Meet the Sims 4 modder who went from styling hair to styling mermaids, vampires, and werewolves for a living

"For the first few years after I started learning to mod, I was actually a hairdresser." You and I might know Trey Bennett now as SpinningPlumbobs, dedicated modder for The Sims 4 and passionate fan of all things supernatural, so perhaps it makes sense that this ex-day job had him flexing a different kind of creative muscle. "Turns out I was able to beat the 'air-headed cosmetologist' stereotype," he jokes. 

Modding had started as a fun side-gig to complement a career in cosmetology, but all of that changed in 2020. "When the pandemic hit, many salons were closed down and I was essentially out of a job," says Bennett. "I had thankfully built a following [by then], and people enjoyed my Sims content enough that I decided to create a Patreon. Now, that's my main source of income, and I could not be happier to be doing something I'm passionate about while bringing a little joy to others." Given that all of his mods are available to download free-of-charge, it's fair to say that Bennett is being more than a little bit modest.

"A little joy" here refers to the 16-and-counting mods that he, under the creator name SpinningPlumbobs, has built for The Sims 4 so far, ranging from cosmetic additions like the Cottage Fae Dress to the significant gameplay changes made in the likes of Expanded Mermaids. "I believe my first mod, or at least the first one I remember being especially proud of, was a default replacement for some of the elixirs in The Sims 3: Supernatural," Bennett recalls. "It's strange to think back on projects like this because, to me, they seem so simple compared to what I do now."

It's a kind of magic

Looking through the SpinningPlumbobs Patreon page, it's not hard to see why the comparisons feel so staggering. Bennett's work amounts to some of the best Sims 4 mods I've gotten my hands on over the years, especially as a self-confessed occult Simmer who hasn't made a human Sim since 2004. 

This passion for all things otherworldly is one that Bennett shares, with a focus on supernaturality well-evidenced by his mods. "I've always been fascinated by media centred around fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, and so on," he says, "and when I first discovered the Sims franchise around 2009, I naturally gravitated toward the occults of the game. I would spend hours creating storylines with various fantastical elements, and because the occults from previous versions of The Sims were a bit less in-depth than they've become, I had to use my imagination for a lot of the gameplay elements." 

He's no doubt referring in part to the fairly limited base game mechanics of The Sims 4's mermaid occult type, or how long it took EA to add werewolves into the mix at all. "Now that I'm able to create content for The Sims 4, my imagination takes me in all different directions for each project I work on. It seems like the players appreciate that, which makes all the hours of effort entirely worth it."

It's not always about implementing massive changes. Bennett's sprawling imagination certainly has given way to a variety of occult mods, from a werewolf walk-style mod to a mermaid tail "inspired by Peter Pan" – and if you're hearing a lot of references to a certain aquatic occult type, there's a very simple (and obvious) reason for it.

"As someone who has been obsessed with the ocean and mermaids since before I can remember, I have to say that mermaids are my favorite occult, hands down," says Bennett, recalling feeling "absolutely giddy when they were revealed to be coming to the [Sims 3] game, especially since they hadn't been introduced in any previous version before. This interest obviously carried over to the first major mod I released for The Sims 4: the Expanded Mermaids mod. The official [Sims 4 mermaid] occult was very impressive to me in terms of the customization and animations, but my mind went crazy with ideas centered around the mythology, pop culture, and literary influences of mermaids, so starting that mod was a natural first step for my modding journey."

The Expanded Mermaids Mod, further embellished in Version 2.0, draws from sources that any merfolk buff might recognize – "H2O: Just Add Water, The Little Mermaid, Splash, and other things," says Bennett, to name a few. "I also really like to pull from classic mythology and throw it into the mix. Kelpies are traditionally shapeshifting aquatic horse-creatures from Scottish folklore, but as the Horse Ranch pack wasn't around at the time, I had to rework them to fit into the Sims universe. Now that we have horses officially, I may have to revisit them for some adjustments. As for the other elements, I try to add gameplay that's either convenient, visually appealing, makes sense for the occult, or that has been requested by a lot of players – and I try to make everything match the game's default style and blend in well." 

Mod-ern family

This desire to blend in with EA's base content speaks to a different, more sobering side to the modding community. Innovative and well-intended as most mods and custom content (CC) are, the publisher does not directly support the use of them in-game. Mods have to be toggled on upon installing new ones, or after each official game update, since The Sims 4 disables them automatically despite how easy it has been to mod every iteration of The Sims since day-one. How does this feel to Bennett, whose job is to create content for a game that seems to actively mistrust him on a technical level?

"I think it’s honestly impossible to deny the impact modders and CC creators have had on the success of the game," he says. "Without the ability to mod the game, I don’t believe it would have gained the cult following it has over the last decades. However, I think the hesitancy over fully supporting the use of mods by the developers is simply because mods can go awry and cause problems – especially for those who don’t know how to properly maintain them – and because there isn’t a quality control factor when it comes to creating custom content."

Bennett acknowledges how great creative potential can come with even greater risk, especially when it comes to the integrity of The Sims itself. "Unfortunately, there have even been a few bad apples in the bunch who have actively tried to weaponize their content, which is something we shouldn’t stand for as a community. That being said, The Sims 4 is by FAR the most mod-friendly iteration in the franchise in my experience, and the developers have even invited some creators to make official content for the game."

Bennett himself is part of the EA Creator Network, an approved group of content and mod creators that work directly with the publisher. "I think this is a great path for EA to take, and my only hope is that they continue this relationship with the modding community into the next entry of The Sims games."

Given what little we know about The Sims 5 as yet, another densely-moddable life sim might be a closer project on the horizon for Bennett. I'm talking about Life By You, of course. "I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the game across all my social media and it looks like a really promising life sim," he muses. "It really depends on the ease of content creation, the language the game is written in, and how time-consuming it ends up being to mod, but I’ll definitely be looking into [creating mods for] it!"

In the meantime, Bennett has no intention of pulling away from creating supernatural content for The Sims 4 – and I'm relieved to hear it. His Charmed-themed Whitelighter mod, as well as The Little Mermaid-adjacent Atlantica Set, begs the question of what could be next on Bennett's plate in the realm of potential pop culture creations. "I actually have a few mods with similar influences in the works already, including one inspired by a certain childhood cartoon about three teenage spies," he hints. "Another one I'd love to translate into some mod content is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I loved that show, and I've had many requests to re-'vamp' the vampire occult, so I could definitely see myself creating a mod with a slayer career, extra vampire powers, and maybe even some extra demonic sub-occults? The possibilities are endless!"

For more interviews with Simmers, meet the Sims 4 player behind the 700-year challenge.