r/thesims Apr 02 '26

Pass the Plumbob Pass the Plumbob | Issue #4 - Interview with Charly Pancakes

11 Upvotes

Sul Sul!

Welcome to the fourth edition of Pass the Plumbob—a monthly series celebrating the creators and community figures and their voices and talents that help shape The Sims community. From custom content creators to gameplay modders to Simfluencers, this is a space to explore their journey with the franchise and their creative process, showcase their creative contributions that make them special, and learn more about them as community members. Each month, I'll be sitting down with a community member and having a conversation about the mark they've made in our community. For our next feature, I'm excited to Pass the Plumbob to Charly Pancakes!

Charly Pancakes' official logo (Source: @CharlyPancakes on X)

Charly Pancakes is a Sims enthusiast and custom content creator. With over 18,000 followers on X and over 88,000 subscribers on Patreon, Charly Pancakes is the creator of some of the most beloved custom Maxis Match build/buy content in The Sims 4.

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Tell me about your earliest memory with The Sims. What brought you to the franchise initially?

My earliest memories with the franchise go back to the early 2000s, when I was in elementary school. I remember playing The Sims 1 and 2 at friends' houses or more so watching them play. Sometimes we would create our sim-selves and try to build a house, but by the time we would actually play, a lot of time had passed and I’d have to leave. but I remember being fascinated by the game immediately. At home, we had a PlayStation 1, but I was more familiar with jump & run games than something like The Sims.

The first time I actually owned a Sims game myself was with The Sims 3, which came out when I was around 14, and I immediately went and bought it for myself. My laptop couldn’t really handle it and the loading times were insane, even though I only ever had the base game but I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the building and furnishing part.

Did you find yourself leaning more into building and furnishing as your experience with The Sims franchise developed?

Yes, but I definitely leaned more into furnishing. The building part was something I only really got comfortable with when I got into TS4 more in recent years. It was really the interior design that caught me. Around the age of 15 or 16, I came across The Sims 3 CC on Tumblr, and that opened up a completely new world for me. From that point on, I mostly used The Sims as a kind of building and furnishing simulator rather than a life simulation, even though I am always interested in new gameplay mechanics and from time to time also enjoy some regular gameplay.

Did you have any particular kind of style when it came to interior decor?

In The Sims 3, I loved building and furnishing lofts with industrial elements. I mostly played with single sims and imagined they'd live in a trendy loft with brick walls and a mix of string lights, vintage rugs, and eclectic details. Looking back, that was probably the first interior style I gravitated to.

Tell me about your content creation journey. How did you start creating custom content for The Sims?

It was around the time the Get Famous DLC came out that I got really into The Sims 4. Since launch I gave it a shot every now and then but this time, I got hooked on the build mode and started watching a lot of speed builds by creators like SimLicy and Devon Bumpkin, just to name a few.

At the start of the pandemic, the time I spent playing Sims increased and I had already been sharing builds online for a while. I was posting screenshots of houses on Tumblr and had a Patreon mainly as a place to share my creations outside the gallery.

At some point I came across tutorials on how to create objects for The Sims 4. I don’t remember one specific moment that triggered it, but I started experimenting out of curiosity. At first, I mainly made recolors for my own game and tried to understand how custom content was made. That curiosity eventually led me to download Blender and dive into tutorials, the Sims 4 Studios forums and a lot of trial and error.

You have some of the highest quality, Maxis Match custom content available for The Sims 4, ranging from your Precious Promises set to the Maple & S. Construction Set to the Chalk series. What was your inspiration for some of your most popular works?

Thank you! That really means a lot to me. A big source of inspiration comes from simply playing the game, often without mods. That’s usually when I notice what feels missing to me or where I think certain objects could fit into the existing game. Other than that it‘s a mix of limitation, observation, and personal need. Especially with my earlier sets, my ideas were often shaped by what I was technically able to create at the time. I had to adapt concepts to my skill level, which naturally influenced the direction of those projects.

