🎮 Alex Walks you Through Testing Paralives
Hey everyone, Alex here!
For today’s post, I’ll walk you through highlights of the gameplay session I had yesterday to test the game. It will give you some insights on the current state of the live move! Please note that gameplay systems, gameplay content, the naming of things and the interface are still a work in progress. For example, notice how the icons for the 4 needs don’t match together (they are placeholders and we will make the final icons later on)!
As always, this post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it! 🔐
Before I get started, I wanted to say that we added a section on our Steam page about Paralives Early Access and what it means for a game to be in Early Access so I invite you to read it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118520/Paralives/
At the start of my session, I decided that I was going to play with a household of one Parafolk, and I created this character, Maxence. I had a lot of fun and I was invested in her story already!
I decided that Maxence would be someone with a large amount of energy to spend and that aims for a career in tech.
Once I left the Paramaker, I purchased an empty lot. Maxence was stressed because her Energy Surplus bar was full and she really needed to move and do things (this bar is only for Paras with the Energetic personality trait). I made her do some pushups which relieved her stress, made her happy and her energy made her progress in her skills faster!
A few days later, I made Maxence go out of the house to socialize.
These negative emotions impacted her job performance a bit, but nothing serious. Also, just an idea, but maybe you could get a production boost at work when you are very happy after meeting a new romantic interest!
Maxence then had a quick snack.
That’s it for today! Hope you liked the post and tell me if you have any questions or gameplay ideas!
Alex 😀
Comments (92)
That was such a great read.
The baby she is holding is definetly not theirs 😭😭😭
This looks great! I was wondering, do their pregnancy bellies grow steadily over time or in stages (like 1st, 2nd, then 3rd)?
We can not wait!
I LOVE that the energetic trait has a bunch of unique features, especially having to manage its own "need" bar! I'm super curious now about other traits.
tooo cute!!!
I would love to see what a Para birth looks like!
The surprise baby glitch 😂 what a fantastic post of gameplay. So looking forward to a fresh sim experience
I hope that in the future (either in the official release or after) that relationships can be one-sided like the Sims 2. Like if a Para had a Commitment Issues trait, they’d reject any and all relationships past a Fling (ie dating, partner, married, etc.) If you convinced them (maybe got their romance to 100%), there was still a chance they’d cheat (from as minor as flirting to as major as “getting intimate”). It could be mitigated if their romance meter was above 90%, but the lower the meter, the higher the risk! Anything that could add drama to the game would be great!
If you decide to add the boost to work performance after meeting a new love interest, you could consider adding a chance that the para will be distracted and perform WORSE (head full of romance, just like me fr)
The emotion stickers are so pretty and I love your suggestion about making paras more efficient at work after meeting a new love interest !
I'm crying this looks incredible 😭 I want to make myself and my husband so bad
Eeeee, the house you made looks so cozy!! I can't wait to start building when the game comes out. ❤️
i wanna playyyy 😫🤣 this looks great guys!! sidenote: the height difference between maxence and roger is really cute!
Everything looks amazing, I found myself wanting to un-pause the game to keep playing lol. I love the house decor, lighting, and lush terrain, I can't wait to get my hands on this game! Thanks for sharing 💞
English degree here! I volunteer as tribute to be an English proofreader :) This game is looking more and more amazing each day!
Heya Alex, I love the post; it does provide a lot of detail. There are a few things that I noticed compared to previous posts. 1.) I noticed that the UI is now more 'permanent'; however, in a previous post, you mentioned that you would het a popup of needs as the needs dip and that stuff like sleeping and or hunger will work within intervals. Is this still the case, or was that changed? 2.) The moods that are being shown, I assume that unless you click/hover over them, they will remain stacked with the most dominant one on top? 3.) Has the economy been looked at for the game or is that something that will be looked at before or after EA? 4.) I noticed that the icons for the needs don't match. Are these icons placeholders for what the icons will be? 5.) For the PAM: How many traits per category are currently available? 6.) I know that currently, jobs are rabbitholes; however, have you guys started thinking about how to live a career will interact with the current career promotion system? 7.) With cooking, will it be possible to have a system where you can experiment with ingredients to discover a meal rather than just have the meal unlock at the correct skill level?
