Spotlight on Esmeiolanthe!

[joandsarah]

Congratulation Esme! You are... In the spotlight!

Esme has lots of wonderful stories.

Already in Progress

Ruth's (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge

100 Days of Awesome

Cecil's CCL

Auspicious It Ain't

Completed Challenges
Jack Point Home For Pedestrian Playables

Everbody Loves Bertie

Snap!

Love, Frederic

If you haven't checked out Esme's stories now is a good opportunity to do so.

Taps mic.

Out of all your stories, which one if your favourite and why?


When did you become interested in Gilbert and Sullivan and why did you decide to use them in sim stories?


How did you come up with the cat lovers challenge?


Which challenge has been the most fun to play and is it the most interesting to write?

Who from your stories is your favourite character and why?


But wait, there's more! Esme you also have some prizes!

I'm sorry a cruise couldn't be originized
But Amy has made you some lovely items we hope you enjoy.

Take it away Amy!

Firstly, you asked for some unnatural hair colours (hopefully you still need these! . These are very pastel-y, but I got them to work, so here's 4 to start off with. All 4 hairs have previously been done by me in natural colours, and all come in green, blue, purple and pink. It's such a huge file because all 4 and this picture are in there, if you want me to upload each hair separately, let me know.



Download hairs


Next, I made paintings out of pictures from AiP and Ruth's. It was meant to be a couples thing, but I got distracted by so many sims that I love, so have a random collection of square paintings of sims that are my favourites. As you can't make square paintings without SimPE, I thought this would give you a bit of variety; they're on the Lone Daisy painting.


Sorry the one of Sally is rather blurry, I can redo them later if you like.
P.S Yes, I named the Eddie picture 'Mr Way Too Nice' in the file

Download Paintings


And finally, although you probably already have these as custom paintings, I put the paintings of Ruth that you gave me for my birthday onto the 'We Call It Football' poster. I wanted them to be like film/theatre posters and they fit this mesh size best, but I know the drawing pins in the corners won't be to everyone's taste. If you want them on a particular mesh, just let me know. It takes a bit of resizing, but I can have a go.



Download Ruth Posters


And just in case your laptop/computer is really fast, here's a download link to the whole lot!

Esme, we hope you enjoyed being our author in the spotlight!

Put together by Amy and Jo.

[esmeiolanthe]

Jul 9, 2013 0:54:57 GMT -5 joandsarah said:

Congratulation Esme! You are... In the spotlight!

Out of all your stories, which one if your favourite and why?

That changes every so often based on my mood. My most consistent favorite is probably Ruth's, because I enjoy the challenge of making the Plots flow organically from the personalities of the sims instead of seeming contrived/forced. (I hope I succeed in that!) It's one reason I have my heir polls so early, so I can make that work. Auspicious It Ain't is nice and relaxing to play, though. It's my go-to household when I just want to play and not worry about story.

When did you become interested in Gilbert and Sullivan and why did you decide to use them in sim stories?

Oooh, this is a long answer... I suppose I would have been ten or twelve when I became interested in Gilbert & Sullivan. My mother was playing in the orchestra for a local production of The Mikado, and before we went to see it, she told us the story, rented a video of it and watched it with us a couple of times, and got us in to a dress rehearsal. Shortly thereafter, we visited my grandparents, and my grandfather showed me a video of the Eric Idle production of The Mikado and played me some of their other music. He played in the orchestra of a Savoyard company (a Gilbert & Sullivan fan group) for almost 70 years total, and shortly after that visit, he sent me and my sister each tshirts from old productions: mine was Iolanthe, and it had a fairy on it, and I wore it until it fell apart and my parents made me throw it away. (My sister got The Gondoliers.) Then the next time we went to visit, we all went to watch his group's production of The Yeomen of the Guard, and I fell in love with "I have a song to sing, O!" A few years after that, our own local group did HMS Pinafore, which had a singer who I had a little bit of a crush on as Able Seaman Deadeye*. (They did all kinds of opera, not just G&S.)

*Mr. Deadeye's first name is short for "Richard," but when I type it in, the board auto-changes it to "thingy."

On a more emotional level, Gilbert & Sullivan was the one topic I could really connect with my grandfather on, and one of the only topics that would get him to actually speak, so they were my main point of connection with him. Their music is very happy, and their plots cheerful, with a happy ending every time (except for Jack Point in Yeomen) and they always make me laugh. They've gotten me through some tough times in the past, and probably will again.

