Watch the Build Mode Stream + In-Game Computer Screens and TV Shows + New Painting Icons
Hi everyone, Sonia here for this week's post!
Today we have an original subject: screens for the game. When your Paras watch TV or work on their computer, there needs to be an on-screen visual for that action. I’ll show you some of my favorites, and we’ll dive slightly into how they’re created; perhaps you could add your own TV shows with our modding tools!
This post is for Patrons only. Please don’t spoil it, thank you! ✨
This post contains many GIFs and may not play if you are using the Patreon mobile app.
Watch: Build Mode Stream
This week, Carina did another Patreon-exclusive stream on Discord. In one hour, she created a cute two story house.
🎥⬆️ Make sure to watch the video at the top of this post if you were curious to see more Paralives build mode footage!
Computer Screens
Now that our Paras can type and sit at the same time (yippee!), they can do various actions on the computer, such as learning about subjects like food, music, technology, fitness, art, repairs, the outdoors, and science. Learning about these subjects will increase their skills in that area, so it’s pretty useful. As a reminder, if your knowledge is higher in the music skill for instance, your piano and guitar skills will level up faster.
Let’s have a closer look at the different learning screens:
Gif of a Parafolk on the computer, learning about repair techniques.
Gif of a Parafolk on the computer, learning about fitness.
Gif of a Parafolk on the computer, learning about visual art.
You could also practice a skill like graphic design or programming. Here’s a look:
Gif of a Parafolk on the computer, practicing programming.
TV Shows
Using our in-game Storyboard dev tool, I created 4 shows for the TVs: a romantic show, a news broadcast, a documentary, and a fitness show.
Here's a gif of the documentary.
Here's a gif of the romance show.
Adding Screens to the Game
It’s a fairly simple process. We use what’s called a ‘’sprite sheet’’ that shows various frames of the show one after the other. Here’s an example of how it looks with the romance show:
Sprite sheet of the romance TV show.
Then we can import it into our system and set different values such as the frame size, frame count, duration, and audio! I won’t get into too much detail, but maybe we could make a real tutorial later on about how to correctly implement that! In the future, maybe we could support videos too to have screen animations with smooth framerate.
Bonus
We added a few different icons to represent the different art styles of paintings in the game. This is the menu that you will have when you make your Para paint! Note that not all styles will be unlocked from the get-go, as some are locked until you reach a certain skill level.
Icons for the different art styles available for painting in the game. When you pick a style, your Para will do a random painting in that style.
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and have a great weekend!
Sonia
Comments (72)
I am really looking forward to this game and I’m genuinely worried about it! I absolutely love the building mode — I enjoy constructing things, and this game has cool tools and great possibilities. However, the sunlight really bothers me — it looks as if the house has no ceiling or roof. At the end of the video, you could even see shadows from the sun, which, unfortunately, takes away the coziness. I also noticed that the lights only turn on when it’s dark — during the day, the lamps don’t shine. And a room with no windows or lamps still looks bright — the lighting indoors and outdoors is the same. I hope this gets fixed🙏🏻 Other than that, I’m absolutely thrilled! Thank you to the team!
Has the walls been lined up? The 1st and 2nd floors panels are off. So when you painted the outside of the house the color palents didn't line up, they were slightly off.
Wait, you mean we can color the roof ridges separately? 😲
Hi! I'm new! 😊 The build mode is awesome!!!
We need a true crime show! Haha!
Can’t wait to play 😍🤍
This was really inspiring and has given me a lot of ideas for my future builds. 🙏
Man whoever decided that everything can be resizes (especially the mirrors) I am like in love with I cannot wait to start building in this game.
This is the best build tool I’ve seen in a life sim. A major accomplishment. But I have concerns seeing the live & build mode streams. I think the build tool is too flexible. There doesn’t seem to be anything telling the player they cannot place an object. You mentioned the stairs not being function due to proximity of the platform stairs. Why doesn’t the game tell you that? How would I know that as a player if the game allows it? In the first live mode stream the stairs prevented the para from entering their apt. When the stairs were resized, they blocked the bathroom door. But the game allowed you to do that without any warning or stoppage. Are there any plans to address this or am I misunderstanding how it functions??
see the roadmap, one of the things they'll be working upon during Early Access is: "Highlight objects in red when placing them in an invalid position". So I think they'll address your concern https://paralives.notion.site/f138c4f6cb234604be16fe4198d17f51?v=20ad5232655342809c2ef57e063302b4
Why is all the window glass green?
