6 Simple & Creative Ways To Share Your Sims Legacy Family Online

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[00:00:00] Gloria from Yellow Llama Co.: Welcome to Sentimental Simmer, a podcast made for emotionally attached simmers and storytellers with wild imaginations. I’m your host, Gloria, and I run Yellow Llama Co., a planner shop made to help simmers play with purpose. Every week, I talk all about things, sim life planning, storytelling, and memory keeping. I’ll also brainstorm new ways to obsess over our pixel people, whether they’d be in the Sims or another live sim game. And now let’s get into it. Yellow back. Today, I’m going to be talking about creative ways you can share your Sims legacy family with others, including at least 1 app you haven’t heard of yet. If you’re a storyteller, you’re gonna love it.

Gloria [00:00:45]:
I personally love to follow other simmers’ family legacies, especially when they share family photo walls and wedding photos. It just makes me feel so nostalgic and want to jump back in the game Continue my own legacy. As we’ve established in previous episodes, it ain’t easy to build a long lasting Sims legacy family, but it’s possible. And you don’t have to do it alone. The Sims is known for being a 1 player kind of game, but you can still share parts of your experience. And perhaps in the future, we’ll be able to build our legacies together depending on how some special apps develop. I’ll talk more about that later in the episode. But generally, we experience so many fun things in the game, whether it be the silly moments the game conjures up, or meaningful stories that we ourselves Pretend and and think up and imagine, there’s a lot to share with others, and nobody’s game is the same.

Gloria [00:01:33]:
I, for 1, am super curious about how other people play, and It really can also inspire your own gameplay. And, ultimately, sharing your stories is a great way to help you stick with your legacy family and stay inspired or get tips from others. You don’t have to build alone. Most are probably already familiar with sharing, you know, your stories in a let’s play or a blog, but there are other fun ways to do this as well. I’ve collected some creative ways of how you can share your Sims stories online without putting too much pressure on yourself. You’re not creating a full fledged let’s play. These aren’t, like, long stories How you’re writing out in just bite sized ways and fun ways to share your story without too much work. For 1, you could share photo diaries and albums of your Sims.

Gloria [00:02:14]:
You could collect screenshots from special occasions and milestones in a photo album and then share that online. For example, you could create a Google Wide kind of memory album, and there are templates online that you can use to do this. I’ll share a link in the show notes where you can find a really cute one that would work for this. There’s also the service called My Album. It’s an online website where you can basically create a family album, photo album. They also have a free plan that you can use, and you can create these really aesthetically looking photo albums and share it online. If you wanna get more creative with your screenshots that you’re sharing and add more story context. There are even some really cute templates out there that simmers have made where you can add Overlays on top of your photos to make them look, for example, like a social media post or there are phone mock ups to make it look like the sim has actually texted another sim.

Gloria [00:03:07]:
There are also mock ups that you can use to place on top of a photo to give more context About the the screenshot or, for example, if it’s an in game event or if you wanna add information about traits on top of the screenshot. So there are different, like, UI mock ups that are available and really many more and more. The Sims community actually wrote up a great compilation of these Storytelling template resources that you can use to, you know, decorate your screenshots. And so I definitely recommend that. I’m gonna leave a link to that in the show notes as well. And these templates really help you to tell richer stories with your screenshots because you’re adding a bit more context to them without too much Work. Right? Because these mock ups are already done for you, and you just have to add and customize them for your own story. Talking about templates, Character profiles are a fun and easy way to share your characters with others, your your Sims, so so that they can get to know them and so you can introduce them in a more, yeah, visually engaging way.

Gloria [00:04:09]:
So instead of just, you know, hey. This is Jerry from the block, and he likes this and that, and he’s got these traits. You can create actually a page that displays these traits. Maybe The way it’s graphically done up is representative of their personality. So it can include their picture, personality traits, Perhaps any, you know, important goals they have and in their backstory Yellow simmers really get to know these Sims, but at a glance. You can get really creative with this. So for example, I really like how tiny coffee cups on Twitter created some cute character sheets It’s on her page. So it had, like, a scrapbooky aesthetic with these little tape posts and looked like it was out of a notebook page.

Gloria [00:04:52]:
Really cute. And if you wanna create your own template in a similar aesthetic, then Canva is a great place to find templates. So they have a scrap Booky kind of look you can find. I’ll leave a link to that as well. It’s a cute one I found, but there are also clean and more modern templates you can use, which I’ll also link to. And in general, Canva has so many different elements that you can use that are also free, so there are paid and and freed options. But in the free account, There are so many different graphic elements you can use, fonts and whatnot, to really make it the the page look And reflect the personality of the Sims you’re trying to convey, also really fun and cute, is to role play. For example, you could create a Facebook page or an Instagram profile For your Sims Legacy family.

