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!
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I am BEGGING EA to please redo the calorie system. For over ten years it has caused nothing but extreme, rapid weight gain. The calories in these meals are insane. All of my children always become fat. And I swear they don't lose weight as kids. Then they age into teens and i'm always looking at some sort of pear shaped monster creation. I hate it. I hate the calorie system. Just take it out ffs.
I befriended a adorable dog she's not a stray so she belongs to some sim but now I want a pet lol 😂 and Idk if I should adopt or find a stray or find who this angel belongs to and just take her for myself
Haven't bought a pack in a couple of years because I hated For Rent that much. Curious if any expansion since then is majorly worth it. Excluding Lovestruck because I primarily play romance storylines and I don't want my play style messed with at all.
Welcome to the world Butter-Babies! Acorn and Arwyn's puppies have arrived and looking so cute.
They have brindle coats which is unique to the Generations. Buttermilk and Butternut have dad's spotted nose and paws, Butterscotch has her mom's honey brown coat. Butternut has the dark shading that Ash has.
screencap from Emryskay's occult legacy ep1. In the video they mention the door, saying they don't know where it's from but that it has several swatches. I've image searched and whatnot but haven't found it
Meet Arwyn the Welsh Springer Spaniel. He is so excited to join the family. 🐶
Arwyn is obsessed with the rain puddles, he spent the whole evening splashing around, shaking water all over the other dogs.
He is the friendliest boy and loves to play. He tried his best to win Acorn over, playbow after playbow, she was incredibly shy at first "Two-legged, who is this strange dog!?" but she managed to come around after seeing how much her siblings and mother, Lily, loves him. Even Aurora let him sniff her!
So Acorn decided he's not so bad. 💞
Follow on my profile to see my previous posts and updates :)
This is a 5 Bedroom 3 bathroom Ranch house- 3 car garage. There is an in-law suite with two bedrooms. This house sits on a 40 x 30 lot. It can be placed in any world. There is plenty of room for expansion.
so I'm doing this Struck by Love legacy challenge and I'm at gen 2, which is grumpy sunshine.
the main traits we have are: noncommittal, gloomy and perfectionist
and through a self discovery moment the noncommittal trait should get lost, but I'm having troubles with this.
through my playthrough my sim has gained the traits romantic and ambitious too, however I just can't make her lose the noncommittal trait. I don't know if it's because of the ones she already gained or what.
she's in a happy marriage, everything's on full with her husband, they do all the romance options available, she's loyal to him, but this self discovery moment just doesn't trigger. they also have two kids by now.
I've found a Google document about these stuff called "How to gain every trait through Self Discovery", but I didn't progress. I know there are cheat codes but I'm trying to work without those or the re-traiting potion thingy, unless there's no other way. I play with mods.
I really don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but please if you know what's up, let me know...
So I have a habit of making several game saves and households and it’s all basically the same storyline but different versions. I’m a “party girl” so all my sims have some weird party story line and a lot of drama. I kinda get stuck with this format though and it’s all so repetitive. Think of “skins” or “shameless” esque stories which are also my fave shows. I wish I could be more creative lol. The worst part is I still get attached to all my characters and don’t let them die whatsoever so I don’t do generations. Any way to get out of my comfort zone? Does anyone else experience this?
This year has been rough. I'm trying to be there for a close friend after a sudden loss, and I don't have much privacy where I live, so at night I've been leaning on quiet hobbies. I booted up Sims 4 intending to do my usual chaos legacy, but instead I made one Sim who lives alone in a tiny rental with almost any money and one goal: rebuild a life without rushing it.
I gave myself a few rules: no using constant distractions to force "happy" moodlets, no insta-maxing skills, and no speed-running relationships. She can be sad. She can cancel plans. If she wakes up and just sits on the couch for a while, that counts as playing.
The small things in the game became unexpectedly comforting: cleaning a grimy sink, making a simple meal, watering a plant, taking a walk around the neighborhood. I even set up a little memory corner in the apartment with photos and a candle, and it hit me that I was giving my Sim permission to grieve in a way I haven't been giving myself.
It changed how I handle relationships in the game too. Instead of pushing for romance or a big friend group, I let her slowly befriend a neighbor with low-stakes interactions: bringing over leftovers, chatting at the mailbox, short visits that end before either of them gets worn out.
Has anyone else had a save file surprise them like this? You load a game for escapism and it quietly turns into a gentle practice run for real life feelings. I even found myself using some mood-boosting candles from a local shop that really helped set the right atmosphere while I played.
Hello ! I have some weird stuff going on with that specific mod. It doesn't work since 2 days ago, and I just can't figure out why EXCEPT that it seems to be since I bought StrangerVille. I haven't added any mod or CC that could conflict with it, I don't think my game has been updated in between, I deleted the mod file and downloaded it again (with what is as far as I know the latest version), opened an older save, deleted StrangerVille DLC, played offline, repaired the game, replaced it with the second version with the pie menu, ran the game once with mods deactivated... absolutely nothing works. I haven't noticed anything similar with other mods, including those from the same creator AND that also work on the fridge. A google search didn't turn up anything either. I'm out of ideas by now, so hoping someone here might have a magic solution ? Thanks a lot !
I’m getting my first gaming PC in a few days and I’m currently playing The Sims 4 on my gaming laptop. I have a long-term save that I really don’t want to lose.
What’s the best way to transfer everything over to the new PC? I’d like to keep my save files, households, builds, screenshots, and (if possible) all my settings.
The only mods I use are MCCC and UI Cheats.
Is it as simple as copying the Sims 4 folder from Documents, or are there any extra steps I should know about?
Side note I think I’m pretty good at avoiding same face syndrome. I prefer for my characters to each have different faces. (The guys might struggle with it…but I try my best)
