-by-step how it was developed. I wrote this story in
October 2000, for the Maxis "Spooky Story" contest. Unfortunately, I had problems teleporting
the family album to the Exchange, so I did not make the entry deadline.

ORGANIZING YOUR STORY AND THE SIM PHOTO TAILOR

In addition, I need to cover a few things before I begin the tutorial:

First, although I have a "script" in draft form as notes to follow while I actually play the game to
take the photos for my stories, I do not take the photos in order. Sometimes I use one lot and
rearrange a part of the lot to look like different environments. Sometimes I will use the same exact
lot in different neighborhoods to take the photos so that I can manipulate and control more then
eight Sims in the exact same environment. Either way, I reorganize the camera shots into plot
order when I am finished taking the photos and writing the text.

The "Sherlock Jones" story was originally "arranged" manually, meaning, that I moved photos
and text file from one photo album and placed them into another photo album, and rearrange the
preview thumbnails. I had a formula for doing this that was tedious and time consuming, but it
worked so that I could "control" more than eight Sims at a time for a story and to get more variety
in the environment.

Today, The Sims Photo Tailor by Jonah of JGB Productions does all of that tedious work for you.
This program is a MUST for creative Sim story writing. You can download it at (under The Sims
section):

http://www4.ncsu.edu:8030/~jgbishop/


NEEDED CHEATS AND STRATEGIES

Also, you will need to use two cheats: the money cheat and the move objects cheat.  Why? Well, 
with the money cheat you can buy whatever you need for your Sims in the story.  The move 
object cheat allows you to move Sims and objects so that you can set up some creative camera 
shots.


NOTE: To use any cheat, you must bring up a text window to enter the cheat code. In game play, 
press the Shift, Ctrl and the letter C keys at the same time. The text box will appear in the upper left 
hand side of the screen.

     1. Money Cheat: Original The Sims game players, enter the word KLAPAUCIUS. Then hit the
                                     ENTER on your  keyboard. Your Sims' household will gain 1000 simoleons. 
                                     Keep  hitting ENTER until the the desire amount of money has been reached.
  
                                     Players with Deluxe or/and any expansion pack, enter the Word ROSEBUD. Hit 
                                     the space bar  once, then enter a semicolon and an explanation point in pairs 
                                     across the text bar,  placing any letter at the very end, like this: ;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;m 
                                     Hit ENTER on your keyboard and ignore "no such cheat" message and hit 
                                     ENTER again.  Keep hitting Enter until the desire amount of money has been 
                                     reached.

 2.  Move Object Cheat:  Original The Sims players, Deluxe and all expansion Pack EXCEPT
                                             Superstar, enter MOVE_OBJECT ON  in the text Bar.  When you want to 
                                             turn off the move object cheat,  bring up the text bar and enter MOVE_
                                             OBJECT OFF.  You can pick up and move any object or Sim as long as 
                                             you're in the "Buy" mode with this cheat on.  

                                            If you play Superstar,  the move object cheat does not work properly.  You 
                                            can still  move objects around, however, if you attempt to move a Sim, they 
                                            will disappear once you pick them up to move them.  Use this  strategy for 
                                            a Sim:


STEP ONE: Have the Move Object cheat ON. Get 
your Sim to do the action that you want for the 
particular pose you are after. In my example,
I have Sherlock water the plants.  Pause the game 
and switch to "Buy" mode. Click on the Sim and 
move him/her  to the desire place, for example
from outdoors to the bathroom. The Sim will 
disappear once you let go of  him.