Gloria [00:05:37]:
So when you’re posting and, say, you’re posting multiple post It’s about the wedding or about some birthday party. So you could use features like the gallery. I think there’s a gallery where you can collect Photos, I think, like gallery albums on Facebook or on Instagram. You can create, like, story highlights, and you can organize these shared moments then, for example, by milestone, sim, or generation. And you can also use that page or that Instagram profile To make announcements about your Sims legacy family. For example, you could tease an upcoming wedding with an invite. So I think That is also makes it fun. It gives you an opportunity to create things in the name of your Sims, basically.

Gloria [00:06:18]:
Like, for example, an a wedding invitation, which, again, Canva is a great place to find templates for that. And it it’s adds to the gameplay and the fun you’re already having with this This legacy family. Right? So it it extends your gameplay. So the gameplay is not only happening in the game itself, but you can actually have more fun with it outside of it, whether it’s posting something on social media in the name of that Sims out from their perspective, if you’re role playing a little bit. You you don’t have to role play, of course. You can just create a page and it’s from your perspective as the watcher, but it’s a fun way to get more out of your gameplay. Another alternative is to share an online timeline of your family tree. So I found this really fun app.

Gloria [00:06:59]:
I think it’s a great way to share your legacy family’s history and do this in a more interactive and visual way. It’s, I think even great for storytelling in general, you can find it at tiki slash or Co. Tikidashtalkie.com. It’s an online timeline maker. You can create a free account with which you already have quite a few features. I think with the premium one, you have, like, options to embed your Timeline and a website, but in general, it’s a web based timeline that you can share with others online. I think in the free version, you have, like, a 200 story limit And no embed feature, but apart from that, it’s pretty pretty cool. You can integrate YouTube videos even.

Gloria [00:07:36]:
So if you are somebody that has a let’s play and you tell the story of your Sims with video, then you can actually integrate those YouTube videos in a timeline so that people can actually, like, follow a season or let’s play on a timeline and actually get more context as well. You can use a real life time span, so you can, for example, use the Sims session date or the publish date for these different stories that you would add to the timeline. You can add photos to your stories as well. While you can’t upload photos directly to the app in the free version, you can link to photos that exist elsewhere on the Internet. For example, if you have, like, Twitter page or a blog. A free alternative if you want to have photos online and use this app as well would be Flickr. Flickr is actually a great website in general to share your screenshots. I actually didn’t forgot to mention it in the first bit of the the episode, but you can upload, I think, up to 1 terabyte of photos to the free account, and you can add captions and, like, full on stories, like, way more text than if were were a social media post or Or a post elsewhere.

Gloria [00:08:35]:
So it’s like a a mini blog for your photos, though, and you can also create galleries and and photo albums. So it’s also a great way to create photo album, but You could also use it in tandem with Tikki Toki to build a timeline with photos as well. You can color code stories that might be if you’re playing one of those, you know, special legacy challenges. I think the Berry one that has with colors, I can never keep them together, the rules in where you need colors. Right? I know there’s at least 1 legacy found out there that involves color. And so you can color code the stories according to the generation that they belong to. And you can also choose a background image, which really Lets you, you know, add further customization to this timeline view. I think one fun thing is it even lets you create, like, a game out of your story.

Gloria [00:09:18]:
Anybody who’s interacting with your timeline, you can create, like, a this possibility to let them sort stories into the correct chronological order. So if you have a Story that people have been following for a while and you just wanna, like, give the readers or your viewers a chance to test their knowledge, so to say, on this legacy family, then you Create all this little game that lets them sort through the memories and maybe even learn things that they didn’t realize. Another way you can share your Sims legacy family with other simmers is probably maybe the most obvious way to just share your family tree. Now My Family Tree app is my ride or die. I love that for my core solution. But if you want to share your family trees with others, then and you you don’t wanna just share a screenshot, then you’ll need to add a second app to your collection. I really like Family Echo. It’s It’s really an OG family tree maker.

Gloria [00:10:05]:
It’s been used ever since since 2 has come out. Super easy to use. It’s web based. It’s free. It’s Been around for, like, 17 years, so it’s definitely reliable. In my opinion, most importantly, it uses the Jetcom format. So you can simply import your family tree from the My Family Tree app or whatever genealogy app you’re using, and pop that in there. And then I think Mallory just have to add the pictures, and then you’re you’re ready to go.

Gloria [00:10:26]:
So it’s pretty easy to transfer You’re current tree to that, and so there’s not a lot of extra work there. There are some other alternatives though that are made especially for simmers though. So It’s important to mention here, unfortunately, not existing anymore, but there’s the Plumtree app that’s the 1st family tree app that was ever made, especially for simmers. I think it was around for about 7 years, but unfortunately closed down in 2023. And since then, new apps have popped up to fill the void because it was definitely a very popular app. It was Aesthetically very pleasing. It made it very easy to share super complex trees with other simmers, and it had, a lot of options that were specific to our needs. So the apps that I’ve seen published so far to replace Plumtree are Essence Legacy Hub, Sims Tree and Llama Tree Revival.