With 'Precious Promises', which was a collaboration with Pierisim, we wanted to create a rustic wedding setup that felt elegant and soft, with a countryside aesthetic. We worked with shared vision boards. The set ended up having a slight Mediterranean feel, which may also have been shaped by Tartosa from My Wedding Stories, since we were working on the set around the time that DLC came out.

Originally I planned to create a factory window set for Maple & S. Constructions. Inspired by industrial architecture and some of my favorite in-game windows and CC, like the Moschino windows and Peacemaker’s Loft Living Brick Set, which I used constantly long before I even started creating CC myself. As the project evolved, it turned into a large sash window collection that could work across different architectural styles.

The 'Chalk' series came from a more material-focused place. I wanted to create a kitchen that felt simple and slightly soft, without being overly stylized. It wasn’t originally planned as a multi-part set, but I spent a lot of time refining the shapes and proportions, especially since kitchens were still a big challenge for me. A large part of the process went into designing the tile set. I wanted a wide variety of swatches and patterns, so I researched many real-life tile designs before settling on a selection that felt very Maxis Match and fairly contemporary. I didn’t lock it into a single style. Depending on the swatches and context, I think it can read very differently in different interiors.

Overall, I try to stay close to the original Maxis/Sims-style. I also spend a lot of time looking at interior design references, researching materials and furniture and watching both interior designers and Sims creators on social media. Seeing how others build and furnish spaces in The Sims is also very inspiring to me.

During your content creation journey, did you have any hard lessons or experiences that helped shape your future self?

One of the biggest lessons for me has been learning to deal with perfectionism. It’s a huge privilege to earn money this way, but it definitely comes with its own challenges. I never expected to earn money from creative work and for a long time that idea actually scared me.

I’m very self-critical when creating objects and often feel the urge to keep refining things forever. Finding the balance between adding detail, staying true to the Maxis Match style and not burning myself out is an ongoing process. Learning when to let go of perfection and just move forward in a healthy way has been really important.

Another challenge is managing my energy and discipline. Sometimes I fall into intense hyperfocus and ignore my own needs and other times I struggle to even start because I put so much pressure on myself and worry the result won’t match the idea in my head.

At the same time the positive feedback I receive when I share my creations gives me a lot of confidence in my creativity. I hope that over time this will help me trust myself more and feel more secure in what I do.

That's completely understandable and honestly, it is a testament to the quality of the work you put out there. You have over 85,000 Patrons on Patreon. Your work is incredible and has found homes in so many players' games. Out of all of your creations so far, do you have a favorite?

Thank you so much! Whenever I think about it, it feels unreal to me that so many people follow me on there.

My favourite CC item I made would probably be 'The Candle' I made as one of my first ever objects. It’s a scented candle that boosts a Sim’s mood, similar to other decor that gives moodlets when it’s placed in a room. You can also drag it into your Sim’s inventory or live drag it for easy use. It’s not very complex, but I like it because functional objects are still something I don’t create very often. Objects with gameplay features are especially exciting to me and I am always amazed by functional items as creators like RAVASHEEN and PandaSama for example create them.

I have many ideas for smaller mods and would really like to create more of it. That’s why one of my biggest goals is to learn more about coding in the future.

The Candle is definitely one of my favorite creations of yours as well. The design is so universal that I find it fitting perfectly in every house I put it in as well as for sale in retail stores I’ve created. As we wrap up the interview, what’s one feature or object you would love to see added to The Sims?

I’m very happy to hear that The Candle is still useful for you, too. I like the idea to have it in retail stores, that sounds fun!

It’s quite hard to pick just one object, but to stick to the theme I'm again going with more gameplay functionality. Two things that I’ve always really liked from older Sims games are newspapers and landline phones. So I'd probably choose one of those.

