A New Vision for Pine Trees & Incense
If you have been following Pine Trees & Incense for a while, you may have noticed that things are starting to look a little different.
The name is staying, the content is staying, Pineveil is staying, but the way I approach creating, sharing, and organizing everything is changing.
And honestly, I think it is a change that has been needed for a long time.
This is not a decision I made because I suddenly stopped caring about Pineveil, or because I am abandoning the things I have already created. It is actually the opposite. I want to give myself enough room to keep creating without feeling like every idea has to fit inside one specific aesthetic, one specific story, or one specific version of what Pine Trees & Incense is supposed to be. I have spent a lot of time thinking about where I want this little corner of the Sims community to go, and I finally feel like I have a clearer answer.
So, I wanted to explain everything in one place.
So, What's Changing?
The easiest way to explain it is this:
Pine Trees & Incense is becoming the larger home for everything I create.
Pineveil will still exist, and the Pineveil story will continue. The Pineveil related custom content will continue as well, but Pineveil will no longer define everything that Pine Trees & Incense creates.
That distinction is important.
For a long time, I built so much of my creative identity around Pineveil. I had a very specific atmosphere in mind. Forests, folklore, occult elements, old houses, relics, spirits, mysteries, muted colors, and a slightly unsettling atmosphere all became part of the identity. I still love those things and I still want to make those things.I also realized that I have a lot of other ideas. Some of the ideas are colorful, silly, and cozy, some have absolutely nothing to do with Pineveil. I don't want to throw away an idea simply because it doesn't belong in Pineveil.
That is where Pine Trees & Incense comes in. Instead of trying to make everything fit into Pineveil, Pineveil can simply be one part of a much larger creative space.
Why Am I Making These Changes?
The short answer is that I want to create again without putting myself inside a box. When I first started creating CC, I was still figuring out what I enjoyed making, what kind of creator I wanted to be, and what direction I wanted to take everything. Over time, Pineveil became a huge part of that. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, Pineveil has given me a world, characters, stories, ideas, and an entire creative foundation that I am incredibly attached to, but eventually, I started noticing something, I would have an idea for something I really wanted to make, and then immediately start thinking:
"Does this fit Pineveil?"
If the answer was no, I would either change the idea until it did fit, or I would simply not make it. That is not where I want to be creatively. Creating should leave room for experimentation. I want to be able to make something bright and colorful one week, something strange and occult the next, a piece of furniture after that, and then spend a few days writing a story. I don't want every idea to have to pass a Pineveil aesthetic test before I am allowed to make it. So, rather than abandoning Pineveil, I decided to give it its own place.
Pineveil can be Pineveil.
Pine Trees & Incense can be everything else.
And I think that gives both of them more room to grow.
A Little Bit About How I Got Here
I have been making custom content for games for several years now, but I am new to making Sims 4 CC. A lot of the custom content I made in the past was more around imaging and coding. Over that time, I have gone through quite a few phases of creating. I have experimented with different types of CC, different aesthetics, different ways of presenting things, different platforms, and different approaches to sharing my work. Some things worked and some things didn't. Some ideas stuck around and others were eventually abandoned.
And that is actually one of the things I have learned from making custom content for this long.
You are allowed to change.
I think there is sometimes an expectation that once a creator establishes a particular style, they have to keep producing that exact thing forever. If you make occult CC, people expect occult CC. If you make colorful recolors, people expect colorful recolors. If you build a story around your content, people expect that story to continue being the center of everything. But creators are people, our interests change, our skills change, our lives change. Sometimes we simply wake up one day and realize we want to make something completely different. I don't want to treat that as a failure. I want to treat it as part of being creative.
The Future of Pineveil
Now for the part I know some of you are probably wondering about.
What happens to Pineveil?
Pineveil is not going away, it's not being canceled or abandoned, neither is the CC. If anything, separating Pineveil from the larger Pine Trees & Incense brand gives me a better opportunity to actually develop it. Pineveil is going to become its own category within Pine Trees & Incense. That means when you are specifically looking for Pineveil content, you will be able to find it without having to sort through everything else I make. The Pineveil Chronicles will continue as well as the characters and the world. The custom content connected to that world will continue to be made. I still have ideas for the story, it's just the difference is that Pineveil no longer has to carry the entire weight of Pine Trees & Incense.
