EXCLUSIVE: How to build a band in The Sims 3: Late Night

The Sims 3: Late Night is bursting at the seams with new content and features for your virtual you. It’s going vertical, with a city full of towering skyscrapers. It’s also going dark, adding a brand new vampire system to sink your teeth into. But it’s also going social, with more activities that you can enjoy with other Sims, like barhopping with groups of friends for a night out on the town or even starting your own band.

It looks like Late Night is going to rock, so we were very pleased to have a chance to speak with Melanie Lam, associate producer for The Sims 3: Late Night to find out more about the new Band career in the upcoming expansion. Find out why Late Night will be all about the music - if you want it to be - and learn all the ins and outs of how the new Band career will work.

GamesRadar: Why did the Sims team decide to add the Band career in Late Night?

Melanie Lam: Instruments are a popular and much requested feature in The Sims 3. We had a guitar in The Sims 3 and we wanted to expand the repertoire of instruments that Sims can play. With our Late Night scene, it was a natural choice to have live entertainment like bands performing gigs at our bars and lounges. It offers a cool way for Sims to earn Simoleons either as a career or a side job. Who wouldn’t want to be in a band!

GR: How do you start a band?

Lam: To start a band, just learn to play an instrument to level 1 then get friendly with other Sims and use the “Ask to Form a Band” social on them. You can ask up to three Sims to join the band.

GR: How big (or small) can your band be? Can we start a one-man band?

Lam: The great thing is that an informal jam session can have up to eight Sims playing at a time. If you want to be hired for paying gigs however, this requires a standard four member band. We have a new Lifetime Wish to BE a One Sim Band and to complete that goal, your Sim has to master all four instruments. Of course, there are plenty of solo opportunities that will come up like playing for tips or teaching a music class.

GR: What kind of instruments will be available? Can you band play different styles of music?

Lam: New instruments include the upright bass, drums, piano or keyboard. Additionally, as a celebrity, you have a chance of receiving a new electric guitar as a free gift. New styles like blues, jazz, and rock become available to your Sim as the band improves.

GR: Can you tell us about the sorts of venues your band can play at? Will the band’s style of music have any effect on where you can get booked?

Lam: Your Sim’s band can be asked to play anywhere in town. The local dive bar might need a replacement for a yawn-inducing pianist or perhaps there’s a halftime show at the stadium that has an open slot. There are vampire-themed lounges or VIP rooms full of glitz and glamour. Your band’s style of music is only limited by their skill level and as they practice and perform their way into a primetime band, they can choose to play music that suits each environment.

GR: Does your relationship with your band members have any impact on the band itself? Will there be consequences to thoughtless ‘woohoo-ing’ with your band mates?

Lam: While your relationship does not affect the amount of money you earn or the gigs you get, as the leader of the band, you can ‘manage the band’ by kicking out members you no longer want. This can have a negative effect on your relationship for sure!

CATEGORIES
Latest in The Sims
A shop in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies
How to start a small business in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies
A Sim celebrates his tattoo shop in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies
How to complete The Sims 4 Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration in Businesses and Hobbies
Paralives
The Sims 4's colorful competitor Paralives is bringing one of my favorite features from The Sims 3 back – the ability to customize literally everything
inZOI Character Studio trailer showing a young woman with ginger-y long hair and a white baseball cap smiling, her hand against her chin
The Sims 4's hyper-realistic competitor inZOI will only "sort of" have sex – but I'm sure a Wicked Whims-style mod will take care of the rest
The Sims 4 screenshot showing a young woman with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and an academic green coat, her expression surprised
New Sims 4 update adds burglars, customizable tattoos – and a "horrific bug" that makes children pregnant: "This is an actual nightmare"
The Sims 4 burglar
After 16 years, EA brings burglars back in The Sims 4 ahead of its Businesses and Hobbies expansion – but that's not all
Latest in Features
Key art for Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered showing Shay Patrick Cormac in a black and red outfit that's a cross between Assassin and Templar armor, with his ship The Morrigan behind him
Assassin's Creed Shadows can wait – I spent 40 hours mopping up the map in the one game in the series everyone skipped
Avowed screenshot showing a corpse-like figure's face with glowing purple mushroom/spore growths
I thought I was going evil in Avowed, but one quest changed everything I thought I knew about morality in this RPG
Yakuza 0
10 years on, Yakuza 0 is still one of the strongest entry points to a franchise ever made
The Witcher 3 screenshot of Geralt
Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tap into the same thing that makes The Witcher 3 so compelling – and it's something I'm always looking for in RPGs
Marvel Rivals Spider-Man
Spider-Man has become every Marvel Rivals player's worst nightmare
The Iron Mask
The 32 greatest swashbuckler movies ever made