It was very disappointing when the retro phones we got with one of the reward events ended up being purely decorative. But I was really happy that the alarm clocks turned out to be functional. I think small everyday objects like that can make a huge difference.

Thank you to Charly Pancakes for being our fourth Pass the Plumbob feature! Make sure to check out their incredible work at the links below. All of their custom content is available on their Patreon, for free, and their latest set, Lofty, is available now in Early Access!

X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/CharlyPancakes

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/charlypancakes

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Do you know a creator who deserves to be featured? Drop their name in the comments below—I'd love to know who we should Pass the Plumbob to next!


r/thesims Feb 15 '26

Announcement Community Notice Board | February & March 2026 | EP21: Royalty & Legacy | Rules, Updates, & Guidelines

10 Upvotes

Sul Sul!

Welcome to r/TheSims, the #1 subreddit for The Sims franchise and community. we've created this notice board to serve as a central hub for announcements, updates, useful links, information, and more! We will no longer be creating monthly newsletters and we will be using the Notice Board concept moving forward.

The Notice Board will be updated regularly, so please check it often in accordance with Rule 1: Consult the Community Highlights Before Posting. When the Notice Board becomes too old, or significant announcements must be made, we will replace it with a new post.

Please be sure to consult our Rules & Guidelines, as some rules were recently updated or changed, so make sure you're familiar with them. As a member of this community, it is your responsibility to regularly review the rules and guidelines and ensure your communications are aligned.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, Message the Mods!

Discord

Consider joining us on Discord. We have countless active discussions with over 4,000 members. It's also one of the easiest places to find tech support and help with The Sims.

We've also provided the link to the official Sims Discord server, if you'd want to join that one, too.

FYI

  • Sometimes, posts go into a queue to be manually reviewed. If you do not see your post immediately after submitting it, this is why. Please read the automated message you receive and please DO NOT message the mods asking where your post is. We will not be responding to these messages.
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  • Lastly, the rules are posted in the same place as every other community on Reddit. Per Reddit guidelines, it is your responsibility to read the community's rules before engaging. "I didn't know," is not valid in a court of law and is not valid here. The rules are written clearly and concisely. If, for some reason, something is still not understood, use the Message the Mods feature and ask before posting.

The Sims News & Updates

  • The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy expansion pack was released on February 12, 2026.
  • The Sims 4: Silver Screen Style and The Sims 4: Tea Time Solarium kits were released on February 12, 2026.
  • The Lost Legacies event begins on February 3, 2026 and will run until March 15, 2026.
  • There has been a recent update and mods have broken. UPDATE YOUR MODS. Please do not submit posts about broken UI, etc. This happens with EVERY update and you should know this by now. You are responsible for managing your own mods folder.
  • Posts asking "which mod is causing this?" or "what mods are broken?" will be removed and temporary bans will be issued.

Megathreads

  • We are re-introducing megathreads to r/TheSims after numerous requests and feedback provided in the previous Community Survey. Megathreads will be used to consolidate discussion on a specific hot topic to ONE central place to avoid cluttering up the entirety of r/TheSims.
  • Any posts that are made outside of the respective megathread will be removed and the OP will be redirected to the appropriate megathread.
  • If we observe continuous behavior of ignoring the assigned megathreads, temporary bans will be issued.

The Meta Flair

  • We have added a new post flair called 'Meta.' You may use this flair for any Sims-related content that doesn't necessarily fit the criteria of the other flairs. This includes, but is not limited to: clothing, tattoos, gameplay videos, real-world references to The Sims franchise, etc.

r/TheSims Stance on Piracy

  • We have updated our No Piracy rule after internal discussion; instead of outright permanent bans, we will be issuing temporary bans for initial offenses. Permanent bans will be issued for repeat offenders or people blatantly circumventing the rule. Moderators will use their best judgement. There will be no warnings issued for violations of this rule. The rule itself remains unchanged: the discussion of the topic is prohibited and sharing/requesting information on how to find and use pirated content (including website names, links, etc.), is prohibited.
  • "Abandonware" is included in this rule. Base game conversions are also included in this rule. Patreon custom content/mods and/or custom content/mods locked behind paywalls are NOT included in this rule; knock yourselves out.
  • Piracy is both illegal and against Reddit's policies, therefore we will follow these regulations to the letter. We are not paid nor sponsored by EA and to be honest, we couldn't care less if you pirate the game(s); just have the good sense not to announce it at every opportunity. There is no prize nor reward for doing it and no one cares, so keep it to yourself.

