Here are the questions chocobeans and I came with this week!

1) How much of DP is inspired by real life?

2) We know that DP has seen several incarnations throughout the years. How did the ideas evolve into the way the story is now? What is your favorite element of the old stories not incorporated into DP and why did you choose to leave it out of the current version?

3) Music obviously has a deep connection with the series. What kind of music/artists inspire the series as well as how you want TVO to sound? Have you two always had the same tastes in music?


4) How do you two manage to come to conclusive decisions? E-mails are quite helpful but what about ideas that one may want to share with each other right away, especially if it may be a last-minute rewrite before an episode's premiere?

5) If approached by either a TV or movie deal, do you trhink either of you would consider taking it? Would you rather see DP as a TV show, movie, or in some other medium other than its current incarnation?

6) Did you have any writing training in school, or was it always just a hobby?

7) What sparked your interest for writing "the stories"? Has writing just always been your escape from the stressors of life (school, work, family, friends, etc.)?

8) Is the story mostly complete or do you just write as you go along? Do you refer to some of your older material?

9) Before making the DP LJ and using TS2, have either of you thought of publishing your work?

10) Do either of you "favor" some characters while writing or do you switch them off equally?

11) Who is your personal favorite DP character (if it's possble to pick a favorite child)?

12) Can you give us any hints about what's to come in the series?

^_^

I've always wondered what aspirations the characters were created with, yano, Sim-wise. Were they picked just to hurry the creation process, or do they influence their individual personalites?

Yes, I wonder about the most weirdest things at times. Still be interesting to find it out though ^_^

Revvy.

Well, I can't think of any questions at the moment, but I'm really excited for this!

Oooh, count me in as a vote for Behind the Scenes :D

I've also always wondered how much of the story you have "in the can" as it were. Obviously you've been writing these guys for a long while but do you have an "evolved" storyline? Do you sort of know where the characters will go/end up etc?

I've always wondered if your story for dp has been in anyway shaped by what you can and can't do in sims 2?
For example, you can't write into the story that the characters turn into dogs because you can't have dogs in sims 2(well not yet any way, the new expantion pack will fix that)

i'm not sure if that completly made scence, but i can clarify later if you want
^_^

I know that Jacob and Tristan each have their own specific song (being Jacob's Ladder and Tristan). Does the rest of the cast have a song specifically for them? Meaning, if you hear the song on the radio, you immediately envision ... say ... James?

1. We have learned about Emily, Tristan, James, and Andy's past, but how come we learned almost zilch about Mary and Markus. I've always wondered why Mary shuns affection (esspecially with her parents still together and obviously caring). Yeah we got peeks at them, with the rape and Markus getting his ass beat, but there is always more to it. Should we be expecting some more insight in the up coming season?

2. Where in the world did you come up with Zombie Platypus' from?

3. Andy was bit, how come he didn't turn? Did he and we not know it? Was not enough blood taken? I was expecting to seem him suddenly go nocturnal on us. I'll spork you (ok not really, I just like sporks).

4. What are the characters bad habbits. Do any of them bite their nails, twirl their hair, tap their feet, hum, spit a alot. Hmm?

5. If you were each of the main characters (Chris included), step in their shoes and tell me what you think they would say is their best quality.

That is all I can think of for now, I'll think of more while at work, or when I re-read the season.

I've always wanted more Tristan/James backstory. What happened after undead!Tristan scared the crap out of his family? How long did it take him to forgive James? What happened to the classy blonde chick (sorry, forgot her name!)? Will you ever give us a Chicago flashback?

And I second any requests for more details on what makes Markus tick. He was very intriguing in that final chapter.

*is interested* But brain dead for questions.

Okay, cos I'm selfish, what's the background/life-story-so-far for Jade and Glass?

1. Has there ever been a time when Tristan and James have had a huge falling out that could have ruined their friendship?

And, building on question number five from heatherizcool and chocobeans-

2. If DP was ever made into a movie or television show, who would you pick to play each character and why?

Mine are more about the technical aspect than the characters:

What cheats and hacks do you primarily use?

What are the hardest types of scenes to set up?

Are these what the characters were originally intended to look like, or have they drastically changed over time?

What one custom object/hack/mesh could you not live without?

Do you play these sims as a different story line, and then just take photographs for this story, or are they only used for Deception Pass?