It can simply be what it was always meant to be: A world of its own.
That also means I can work on Pineveil when I am genuinely inspired to work on Pineveil instead of feeling like I have to force every new creation into the story. I think that will ultimately make the Pineveil content better.
And Then There Is Everything Else
This is probably the biggest part of the change. I want Pine Trees & Incense to be a place where I can create whatever I am interested in creating. That includes CC, storytelling, recolors, new mesh, edited mesh, Sims related resources, and all of the things I haven't thought to make yet but will in the future.
Some things will have lore and some won't. Not everything will be centered around Pineveil, some items might be apart of a different idea entirely. I don't want to have to explain why everything belongs together anymore. The connection is simply that I made it.
The Blog Has a Purpose Too
Another major part of this change is the blog. I want the blog to become the main place where I can actually talk about what I am doing. There is a practical reason for this.
I don't want to constantly flood Patreon with posts every time I have something to say.
Patreon notifications and emails are useful when there is something people actually need to know about, but I don't want someone following Pine Trees & Incense to wake up to five or six notifications because I had several thoughts, an update, a story chapter, a progress post, and a random announcement that I wanted to share. That gets annoying. So the blog will give me somewhere to put all of that information without turning Patreon into a constant stream of notifications.
The blog will be where I can post things like:
- Pineveil stories
- Story chapters
- Behind the scenes information
- Creator updates
- CC updates
- Announcements
- Development notes
- Challenges
- Resources
- Project information
- Random things I want to talk about
And whatever else eventually makes sense. It gives me a central place to organize everything. It also means that stories don't have to compete with CC posts. If I want to write a long update about Pineveil, I can, if I want to post a story chapter, I can. If I want to explain the development of a project, I can. And none of those things have to turn into another Patreon notification.
Patreon Is Not Going Away
I also want to make this part extremely clear. Patreon is staying, however, it is changing in purpose.
There will be no early access. There will be no required membership. There will be no content locked behind a membership requirement. There will be no "subscribe to get the CC" system. My CC will remain available for everyone.
If you want to follow Pine Trees & Incense through Patreon, you absolutely can. If you don't want to use Patreon, you do not need Patreon to access my content. If you want to support what I do financially, Patreon will remain available as a way to donate. That is what I want Patreon to be, a way for people who genuinely want to support my work to do so. Not a gatekeeper, not a requirement, not a subscription you need in order to download something I made. I have made the decision that I simply do not want to build Pine Trees & Incense around paywalls. I would rather have people use, enjoy, share, and incorporate my creations into their games. If someone chooses to support me financially because they enjoy what I make, I am incredibly grateful for that.
Support should be a choice.
What About My CC?
My CC is still going to be released, the biggest difference is that I am expanding where I publish it.
You will still see my items posted to Patreon, but I am also adding CurseForge. There is a very practical reason for this. A lot of Sims players use CurseForge as part of their mod management system. For those players, having my CC available there makes it much easier to discover, install, and keep track of my creations. I don't want someone who already manages their mods through CurseForge to have to hunt around multiple websites just to find something I made. So, I am making my content available where it makes sense. This isn't because Patreon is being replaced or moving away from it. It is simply another way for people to find my work.
Eventually, I also plan to upload my content to The Sims Resource. That will be another discovery platform. The goal is not to make people follow me across six different websites, the goal is to make Pine Trees & Incense easier to find. Different players use different platforms. I would rather make my content accessible in the places people are already looking.
No Early Access. Ever.
I want to specifically emphasize this because it is something I have thought about quite a bit.
I am not bringing back early access.
There will not be a situation where you have to pay $5, $3, $1, or any other amount to download my CC early. There won't be a waiting period where free users have to wait for something that paying users already have. If I make something and release it, it will be available. The platforms may be different, but the principle is the same.
My CC is free.
That is the model I want to continue with.
What This Means for Pine Trees & Incense
Ultimately, I think this change makes the name Pine Trees & Incense make more sense. It isn't supposed to be a single aesthetic, it isn't supposed to mean "Pineveil content."