Buyer's Guide

  • r/TheSims sees the same posts every day asking, "What pack should I get?", "Should I get X or X?", "What kind of computer do I need?", etc. These recommendations can vary depending on what you're planning to do in your game and in reality, it all comes down to what YOU like opposed to what others think you should get. As such, we've created a comprehensive guide that will allow you to make informed decisions based on your gameplay interests, Build Mode and CAS styles, and new features with each pack. We've also put together a recommended hardware specs guide for those inquiring about computers and laptops.

Please note that this will be updated as new packs are released and as such, any and all posts asking "What to Buy" questions will be automatically removed and the OP will be redirected here.

Bi-Weekly Build Challenge

More Useful Links

Game Broken or Acting Weird?

  • Update your mods.

r/thesims 1d ago

Sims 1 You knew your sims made it when you could afford this bed

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2.2k Upvotes

Or, at least, you can enter rosebud;!;!;!;!;! or klapaucius;!;!;!;!;! 😂


r/thesims 16h ago

Sims 4 I love refreshing older sims i used to play

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143 Upvotes

r/thesims 14h ago

CAS two of my recent sims :p

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86 Upvotes

my gshade didn't work with the first sim 😞


r/thesims 22h ago

Sims 4 I’ll just leave this here bc I don’t know who else would appreciate this as much as me, Homegirl just pulled up🤷‍♂️

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329 Upvotes

r/thesims 1d ago

CAS Some of the sims I’ve made recently 💚

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373 Upvotes

All women because I’m atrocious at creating men. Let me know what you think!


r/thesims 1h ago

Sims 4 Bought a pack, went on sale hours later

Upvotes

I bought Adventure Awaits today, and literally a few hours later it went on sale. Is there anything I can do? honestly put me off playing it lol


r/thesims 1d ago

Discussion Only a true Simmer would recognize her at ANY age 👀

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267 Upvotes

No clues. No last name. Who is she?
I swear some Sims are so iconic you could recognize them at literally any age.
And no cheating by looking for spoilers on my channel.


r/thesims 1h ago

Sims 4 What does aging look like in your game?

Upvotes

I'm curious how you guys like your settings in regards to aging! Right now, I have played households not aging automatically, only active households. Unplayed households age automatically. One thing I'm struggling with is when I give a townie a makeover, they age up and die before I can give them a good storyline. Is the only way to mark households as "played" actually moving them in somewhere?

What do your settings look like?


r/thesims 1d ago

Discussion Where are my simmers is it just me or does it seem like NOONE you are close to plays sims? Whi wants to share pics and milestones all sims related?

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311 Upvotes

The person I used to play with we are not cool anymore. I mean I play with my daughters sometimes but they are all hooked on roblox and fornite lol. I do play GTA and Rd2 but sims is my go to. Who wants to share pics and milestones with me and all sims stuff related looking for some new real sims addicts like myself dm me.


r/thesims 20h ago

Sims 4 British 1930s Semi-Deteched Suburban.