4) the icons for the needs are placeholders, as stated in the post. Personally, I hope they go for the style of the Shower and Toilet Paper ones, I like them better.
Oh dude I adore the fact that vegetarian and cleaning style and that sort of thing is a lifestyle rather than a trait, that’s such a smart way to do it!!
One (very) minor thing: can we have that Paras remove their glasses (if they wear them) before going to sleep? Doesn't need to be an animation ad hoc, as far as I'm concerned the glasses can simply disappear and then "magically" reappear on their noses when they get up. I wear glasses and that image with the girl in bed doesn't seem... "right" to me :-D
I really like this UI: green/orange/red bars instead of hearts is a BIG improvement for me
Wow, that baby is... something
I also see they only get 7 points to use on their personality, I guess it is. Is there a way to increase that? I hate having uneven numbers for stuff, lol. 😅
I really hope people read what early access is to really get an understanding of what it is because it can be… underwhelming to some because they’re used to “finished” games. Anyway, thank you for the sneak peak! It’s made me more eager to play the game and explore things, myself.
Now that I see the way Maxence got her start, I wonder if there will be different options for our starting budget. I think it would be a small, but neat detail to be able to start with a bit more or a bit less starting money, depending on how affluent our paras circumstances are.
I REALLY want to play this game!
The two pictures above the crib are so adorable! The dog one looks like their tail is wagging super fast and it's so cute! I love the artwork in this game 💖
I commented already but I just wanted to add, it seems the game uses $dollars? If it is based on a real life currency instead of being a fictional one, will there be settings to change it? maybe not every currency ever, but things like yen for example work very differently, Like 10,000¥ is something closer to 100$ (not very accurate just trying to show how different it is) so maybe it would be easier for users of many nationalities to comprehend, if there were different types of currency, at least if you're thinking of making translations in the future. Oh and also in the last post (I think?) there were songs and atleast one of them had singing in english, and there are items and posters ingame that use english. Will it stay english forever? I personally don't really have a problem with it but it can feel a bit distracting hearing english in a game with a gibberish language, and also be not very non-english speaking friendly. Umm just some random thoughts😅! (sorry i'm very bad at writing and getting a point across)
The $ sign is temporary and we plan to create a fictional currency before release! It could be cool if players could change it to something else through the modding tools or option menu! We do plan to have english on in-game posters and in some songs. I can see how people could find that it clashes with the spoken gibberish language (Parli) but it's also cool for people to be able to read the name of the streets in the town, the name of the shops etc so that's why we when with english. In the future, we might be able to translate streets names or posters in various language but it's not sure yet
I would love to see a sneak peak of the relationships tab! Also since work was brought up in this post, it made me think: will Paras have bosses an co workers? And if so, will those relationships be reflected under the relationships tab?
Thanks! We could share more about the relationships tab in a future post! Yes, you will be able to build relationships with people who work at the same company as you and they these coworkers will appear in the relationship tab!
This was a fantastic post! Definitely put a smile on my face. I love the look of the new need bars. They feel very nostalgic and match well with the personality selection bars. I appreciate you showing the bugs too. That's always important to see. Looking forward to December 8th!
Are you going to do playtests with different styles of gameplay? Like, trapping paras in a room like a psycho, or trying to get as rich as possible...or trying to get as many partners as possible and have the consequences of that! Lol. Obviously this is early and you gotta get all the core gamplay in! But it feels like the game won't allow you to take multiple paths to live life, bc you'll quickly run into the issue of needs or money and then there's only really one solution for it which is to level up skills and get a job - and it's never that easy for a lot of people irl and I'd love to be able to explore different avenues of progression for my paras! Many different ways of getting there, especially for those with different traits! I think that's something important that I haven't seen mentioned! I hope that makes sense! Side note, the para you made is so cute!!