Who lives in what "household," as The Sims defines a house? Do you just have 8 characters per lot, do only the major characters have their own lots...how does that work?

Is there anything you have wanted to add to the story that you just haven't been able to make work in terms of getting the characters to act it out within game confines?

Once the Pets expansion comes out, will you utilize that in the game?

Because I've done this myself, I was going to ask the "what real life actor would you get to play each character", but highvoltagehero beat me to it.

What mood/time of day do you find yourself at your most creative?

Wow. A lot of the questions have already been asked so I'll just put my two cents in that I would love to see a behind the scene thing...

OHOH! I got a question!

I would like to find out more about Deanna. Ok, ok I'm not a huge fan of hers. I'm a Tristian/Emily shipper. But I've always been curious about her.

Gosh, now that I can ask all the questions that I've always wanted, I don't know where to start. Hope I make sense (I'm at work, not working. Maybe they'll think my typing is work related. *crosses fingers*)

1. My question is similar to lilith_sternin, when setting up scenes, how and where do the characters live? In the same house or different houses? Also,in the hospital. Is it like a residential or community lot?

2. In many of the episodes, the sims drive their car to another sims house. Do you temporarily have the characters all move into the same house to play out the scenes with them driving or do you use cheats?

3. Do you normally work with only one neighborhood or do you have more than one custom neighborhood? (For instance, when explaining the past of James/Tristen, did that involve a custom neighborhood or just a block was set aside to play it out?)

4. When showing the characters as children/teens, did you age them down or are there Emily/Mary clones running around somewhere in your game? :)

5. Have any of your characters gotten married in the sim world? Had kids? etc.

6. Last one, promise. Just like all good soaps, certain secrets may carry on and on. Will Mary/James ever realize that they kissed and liked it!!!??? Okay, that might be a spoiler. Maybe I should ask, will more of Andy's dark plots start coming to light in the next season??? (hope that's safer to answer...)

Sara!!! Not yet!! You're making it harder for me to resist the temptation to comment...

hahahaha

Oh dear! *giggles with excitement*

I'm so excited for this! Here are my questions:

1. In most literature, there is a character that speaks primarily for the reader-- the person who says what we all really want to say. Of the main bunch, who would you all say serves this role?

2. Which character do you each identify with personally? Were any of the characters in the original stories shaped after the writers?

3. Do you secretly let any of the characters sleep over each other's homes? Are there spare rooms when everyone is at one spot? Can we see pictures?

4. In game, who has the most chemistry bolts with whom? Who's in love with whom?

5. Do you keep playable versions of the DP folks?

6. Where does Abigail live when she's not visiting? Does she have a house too?


Thanks, girls! :)

Everyone pretty much asked all the interesting stuff... I always wondered how you get the perfect facial expressions for the shots, though. Does it take a long time, and do you often have to redo some parts because the sim's face wouldn't cooperate? (or something like that) Especially in the shots with multiple characters, and they all have to look correct...

Ooh! I have one! How do you figure out the actions your Sims have to use to get the desired effect? I noticed that in the last episode, you had Mary handcuffing someone (I believe?) in order to look right.

And another! How difficult is it to stage the objects and people in your shots correctly? It can't be easy..

My questions are related to the simming part - I would like to know whether Tristan was in-game born sim or CAS or Bodyshop made. You had several versions of him, but then you imply that he looks like his father which makes me think you eventually used a sim born in game for the final version.
Second question is about animations, maybe you and gelydh would like to share your knowledge with the rest of us and post a tutorial on how to pull animations from the game. It will be much appreciated.
Very good job on the story, hope it gets even better the next season.
Thank you!

I'm another one who wants to know how you manage the characters! :D How do you get them all in the right places? Do you have clones of all the characters on each lot, so that you can directly control their actions, or do you invite them over? Which lots are community and which are residential? How does it all WORK?!

Will we ever get to see screenshots showing the layout of each house? I'm always curious as to how other people's lots are planned out and built.

Does the fact that half the main cast are vampires and can't be exposed to the sun ever affect your simming?

How do you make sure you only have your own NPCs in the background rather than default Sims2 ones which aren't dressed properly? (Or which look ugly.)

How much editing do you do to the pictures you take for the body of the episodes?