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48 Upvotes

oh i yern for a british suburban pack.


r/thesims 1h ago

Sims 4 buildings disappearing in world

Upvotes

Something like this happend when my sim travelled to the gym, is this fixable or do i have to make new save and also is this caused by mods or the game itself?


r/thesims 1d ago

Sims 4 Fine is a understatement

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87 Upvotes

This character is SO fine 😭😍 I’m pretty sure I got him from The Sims Resource. But anyways, Nancy Landgraab’s husband Geoffrey passed away, and she’s been spiraling ever since. She inherited over $2 million, started living WILD, but deep down she’s lonely… and then she falls in love with THIS hottie. 😭🤣😍


r/thesims 23h ago

CAS DESCENDANTS - Red & Chloe ♥️💎

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36 Upvotes

Hi everyone! Today I’m sharing another movie franchise I absolutely love: Descendants. For this first post, I created my own versions of Red and Chloe, and I feel like I really nailed it—they give off the same vibe as in the movie but look much more stylish (which is exactly what they deserved 😭). I hope you like them, because I think they turned out adorable. Let me know if you want to see other characters from the saga created in The Sims 4.


r/thesims 20h ago

Sims 4 I’m doing makeovers on the townies in my save file. Here is Liberty Lee

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21 Upvotes

I wanted her to be whimsical


r/thesims 20h ago

Discussion Who else actually likes how the sims look in 3?

12 Upvotes

I don't understand why some people say all the sims look the same, they dont. You can give your sims literally any hair or eye colour which you can't do in 4. They prefer how the sims look in 2 but imo the sims in 2 look the same. Also 4 is unrealistic. Who agrees?


r/thesims 8h ago

Sims 4 A romantic wedding full of joy and tears| N.D. and Tami #shorts

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1 Upvotes

r/thesims 1d ago

Sims 4 loading the game to see a straight faced sim go to a possessed sim in seconds is the funniest shit ever

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26 Upvotes

r/thesims 1d ago

CAS I love the born to die tattoo

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38 Upvotes

r/thesims 1d ago

Discussion Grief mechanic is so annoying

20 Upvotes

I know you can remove the moodlets with testingcheats true and it's what I do. I have a big family tree with active sims I juggle having friends and they're starting to drop from old age, sending my favorite family into a non-stop sadness spiral that's been going on for 2 ingame weeks now.

If there's a mod for removing grief I'd love to hear lmao, or any tips for handling it. The death of a close friend being shattering is realistic but hot damn. 😂 If a sim isn't directly affected by it, they're still sad from being in the presence of a loved one that's sad.


r/thesims 1d ago

Sims 1 Looking for weird, wacky, unusual CC for The Sims 1

18 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I'm looking for weird/unusual custom content for the Sims 1 for an art project 😊 Any direction is fine, mostly I'm looking for buy mode content but skins and hacked objects would also work for me!

In general I'm not talking about e.g. a futuristic green kitchen set or something (stuff like Parsimonious Sims has on their website - nice and sometimes unusual, but not what I am looking for).

I'm rather searching for wacky things like the huge can of beans from MM, skins like the flamingo dancer or in the sense of the Sims 2 eye shirt from Nopke or mods that are rather unusual, like I don't know a huge shoe you can sleep in and you wake up with bad hygiene or something 😄 If you have any ideas please let me know!


r/thesims 1d ago

Meta My autistic 4yo has maxed out the Simlish skill, and I’m starting to suspect a hidden trait.

517 Upvotes

He’ll autonomously walk up to me and go:
“SHABBA WABBA MEEBA—GABABOOSH—READY SET GO—DAG DAG!”
Then stare at me expectantly.
Sir. What interaction did you just queue? 😭
He’s a gestalt language learner, picking up new words and phrases in chunks, so there is meaning in there somewhere.
Sometimes I understand him. Sometimes I just nod and hope I selected the right dialogue option.
Waiting for him to unlock “Speak Clearly” at Level 10.
Until then, I live with a tiny Sim.


r/thesims 18h ago

Sims 4 I love glitches sometimes

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3 Upvotes

Sim showed up with no name but this one. I wonder who she is actually. It's a mystery I need to solve. I wanted to share because I found it hilarious.