I have a few ideas if you don't mind me sharing! Progression wise in terms of money, a lot of paras could do guitar or piano performances in the town square for some tips, or ask for loans from friends or family (this could have consequences too), maybe they could socially convince people with charisma money wise, or sell art/books
Loving everything so far!♥️ One thing I'm worried about is the UI, not how it looks, but its size. I have a pretty big pc monitor and a relatively bad eyesight, so I hope the ui will be a bit bigger OR maybe you could change the size in the settings, it would be MUCH appreciated! Ik it's still being worked on ofc! I just want to say this so it will be taken into consideration if not already. Ts 2,3 and 4 really make my eyes hurt having to squint just to read item descriptions and such😓
Thank you! We do have a setting to change the size of the UI and you can make it a lot bigger than that so everything should be good!
Perhaps we could control them from work and give Maxence a chance to power nap on her break to increase productivity. Keeping it simple is fine though.
I loved your day-in-a-Paralife scenario, Alex! And so pleased you were able to fix the baby, which I'm sure was after momma fainted!:🤭 I've played in several early access and alpha games and enjoyed feeling a part of the hands on process of fine-tuning games. I also appreciated the attention you gave to the process and the link you provided which will help other players who may be new to this type of gameplay better understand... so they will know that it will be us the players who will find the bugs and glitches to help all of you devs in locating and fixing them. I'm ready! ✨️
oh gosh I can't wait!!!
this little gameplay advance was a sweet delight, the revelation of a new gameplay feature around the energetic vibe is amazing, i really want to see more about the gameplay and i really wonder about the romantic attraction between parafolks, because i really like it to be difficult, like not started like a romantic partners after several flirthy options, like, if you flirth with a parafolk that parafolk is going to see you attractive (or not) in the first time but no like a possible partner without more conversation by the time, obviously this depend also of your ideas in the attraction system, and maybe married parafolks doesn't like your flirthys if their relationship with their partner is good but, if it's not strong or good enoguh they are going to little by little like your flirthys, and left their partners. it's a good opportunity to say that i still love the look of the Parafolks and the ambient!, and Maxence was amazing, and also i love Richard's look since i watch his first appear (i had to say it someday) well, without more to say, thanks fot the amazing new post, it's enough gameplay reveals for me and i can't wait to see more about Paralives and also i'm waiting for december 8, have a nice weekend!
Yes. I too would like some challenge especially during the flirting stage. So taking the "flirt risk" would be more rewarding and realistic.
I can see she's sleeping with glasses on :P. It'd be nice if the paras could have glasses on while wearing pyjamas but so they would take them off for sleep :)
Ha ha, I just wrote a comment about that! :-D
Would love to see a public live mode gameplay showcase video soon, or perhaps even a longer showcase that shows off all three modes in tandem! I think its time because a lot of fans, especially non patrons, really want to see more gameplay, to get a good idea of the gameplay loop and feel of the game :) I know you guys are a little shy about this stuff because things are unpolished, but with a disclaimer added, this shouldnt be too much of a worry, imo
We would love to do that before release! Right now, we are fixing a lot of bugs and improving live mode gameplay systems so we might be ready soon to share longer gameplay videos!
Me alegra que hay diferentes opciones de postulación de un mismo trabajo ( I'm glad there are different application options for the same job. )✨
Me senti como se fosse eu jogando! O Jogo está lindo e parece que tudo está se encaixando. Parabéns para todos da equipe não vejo a hora de jogar. Gosto do fato de que para ser promovido não dependerá só das habilidades e sim das emoções dos Paras, isso ajuda com a dificuldade do progresso
I love the job rankings and Paras needing to be qualified first when looking for work. I like how it's not a complex daunting system and that their traits and skill level is useful and worth something in terms of work.
