Town Showcase: A Sneak Peek of the Plaza Shops (Patreon)

Hi everyone, Chloe here for today’s Patreon post! We’ve been hard at work creating our town, and we have many cool things in store. Today, I will be showing a little sneak peek at some shops you’ll be able to find in the plaza of the Old Town.

Sketching Out Ideas

Before starting anything in the game itself, we sketch out our ideas. This allows us to plan the look of our build, the layout, and the new items that will be required to give the shop its identity. It also allows us to explore some different styles for our builds quickly. In the case of the plaza shops, they are located in the Old Town, so the architectural style was already set. You can check out our previous post in which we showcased some houses in a similar style.

The first building I started with was a flower shop. We had decided that we wanted the plaza shops to show their wares outside the bounds of their stores, so I made sure to add plants and bouquets outside on display.

Mixing classy and chic, the flower shop has a well-maintained appearance overall and is surrounded by plants! In my sketches, I also tested other colors like blue instead of pink for its exterior, but we ended up liking the pink better.

The second shop I worked on was a hairdresser. This one was meant to be the immediate neighbour to the flower shop, so I decided to contrast their vibes; I wanted something less pretty and trendy, slightly more dated.

All in all, the building is in good shape. In this case, we had nothing on display on the plaza, so we added a bench so customers could wait outside for their appointment. The barber poles and color scheme were also a must.

Lastly, their other neighbour is an unused building. We don’t want all the shops to be brand new and open, as it would allow us to add content and stores in the plaza as we add content in the game. For example, a pet shop being opened when we add pets into the game!

As you’ll see in the screenshots, we decided to go for neutrals rather than green for this one. We felt like the stores would all be fighting for attention if they all featured bold colors.

As part of creating the plaza, we also experimented with different ideas for what could be at the center.

Ideas for a central element to the plaza. We also tried different ones, such as statues. We decided to go with the well, to fit with our olden look, and because we have other places in town in mind for the fountains, big tree, and statues.

Sketching Out Ideas

Now, we have a lot of things done for the town. Today, I am only showing you the three buildings mentioned before, so I will be making use of a secret technique (blurring) to hide some things from you all. We have a lot of exciting stuff in store, and we will be showing it to you shortly, but we want to keep the surprise until then! 🫣 So bear with me, and I hope you’ll enjoy regardless!

At this point in time, it is not 100% confirmed or decided which stores will be rabbitholes and which ones won’t.

The 3 buildings share neighbouring lots, with the florist and the hairdresser having connected lots. With some precision, you can draw walls reeaaaal close to the lot borders, which gives the townhouse look!

The flower shop may appear taller than the hairdresser, and it is! We don’t notice it from the plaza side since it is all level, but on the other side, the street is sloping, so the florist is higher up the slope than the hairdresser is.

On the side of the florist, you have an overabundance of ivy, and a stairway that leads you to the street (and to more exciting stuff 😉 ).

Up on the flower shop’s roof, you have a little terrace used for growing plants with a little greenhouse.

At street level, we can see the little setup Bloom and the little decor Headlines have. Psst psst, the barber poles rotate when you play, and it’s a fun little detail to have!

Now, onto our abandoned neighbour. It is much more unkempt, with more stains and boarded-up windows.

The door has been locked until the building is bought/rented! I created a new item, newspaper pages, to board up windows. You will mostly find those in display windows of disused shops around town.

Close-up of the plaza well. It is unused now, and surrounded by benches. We wanted the plaza to be a place where Paras could gather and shop together.

That’s it for today! What other shops do you think the plaza will have? What are you excited to see next for the town? Let me know!

Until next time!

Chloe（＾ω＾）

Edit - July 10th, 2025: This post is now public, feel free to share it!