Gloria [00:11:16]:
So far, none of them use the Co file format that’s so important to me. And so for me, they’re missing The long term data preservation that I would need to consider them as core solutions. But I think if you’re more casual, you know, family tree maker, if If you want to use something in addition to your own, you know, core solution, whether that be My Family Tree app or something Yellow, and if aesthetics are important to you, I think these newcomers can really fit the bill and help you build a really cool family tree that you can share with others. So each one of them offers both free and paid subscription options And are available only online except for the Llama Tree Revival. That one’s also available online, but it’s free completely. But it it also accepts donations You can support the project. So the Sims Legacy Hub, what’s really cool is it’s made by Simmer, and they are very open to feedback. They’re constantly working on that app.

Gloria [00:12:07]:
So there’s already a lot of features built in that cater to our needs. For example, different life stages or Co types are baked in already. And what makes the Sims Legacy Hub special, I think, is it’s not what you would Expect a family tree to look like out of the box. So it’s actually a system of connected nodes instead of your classic hierarchical structure. And to be honest for me, I I can’t wrap my head around that for my own family tree making, but I think it’s super cool In general, for storytelling to show how Sims are connected, whether that be a a family relationship or, you know, enemies and whatnot, which also you can have Custom relationships, those are part of the app, so that’s really cool. So definitely check that out. They have a free option. Then there’s the Sims tree, which goes back to that classic family structure, But it’s dressed in a very beautiful, super modern design, and it’s very intuitive to use and has already, out The gate, really great documentation, so I think anybody can jump into that and know immediately what they’re doing.

Gloria [00:13:10]:
I think also cool is there’s a a mobile version, which, I mean, I guess a lot of us are on desktop mostly when we’re doing anything with the Sims, but it might be fun to look through it on your app. Then we have the Llama Tree revival, which is The closest to what we have known about the plum tree, so it’s basically built on the original source code. So it is nearly an exact replica of the original plum tree, But the team is building upon it to improve it, to add new features, and I think one of them includes Jetcom file compatibility, which I think is super important. And I hope, the other trees, if possible, can move towards this as Yellow, and if possible, also away from subscription services. I’d love if they could all just turn into an app that I can download on my desktop Co they wouldn’t have server costs, and I would be able to, you know, have unlimited families and features and whatnot. I think all very interesting Softwares even within the free versions, and so definitely check them out. They’re all also constantly evolving, so who knows where we’ll be in a year from now. And probably the most fun way to share your Sims Legacy families with other simmers is to actually share it with them and collaborate with other simmers.

Gloria [00:14:15]:
So that could be of polls and voting, so you can do that on social media. Very easily, you could ask simmers to vote on key life decisions such as career choices, Romantic partners or, you know, home renovations, like, what room are we gonna renovate next? Or or even things as simple as an outfit choice for a special occasion, like a date or a wedding. Oh, how fun. Right? And you could also let simmers take part in milestone events. For example, if you have a baby shower upcoming, you just now announced that to your, you know, your community, you can ask the simmers to share their favorite baby cc that they would So to say gift to the party. So whatever they’re recommending is, like, their gift. I really like the role play aspect of things. I think it’s super fun and just adds another element to your gameplay.

Gloria [00:14:58]:
And so that that’s a fun idea you could use to bring people into your game and into that experience. And another way you could Sharing and collab your your family with others is to connect your families. So we have, of course, the issue of what to do with our spares. You could them. You could just, You know, ditch them, or you could swap them with each other. That way, they live on in somebody else’s legacy. That’d be Fun. Right? Even cooler, I think, would be the possibility to connect each other’s family trees.

Gloria [00:15:29]:
So I really hope that these plum tree alternatives that I’ve mentioned earlier that they maybe introduced the possibility that we could legit connect our family trees, like, that we could have our sims marry into or otherwise, you know, Join other people’s family trees because 2 Sims are befriended or they’re partners or enemies or whatever, but that we can connect Trees from different accounts. That would be so cool. That would let us collaborate on each other’s trees even. So imagine if you could so if you shared your spare with your friend and they added that spare to their family tree because they were able to connect the spare you already created in yours, and they are able to, like, connect that Sim with a sim in there from a tree. Imagine if you could then, in your own account, click on that spare that you shared with your friend, And you can see all the progress that your friend is making with that sim. So that friend of yours adds more to their biography. That sim adds to their traits, that sim adds to their relationships, their connections. And this in turn, you know, All of that that’s happening in their account is now also an extended part of your own legacy.