I love how sleeping habits and cleaning habits aren’t full personality traits and something you’re able to select by dropdown! I also LOVE how she gets a bonus/downside for being an energetic para. I can’t wait until we can see the other ways to play with different characters 🥰
I usually use cheats in the Sims to advance careers because I get bored. After watching your gameplay, there are enough extras and choices to help the career along, that I'm now really looking forward to my paras having a career that they've worked for. It's brilliant how a late night or feeling good impacts the work day. Love the glitches and typos. Part of me thinks you should leave a typo in the game for us to find 😂 Thanks for making my Friday really enjoyable.
I wonder if we could recharge the energy bar by just at bit, by being clever and skilled players... (I bet there's ways to earn that) Maxence needs to program a delivery app for her food needs, that selection of options is kid-level. xD (Or read a cookbook, you are a grown-butt adult!) I think being distracted by a new love would cost some job performance, unless that job is to describe the feelings of love in some way. (Like a creative profession in the arts.) Maxence's baby bump is adorable!
Imagine being able to make an app if you’re high enough in the programming skill that you can actually use in game 🫢
Really cool seeing all the mechanics work together. I see a lot of potential for interesting gameplay. I just hope it’s not too fast and easy to reach all major life goals. How many in-game days did you play in this test?
Thank you! I played two weeks We are trying to make it so progression is not too fast and we are still actively tweaking all this!
RE: proofreading, don't forget to decide whether you are going with sentence case or title case for UI text, and then make everything consistent with that decision! Currently we're seeing text of the same type with different capitalization. For example, "Frontend developer" uses sentence case while "UX Researcher" uses title case; "Toasts with jam" uses sentence case while the other recipes use title case; etc. (Sorry, this is something I deal with at my job so it bugs me, haha.)
Thank you! You are totally right and we will work on that as part of the proofreading!
Regarding the idea of a productivity boost after a good romance, I feel like it should have a chance of making you less productive because you're distracted thinking about your new SO. I know in my experience if I've got some great stuff happening in life, it can make it harder to focus on work because I'd rather be engaging with that great stuff
Good point, thanks for sharing! We'll have to see!
Will there be a cheat so I don't need to sleep? 🫣😅
Yes! It's "ReliefNeed Sleep"
I know the UIs not finished but, The needs ui looks very cluttered right now and hard to understand with all the bars decreasing at different rates at different places & orientations and the (emotions?) Bar requires ALOT of reading* also the numbers are very small.. (This one might be more of a preference thing but, imo the dots feel alot more overwhelming than a progress bar would**, just bc it feels like you have less time especially when you can say "i have only 2 dots left") I just wanted to give my opinion i know it has a long way to go, but maybe there's a way you could visualize all this somehow? * which im not a fan of, but maby the solution isn't in the ui? Maby it would be better if you could visualize it in game (if those are emotions and not smth im unaware of) ** or anything less incremental
Thanks for the feedback, we are still tweaking the UI a lot!
I loved this post! Please do more of these!
Maxence 🥹 so high energy that she launched her baby like a rocket ship! Love the post Alex, getting (even more) excited to play. Especially seeing the success chances of together cards and that you're showing numerical effects of perks and moods, that really elevates the gameplay!
That said, maybe there could be an option to hide the percentages for more challenging gameplay?
Looks super fun! Question about genetics: is skin tone inherited? It seems the baby has a different skin tone than the parents.
Hey we're a judgement-free zone here.
I love this new couple they really fit together 😅 and roger needed someone to take care of him prevent him from going to the afterlife. I hope they endup being an actual household in the game or actual paras in the world 🤗
Looks amazing so far! I can't wait to get my hands on this game! I have a countdown on my phone 😂 150 days to go!