I chose to write a G&S-themed story because I wanted to do something that wasn't "Here are some arbitrary rules for no reason" or "Here is the simself imposing these rules on the sims." There's a lot of material in G&S, and I could see how using their plots would add challenge and interest to the whole endeavor. Plus, they were known for being wacky even in their own time, although "topsy-turvy" was the contemporary term. I thought it would help me stick with a challenge that would take me a long time and that I might otherwise lose interest in. And I was right!


How did you come up with the cat lovers challenge?

Well, I wanted something for Cecil to do, since he was a bit boring at the time. (When I find a sim boring, I tend to look for a challenge they can do, which usually makes them interesting to me again.) I was thinking of what he could do, and since CeCiL was named for a Crazy Cat Lady, I thought that might be something that would work. I even came up with a title: Cecil's CCL. And if I come up with a title, then I have to do it. It's the rules. But I didn't see and cat-type challenges I liked. As far as the actual creation, my train was late going home one day, and for some reason that made me so inspired I used up every inch of the only paper I had with me. I do a lot of thinking while waiting for a train/on my commute.

Which challenge has been the most fun to play and is it the most interesting to write?

The most fun to play is hard to decide. AiP was great all on its own for almost two years (only one of which is documented). Sometimes I really enjoy playing Auspicious, sometimes I really enjoy Ruth's, I had a blast playing Love, Frederic... Basically, if it doesn't involve Uni, it's been the most fun at one point or another. Playing Uni is like pulling teeth!

For the most interesting to write, that would have to be either Ruth's (making the Plots flow naturally) or 100 Days of Awesome. It's quite tricky for me to write with no narration from me, only things spoke by the Sims. Writing a reality show is also a challenge, although it's the good kind.

Who from your stories is your favourite character and why?

Old Adam Shankel from Ruth's, because he's Old Adam Shankel. Sally Couderc from AiP, because she has always talked to me and I like the way she talks. Jon and Emmy from way back in AiP, because they were so perfect together, and Jon never cared about Emmy's age or looks. Descartes and Abbey from AiP/100 Days, because he followed her around like a puppy all through Uni. Javotte, who you never met, but who was the first sim I created and played in the AiP world, who most of the sims in my other stories are descended from, mostly because she was the first. I suspect that I will like Nanki-Poo, just because of where I see him going.

But wait, there's more! Esme you also have some prizes!

Oh my gosh! Wow! Thank you! Yes, I still need unnatural hairs, and I think the blue will come in especially handy right away. And the family pictures are perfectly sized and nicely chosen, and I love the paintings of Ruth as posters! Now I don't have to wait for my sims to paint them all. It's all fantastic -- thank you!

Esme, we hope you enjoyed being our author in the spotlight!

It's like my birthday and Christmas, all rolled into one! ;D

Put together by Amy and Jo.

[amylu1988]

;D Yay, glad you like it all Esme! I wanted to make a painting of Jon and Emmy but ran out of time, they were such a sweet couple.

I'd forgotten that the board censored certain words!

Such great answers to the questions, agreed about Old Adam being an awesome character, and Sally too of course! I'll be back in this thread after work to reply more, but yaaaay for you and all your stories, and happy 4th anniversary to AiP! ;D

[joandsarah]

Happy anniversary!! And I will be back in the morning to read and reply properly as well.

[amylu1988]

You definitely succeed in making the plots flow, all of your stories make sense with the challenges they have, like the Game Show format for 100 Days and the money restrictions for Auspicious It Ain't.

Wow, sounds like you come from a very musical family! I need to watch more G&S really, for a Brit, I know far too little of their work and I haven't seen any of the plays all the way through.

I miss the creativity of my old commute, I only have ten minutes walk now and I miss all the story planning I used to do on the bus. I need to remind myself of your strategy with boring sims, I tend to forget them, but 'do more challenges' is on my list of things to do with the game, so I should give them a go.

Agreed about uni! I'd had the new game for 2 months before I suddenly realised I hadn't added any unis into it! They take so loooong to play.

Aww, Jon and Emmy. So sweet and so meant to be together. And Sally is awesome. Not to mention she writes G&SL (with your help of course)!

I enjoyed making the presents, and it was great to have an excuse to read through the last year of AiP again too! ;D

[joandsarah]

'thingy' reminds me of this old Enid Blyton book I'm reading to the kids, I just can not read that girls name without laughing so I call her Fiona instead.

Now I see why you like G&S and musicals so much, you grew up surrounded by it. I'm sure it was a much better education then those of us whose parents listened to Elvis and old crooners and my scratched ABBA records.

I can imagine how that would be a good time to think and write, I tend to do that when I'm washing my hair, but the lack of a pen or paper means half of it flies out of my head never to be seen again.

I'm really glad you like your surprise Esme. Amy did all the awesome creating and I did the questions and cobbled it together.