Gloria [00:16:36]:
That would be super cool. Right? So imagine how much fun it would be, you know, to create these complex legacies and watch them grow together Co you can legit build legacies together because they are intrinsically connected now, visually. Like, you like, you have the proof. You have, like, the family trees. You can see the history that’s building there. And so I think that’d be So cool. Another way how you could share your Sims Legacy family would be to share lore. You could incorporate lore from another swimmer’s legacy into your own, for example, with builds.

Gloria [00:17:05]:
So maybe there’s a family museum in their that they can share with you you and you can have your Sims visit that museum, or maybe there’s Haunted and abandoned legacy family home full of history from somebody else’s save file Co from their legacy or from your own, you know, that you can share with others. And they get to experience, so to say, a bit of your family’s history through that lot. And maybe you have, like, little trinkets Here and there that have added meaning, maybe some paintings. And just on the topic of objects, you can also share items that are relevant to your Sims family with others. Co, for example, you could place important paintings and knickknacks, things that are relevant to maybe Sims personalities, their hobbies, Anything that’s relevant to your legacy family, really, you can put that into a room. In the Sims 4, you can upload that to the gallery. That’s a way to share those items with someone else that if they wanted, you know, to have it represent the lore of your family in their game, and then they can build upon that. I I mean, that’s what’s so fun about the Sims 4 lore or Sims lore in general, Bella Goth and all those families, is that we play with them.

Gloria [00:18:08]:
We we build on their legacies. And so why not Create our own lore to share with others as well. We can also share a legacy family cc that we’ve created. For example, if we have, like, Custom paintings where we’ve added photos of our Sims, like maybe the founder portraits or the air portraits. Maybe there’s a Sims that was particularly Successful in their generation, and they’re honored for generations to come. And another Simmer is like, oh, they’re they’re the OG. They’re super cool. I want my Sims to also honor them in some way by hanging up their photo on our walls.

Gloria [00:18:43]:
Who knows? You can do whatever you want with it. You can get creative with it, but That’s also a way to share your lore with other simmers. I think another way would be to say in your legacy family, you have a special holiday with Traditions associated with our legacy family, in general. And I I’ve spoken about this before that you can create traditions particular to your family if they have a certain, you know, Course of action they’re following a storyline blueprint. For example, they’re criminals, and so maybe their traditions are more on the criminal side of things or Family is important to them, so they have make a point to meet each other and and and hang out. So whatever special holiday you’ve come up with in your game, You can share that idea with another simmer, and then they can add it to their game and name it somehow and describe it in connection to your legacy family. In that way, they have a bit of that lore, so your family tradition’s in their game. And that could be fun.

Gloria [00:19:37]:
That could inspire them for different gameplay or even, heck, inspire them to create their own holiday in the name of their own Sims legacy family. So that could be really fun to share. Co whether it be a public photo album, Creative character profiles, a bit of role play on social media, an online timeline, family trees, or just sharing your families directly with each other, you know, Sims and whatnot. There are so many different ways that you can share your Sims Legacy family outside of, you know, a blog post or A let’s play or in addition to, right, because those are still super fun ways to do things. But these ideas are maybe a bit less, full on, you know, less It was work upfront, and it just makes things a little more easygoing, less overwhelming, while still being fun and creative. And hopefully I I really hope these ideas ultimately inspire you to stick with your legacy families. It makes them more fun. It adds a bit more gameplay.

Gloria [00:20:32]:
I also hope you share your trees because I just I love to know about them. I’m sure other Simmer feel the same. Whenever I see other people’s families, it really makes me feel warm and gooey inside. It makes me wanna play with my own families because I I’m inspired by it, and it just reminds me of how much fun it is. So I don’t know if you noticed, but this was episode 10 and ultimately wraps up the season 2 of Sentimental simmer Podcast. I’ll be back in 2 weeks with season 3, so I’ll be taking my normal 2 week break, in between seasons. I’ve got a really Exciting topic coming up in season 3. I think you’ll really be looking forward to it.

Gloria [00:21:05]:
Season 3 is really a a topic close to my heart, and I think close to a lot of simmers. There’s a lot of overlap between this topic and simmers, and I think this topic also, for me personally, makes the Sims or any life sim game in that sense even richer. I just love it. So I can’t wait to share more on that and to dive into that topic. But until then, you can relisten to season 2 or season 1. You can, head to my blog on yellow llama co.com where you can find show notes to each episode with links with more information. And, of course, you’re very welcome to join the Yellow llama club. You can find that if you just Google yellow llama co.com/community, And then you can join us there where, of course, I hope you share your stories, your legacy families, and anything you’re doing in your game that you’re having fun with.

Gloria [00:21:54]:
Until then, Happy Simming!