Producer Blogs: A Designer's Thoughts: Run Your Own Restaurant
Check out what Designer Alan Copeland has to say about the new venue, Business as Usual Bistro, he created for The Sims 3! The Business as Usual Bistro will be available on The Sims 3 Store July 18th.
Design is a lot like shopping on a budget. You only get so many days of development in each department –Art, Audio, Engineering, etc. – to make something really special. Having a Non Player Character (or NPC for short) work on a Store item was always something that was too big for that budget… until now.
Thanks to our talented Development Team I’m proud to introduce you to our newest The Sims 3 venue, The Business as Usual Bistro!
The Business as Usual Bistro features the brand new It’s Business Time Industrial Oven.
This is no ordinary stovetop! While you can fix a quick meal here, the magic really happens when you Hire a Chef and Set Your Menu! Setting your menu allows you to customize the type of dining experience you want for your bistro. Do you only serve vegetarian meals or the best cheesesteaks in town?You decide!
When you Hire a Chef a townie will appear to come work that oven. He or she will start prepping food in anticipation of that dinnertime rush.
You get to set what hours you want them to work and what level of Chef you want them to be— Line Cook, Sous Chef or Executive Chef. Higher levels open up better quality food and more recipes but demand a higher salary. Decide you want to demote your chef or if you choose not to promote them after long enough and they just might quit!
You’ll also want to set up what the mark-up is going to be. Higher quality food warrants a higher price tag but even that might not be enough to keep Frugal Sims happy.
Make sure you place plenty of menus around on tables and counters so you’re Sims can have a wonderful dining experience and the Chef will come out, take your Sims order and hurry to bring them their food!
Just one more day until the all-new Business as Usual Bistro venue is available on The Sims 3 Store! We had a great time making it and are looking forward to seeing how your Sims use it.
Happy Simming!