Thank you for this new post, Alex ! I love seeing how features come together :) "this bar is only for Paras with the Energetic personality trait" This... is so COOL ! Did we know about Vibe-specific stats/bars ? It feels like news to me, but I really love it. "the special Power Nap interaction which consumes 2 points from the Energy Surplus bar" ...oh wow, that's like cultivating a special superpower. I wonder what the other Vibes get, and how they can be leveraged in times of crisis. "Choosing the technology talent when I created Maxence in the Paramaker made her start at level 3 in her Technology knowledge." This is fantastic, particularly for adult Paras. That said, is it optional ? What if I want to do a challenge with no starting skill ? "Brag about fulfilling want" is a great Together Card. I wonder if it could have an emotion associated to it (pride ? is that an emotion ? XD ). It could really get very different reactions from other Paras depending on how their perceive you. "Also, just an idea, but maybe you could get a production boost at work when you are very happy after meeting a new romantic interest!" YES ! It probably would depend on your Para's personality (a serious Para would probably find it distracting and unprofessional), but it's a great idea. IRL, you're not a separate person at work and at home, and major emotional events don't cease for 8hrs per day. I really like how things work together, and you can really strategize or just let life happen. It creates an entire playstyle for a life simulation game. This is probably my favorite thing about what we have seen of Paralives so far : how it's an actual GAME, not just an animation generator. The gameplay actually takes problem solving, strategic choices and stats optimization into account ; you don't have to use them, but these systems make the gameplay so deep. And I'm almost sure that also adds to the replayability, by the looks of it. That's really great and what I was hoping for. My only issue with it all is that I'd love, when you describe these features, a way to know which of these will be customizable ingame and/or moddable through the Steam Workshop. Like, Vibes are moddable, correct ? So in theory someone could come up with a Vibe that has a whole different bar ? "When Maxence gave birth, the baby was really bugged!" Not at all, it's just a baby in a kit. Some assembly required. As a sidenote : FINALLY something nice happened to Roger :)
Thanks so much for the kind words, ideas and feedback ladyteruki, it's really appreciated! We're testing custom vibe-related bars on a few vibe but it's still to be confirmed which one will have one exactly! Yes, someone could come out with a completely new vibe and a whole new bar to go with it! Could be nice to be able to turn off the Technology talent making you start at level 3 in the skill, meanwhile you can use a cheat to set it back to 1
I love the energy surplus idea! But why was the new baby brown? The original baby looked like it had lighter skin but the fixed baby looked darker! I wonder how genetics work of if it's just random :o
It's a small bug that we will get fixed soon!
I love this so much it's looking amazing keep up the great work guys
can we please change the green tinted glass into normal and realistic looking glass? It kinda irritates me every time I see it. Ignore me, if it's still work in progress! Other than that, nice update!
Thanks for the feedback! We might tweak that!
So excited
The emotions icons are SO CUTE! I’d love to see a short video of Maxence's day 🫶🏽 Great job!!
Omg this is so exciting
I think my favorite part is the design of the emotions! They're so cute and I love how they're so easily distinguishable. I really cannot wait for this game!
Roger gets to live on. 🥹 Can't wait to see more footage of live mode once the team polishes it some more!
The energy surplus idea is pretty cool.
Was coming in to say that, too!
Dec 9th can't come fast enough. I'm so excited!
The UI is starting to look more and more complex and polished! I really like how it's going. Also the Para you made looks so cute!
I love that the baby was just 80% gone 🤣 like she hadn't delivered the full baby. Otherwise I'm SO EXCITED, it seems like it's really getting to a seamless playthrough!
Imagine the delivery room: "You're doing great, honey! The heads already out, and... Oh, that's it. You're done. Good job, babe."
Amazing!!! I’m so excited!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
We missed you Roger.
Omg happy Friyay! I literally squeeled!! Thankyou for sharing this to us I sooooo can’t wait for December 😍🙌🏻 👏🏻
I like the progress so far! I hope to see more additions as we get closer to 8 December 2025!
Im first😁 morning guys good vibes good vibes😌❤️