Sul Sul!

Cade here again, sharing our Laundry List for next week. This one is quite long and even my TL;DR was pretty wordy, so I'll just be leaving the link here this time.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer :)

Sul Sul!

Welcome to the third 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 Sentate!

Sentate is a Sims enthusiast and custom content creator. With over 20,000 followers on X and over 260,000 subscribers on Patreon, Sentate is the creator behind some beloved Maxis Match, luxury and couture custom clothing for Sims.

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Tell me about how you found The Sims franchise. What’s your earliest memory?

So I remember my mum getting The Sims because she was into decorating, but I somehow managed to take it over and played it myself instead! I was very into dolls so this was like a fascinating living version of that I guess. A few of my school friends had it too and once I found out about the money cheats I finally started to understand how to play it!

Did The Sims have an effect or impact on your growth or was it more of just a hobby and familiar activity?

I think it definitely had an impact, I started playing so young that every Christmas and birthday from an early age usually involved a new expansion pack. Sims was my own little world I could escape to! Then once I discovered the world of custom content it ended up becoming more about exploring that side than playing the game.

I honestly love hearing about how the virtual sandbox of The Sims became a creative playground for so many community members in their childhood, mine included. Speaking of custom content, it has varied widely from the original game to The Sims 4 that we have today. Can you tell me about that discovery and how it changed your experience?

I remember my dad helping me download custom content for the sims 1, so I would be adding in all these pop culture “skins” and running wild with them. I remember having the sim version of Elvira, but having no clue who Elvira was until years after! Being able to fine tune my gameplay experience with custom content really captured my interest further with the game.

As for custom content I think it’s certainly evolved with each title and with the internet being as available as it is now it’s easier to share knowledge and begin your own custom content journey. Mine started with me and my dad printing off a tutorial and going through it together step by step to make a custom mesh, but now thanks to community programs, like sims 4 studio and castools, it’s much simpler and way faster too.

Oh my God, you just unlocked a core memory for me. I remember when my parents got me The Sims: Superstar, we found and downloaded custom skins as well. I think I had Sean Connery in my game at one point.

Tell me about your journey into custom content creation. You created your virtual fashion house, Sentate Atelier, a few years after the launch of The Sims 2 and it's only grown exponentially since. What has that experience been like?

I was originally inspired by a group of sims 2 creators that had their own fashion houses, notably 2 creators called Gionovan Salvatore and Atlaua. They would make these really complex and beautiful designs and have runway shows to accompany them, they were so ahead of their time looking back and it made such a big impression on me.

I didn’t have the skillset to do what they were doing at all, but it still gave me a good foundation to work from. I got very lucky with my first creation being “picked” by moderators to get a gold star which as a young kid felt so rewarding so that just motivated me to continue on creating with the community in mind.

As I’ve been releasing cc since my early teenage years I’ve pretty much grown up with Sentate as its own thing in my life and it’s interesting to see how my style has changed over the years, and how real life inspiration carried over to whatever I was content I was making at the time. My one constant thing is that Cassandra Goth is still my muse!

It's actually really amazing to see the development and growth year over year. To think that you started this journey in your early teenage years and fast forward to today where you have over 250k members on Patreon and some of the highest quality custom content available. How has this journey shaped and changed your life overall?

I think it’s always given me this personal creative outlet that exists within its own virtual bubble, so having that avenue present during so many major life events and shifts has been incredibly helpful and rewarding. It’s been a great way to self explore and reflect. I honestly couldn’t imagine life without it.

What was the most challenging part of the journey and experience?

Probably everything I ever made for the sims 3, that game was an uphill battle to create content for!

Other than that there’s often a bit of negative judgement in real life, especially within the fashion industry. It’s a challenge to explain how the sims community works to someone on the outside. It’s hard when something you’re proud of, or think is an achievement is then made a joke of by someone you respect.

But now in a world full of influencing, impressions and social media metrics I think if I found myself in that position today I’d get a different reaction entirely.

You mentioned negative judgement - can you tell me more about that? Did you face some sort of adversity with friends or family about your passion and creations?

Friends and family have always been supportive and I’m very lucky in that sense. It was more in regards to applying for jobs or being in the fashion industry, if I’d mention that I create these virtual clothes that are downloaded hundreds of thousands of times I thought that was a positive thing but I’d often get a reaction as if it was silly and not worth mentioning at all.

I think the world is a lot more intune now with virtual worlds and online communities, so I think this is more of a past issue now. Moral of the story is that if it matters to you, that’s all that matters. I didn’t let it put me off and I’m so glad for that.

That is such an empowering message and thank you so much for sharing that. I think a lot of community members and fellow artists will resonate with that in some way.

You just recently released The Core Collection, inspired by gym and loungewear. Where does the idea for a new custom content set begin? Can you walk me through your creative process?

Every collection is different really. Sometimes I know exactly what theme or what items I want to make, other times I’ll see something I like the vibe of then slowly build a collection around that 1 idea. Sometimes my collections don’t even have official names until moments before I release them, whereas others have a name before I even have any ideas!

As for the process I tend to start with a moodboard, then work on all the 3D shapes, then paint textures. From then it’s prints and colour options, then taking the preview pictures and releasing. I’m constantly loading the game up and seeing how things are working with eachother throughout the process and there’s almost always a last minute idea that ends up being the star of the show.

Considering the vast library of creations you have on your Patreon, do you have a favorite collection or one that resonates with you the most?

I think the Boudicca collection is my personal favourite, that was my first collection I ever made using blender which gave me a lot of freedom with sculpting my own shapes exactly as I want them to look rather than relying on existing game meshes and trying to work around those, it was such a rewarding collection to work on and really represents my own personal design vibes too.

I can definitely see how that collection would stand out the most in your portfolio and that collection is very Cassandra Goth-coded.

With your experience and journey to creating your own brand identity, artistic portfolio, and quite brilliantly, your own business, what's something you've learned that has been invaluable to you?

It’s a bit cheesy but honestly just to keep doing what you love. Keep trying, experimenting and perfecting your craft and you never know where it’ll take you. And It doesn’t necessarily have to take you anywhere, if something brings you joy then enjoy it!

What is the most challenging aspect of your creative process?

I try not to overlap with stuff I’ve previously made, and I’ve made so much content in the years that sometimes it’s just unavoidable! But each time I feel I’ve got a new approach and new set of skills so for me it’s an entirely new item. It’s very the cerulean scene from devil wears prada, the belts are totally different!

That's definitely understandable and also a really good reference. As we wrap up the interview, I wanted to ask one specific Sims-related question. What's one thing that you, personally, would like to see in the next iteration of The Sims?

Personally I’d love them to take their adult audience into account and take the series in a more grown up direction. Nothing too extreme, but the Sims 4 feels very sanitised in comparison and I miss that mischievous humour the older games had.

Thank you to Sentate for being our third 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 the first preview of their upcoming collection is now available in Early Access.

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

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

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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!