I want to know more about what Tristan did when he went away and met Deanna. I want to know about Deanna. And more about the Akiras. And more Markus!

I'm so excited! I really want to see a Behind The Scenes thing for Deception Pass. :D I've run out of questions for now, though. Other people got the good ones before I had a chance to ask. ;)

1. Is it just me, or does Jade have a teeny tiny crush on Andy?

2. Is Serge just a normal guy, or is there more to him? I've been suspicious of him since he first appeared.

3. Are we going to find out why Mary doesn't date artists?

4. Has Andy done the whole "making a girl love me then dumping her on her ass" thing before, and does he realize how absolutely silly that is?

Oops! Didn't even see this and I already asked what I wanted to ask in the outtakes! :D

The thing I want to know most has also already been asked on here by an anonymous poster. What do you do to pull animations? I am a Sims storywriter too and I'm just now starting to get kind of creative with my poses by using move_objects on, boolprop snapobjectstogrid false, and using the allmenus cheat. Is there something else that you do to allow them to animate without having to use objects or other Sims? It would sure make my posing go a lot easier!

Ooooh, I have questions. Big fat questions that demand answering . . . if you could be so kind.

1) How did you choose the character names? The Tristan/Emily Isolde thing is a very neat piece of handiwork and some of what compelled that is obvious. But what about James? Eminently English, yes, but is there something more compelling that? Is there a biblical element to Mary's name? I can see some parallels between her story and Mary Magdalene's, but there was also some "Mary as redeemer" work going on in the last chapter. (Mary as a Christ-figure? *puzzled*) Okay, next question . . .

2) What authors/works would you say most influenced your writing/story? What areas of mythology do you draw from the most? Are there any authors/works/sources that you purposefully avoid? You were all over the mythological landscape in the last chapter, and the treasure hunt for references was a ton of fun. If you had to make an "If you like DP, you might also like . . ." list, a la Amazon.com, what would be on it?

3) Who is that copy editor that keeps flaking out on you and leaving you high and dry? The bitch! (Okay, just kidding. I'm so sorry my computer keeps dying and real life keeps intruding.)

4) How do you (Danielle and Sara) overcome being separated by such a large distance? Do you IM a lot or have you perfected psychic communication? Or is it more like MST3K, and you're actually trapped in space, while a weird-ass "scientist" sends you missions?

5) Who gives you the most trouble while simming? The characterization in the story leads me to Mary, but there is a certain twinkle in Tristan's eye at times, and I think Andy must be a drama queen. ("I will not cooperate until all the brown M&Ms are removed from my dressing room and replaced with green ones. And I said Evian spring water, not Dasani! I want to talk to my agent. Now." Then Chris comes along and pulls down Andy's pants and everyone has a giggle.)

6) How do you group the characters together in your mind? There are a lot of, um, entangling alliances that can make sorting them difficult. Who do you have marked as a loner? Who needs people? The story obviously revolves around Mary, James, Emily, and Tristan, but how do you sort the others? What relationships are more important--those between lovers or those between friends or between family members? There seems to be a definite preference to the family-you-choose, rather than the family-you're-born-with in your writing--see the relationships between Emily and her parents and between Mary and her parents, and contrast those to the relationships within the main quartet of characters.

7) What's up between Markus and Abigail? Is he still experiencing culture shock when it comes to the paranormal, despite have a voudon priestess for a grandmother and two vampires as best friends? Or does his troubled past compel him to wash his hands of things and let fate take its course?

8) Is Abigail a voudon priestess or a voodoo queen or is she just some general practitioner of the dark arts? Why no sacrifices of black roosters? Ever tempted to have her make a voodoo doll of Andy and poke it mercilessly with pins?

There are a ton more things I'd like to know, but most of it is story-related, rather than process-related (like the last two questions are.) I'll be patient and wait for it to be revealed in regularly scheduled broadcasting.

P.S. I've read the latest installment and will make an exceedingly gushing comment on it as soon as I get my notes together and have a little free time to harness my Zen. But, way to go, ladies! The return of Dr. Sutherland is much appreciated.

Ha ha! Yes! One writer at a time, I am slowly turning tide away from abuse of the English language. My teachers would be so proud.

I keep meaning to ask this one;

How did James and Tristan come out like they are? They were born in the 1800s, correct? They're definetly different than then; hair, clothing, tattoos.