Island Living SimGuru/Maxis-Sourced Info

And from the second half of the launch interview, a handful more quotes for reference:

Jobs

Duke: We added a couple of odd jobs, things you can kind of work on the hours you wanted to... We’ve added the ability to make Fishing more of a career, and then also the Lifeguard...

Lyndsay: If you want to spend more time in the water, you can be Dive Instructor. There’s a lot of ways to pick up a job when you want and just earn a bit of money.

Local Culture

Lyndsay: This is a place that you *live*. And the locals are super-friendly actually and are going to come and help you out with all sorts of different things...

Duke: If a fire breaks out, your neighbour might bust in and help you put out that fire.

Duke: We wanted this island to have a sense of history... There are traditions that are unique to this place.
The culture is inspired by Polynesian culture. L: EA is a big global company, so we were able to reach out to a lot of our friends and co-workers across the company and say, “... could you share with us some patterns or iconography or symbols or even items that mean something to this culture?”

Elementals

Duke: There are these Elementals around the island that are kind of these spirits, these ancients, who care a lot about Sulani... When you do good things they might be really happy and pleased, and if you’re bad to the island they may not appreciate it.

New Traits

Duke: If your Sims are really in touch with the land, with the water, they can... unlock some new behaviors.

Mermaids!

Duke: It is a very full-featured Occult. You can take them into CAS,* you can create and style your Mermaid, lots of different tails... But also... they can do a little bit more... I’d recommend your Mermaid meet a dolphin... Mermaids have some pretty cool powers.

* @rinre33 counted 9 skin swatches, 9 eye swatches, 4 tails, 2 fin bras, and 1 fin face detail

Build/Buy

Duke: Lounge chairs.

Interviewer: I’m so 100% sold on the houses over the water...

Lyndsay: ... She was able to jump right off of that deck out into the water.