Pine Trees and Incense was never meant to be just a name. It is a metaphor for creativity, stories, and the things we leave behind. Pine trees represent the things that stay. They are rooted, enduring, and constantly growing. They remind me of old forests, forgotten stories, memories, and worlds that feel like they have existed long before we discovered them.
Incense represents the things that change. It starts as something solid, but when it burns, it becomes smoke and scent. You cannot hold onto it, but you can feel that it was there. To me, that is what creativity is. An idea begins somewhere inside you, becomes something tangible, and eventually leaves your hands to become part of someone else's imagination.
One is rooted. The other rises.
That is what Pine Trees and Incense means to me: creating things that can grow roots while still leaving room for them to change.
Some things will remain for years. Some things will only exist for a moment. Some stories will continue, while others will lead somewhere completely unexpected. Creativity was never meant to stay still. It is meant to grow, change, wander, and leave something behind.
I Also Want to Give Myself Permission to Experiment
This is probably the most personal part of the entire decision. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Pine Trees & Incense should be. I think I need to spend less time worrying about what it should be and more time seeing what it can become. There are things I want to learn and experiment with and simply just try. There are projects I want to make that don't fit neatly into the identity I previously created, and I don't want to look at those ideas and think that they don't belong here.
Not every creation has to become a franchise, not every project has to have lore, not every piece of CC has to be part of a collection.
Sometimes I just want to make something.
And I think there is value in that.
What You Can Expect Going Forward
So, moving forward, this is roughly how everything will work.
Pine Trees & Incense
This remains the main creator brand. It will contain all of my different projects, CC, stories, resources, and other creations.
Pineveil
Pineveil will become its own category under Pine Trees & Incense. The story and CC will continue.
The Blog
The blog will become the main place for longer form content. Stories, updates, announcements, development posts, behind the scenes information, and other things I want to share will live here. This will also help keep Patreon from becoming overloaded with notifications.
Patreon
Patreon will remain available. My CC will still be posted there with no membership required. There will be no early access or paywalls, the memberships are DONATION only.
CurseForge
I am adding CurseForge so that players who use it for mod management can easily find and manage my CC.
The Sims Resource
Eventually, I plan to expand onto TSR as another way for people to discover my creations.
Other Platforms
I will continue using other platforms where they make sense for sharing and discovering my work.
A Fresh Direction
The moodlet in the image above is called A New Vision. I chose that name intentionally because that is really what this entire change is. It isn't about throwing away everything that came before, it is about looking at what I have built and realizing that there is more I want to do with it. I have spent years learning how to create whatever came to mind. I have learned new programs, new techniques, new ways of presenting my work, new ways of organizing projects, and new ways of telling stories.
I have also learned what I don't want.
And I think knowing what you don't want is just as important as knowing what you do want. I don't want Pine Trees & Incense to feel restrictive. I don't want people to feel like they need to pay to access my CC. I don't want Patreon to become a wall between my work and the people who want to use it. I don't want to stop making something just because it doesn't fit one particular aesthetic and I don't want Pineveil to disappear just because I want to explore other things. So, this is my solution.
Pine Trees & Incense gets room to grow.
Pineveil gets room to remain its own world.
The blog gets room for stories and updates.
CurseForge and eventually TSR make the CC easier to discover.
Patreon remains a place where people can support me if they choose.
And most importantly, the content remains free.
Thank You for Being Here
Whether you have been around since the beginning, found me recently, downloaded one piece of CC, followed the Pineveil story, supported me on Patreon, found me through Tumblr, or simply stumbled across something I made while looking for Sims content, I appreciate you being here. Pine Trees & Incense has changed quite a bit over time, and I'm sure it will change again. I would rather let it grow naturally than force it to remain exactly what it was when I first started. There are still a lot of things I want to make and stories to tell.ant to tell.
So, consider this the beginning of a new chapter for Pine Trees & Incense.
Not a goodbye to what came before. Just a little more room to see where everything can go.
Welcome to the new Pine Trees & Incense.
And welcome to a new vision.
-
Ady
Posts
0 Comments