I think it would have been best to show things being placed where they will be still usable or not in the way of Paras walking through. Also I thought paintings would be sizable like other things, I was hoping there wouldn't be such limitations. Like that rug, not being able to be resized much, same with that little dresser. I mean I get we can use the advanced tool for some of it, which could make up for that, but I don't get why somethings are being made up resizable or limited in how much you can resize it. Its like with The Sims 3 where they had a lot of things that couldn't be recolored, like stairs and fences/railings, which made no sense, it has made me wonder if Paralives will also have items that can't be recolored, especially now that I find out some things can't be resized. I mean if we can resize things that our Paras can actually interact with, then why shouldn't we be able to resize something like paintings too, since they wont be interacting with them.
I also think that a lot of the things Carina built are not usable in live mode so I don‘t know if that even make sense for a build mode showcase 😣 I would have wished for a more realistic / usable build and maybe the second floor with a bedroom and a second bathroom with a toilet?? I can‘t be the only one
Veig que al lavabo s'ha oblidat de posar la tassa del wc 😅
Rina said in the livestream that there are no conventional toilets in her home (or where she grew up), which is why she depicted them that way.
The advanced transform tool is so cool. One thing though, I think it would be nice to be able to smooth or even straighten the edges of the terrain paint, as right now I think it seems very easy to have wonky lines.
My story line for the romance she is that Red dress was up waiting for her husband who said he'd come home as soon as work was finished (he's cheating with the receptionist). She says he never makes time for her any more and then they kiss. 2 years later she finds out, divorces him and travels the world
Will there be indicators when an object's placement makes it unusable for paras? I'm thinking things like the stairs to the second floor here, or the stairs blocking the door in the first patreon-only live mode stream, where it might be unclear to a player why their para can't use the stairs/door/etc.
I have been seriously wondering about this since the live mode stream and the para couldn’t enter their own apt because of the stairs. The dev had to be told to resize the stairs for the para to properly route. I could see so many players spending hours/days on builds to then go into live mode and they do not function and it’s unclear why.
Loved the stream. Carina is very endearing to watch.
So excited for Build Mode. Also, I loooooooove that you can choose different painting styles over time!!
A couple questions: in the tea room, the big circular.. "thing" (I don't know the word in English) was made to look like a sitting cushion, but is that functional or is it purely decorative? Are Paras able to crouch and sit on it? And: why are all the paintings free?
I think that the cushion should be usable, as long as it's far enough back from the table - we saw in the seating system posts that they can sit on surfaces of variable heights, including the floor - unless that isn't a feature that's ready yet!
The absolute deadpan joke right at the beginning made me laugh out loud 😂 Great stream, thank you guys as always 🩵
I'm not a great builder myself, but it will be fun to test these great features and get better! About this, I was thinking: the houses we build will then be permanently part of the town and we can move our characters to live in them. But would it be possible to have a separate "test" area where we can have fun building at pleasure but not occupy lots in the town? Or where we can create our own catalogue of houses but not immediately have to place them and "use" them? I don't know if I'm explaining well. Kind of if the Build mode had the option to be its own separate game within the game.
I love thay you implemented the thickness of the walls, I'm so in love
Will curtains be functional? Like if they're placed in Build Mode at a certain length, will Paras be able to open and close the blinds manually, or will they purely be decorative?
Same thing with shoes--will they be wearable if placed as decor?
Build Mode is definitely looking pretty polished.
Will it be possible to "align" things so they are centered/in alignment with other objects?
Sort of like if you were using Canva (previous Graphic Designer here).
This game is coming together so well!!! Awesome job! I want to ask if there will be an option to toggle walls fullway, halfway and no walls while in build and live mode?
We can see that in this video :) (Tea room)
please add anime style like manga...
I cant believe we were gonna play in 2 days 😪😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 oh my im so sad haha.
i dont have any notes, i’m in awe of how amazing paralives is looking. & to think i would have been playing it in 3 days😭🥲🩷.. it’s worth the wait though. the house looks gorgeous! i can already see myself spending so many hours in build mode also i forget the answer to this question, but with items that are resized, will we be able to use said items? like for the tea room, would we be able to sit on those? sidenotes: -i would love to see more gaming consoles in the future -being able to resize the christmas tree is giving me so many ideas
I remember gearing up to play a zoo game where influencers made building these crazy zoos looks so fun and being very disappointed at how confusing the controls were to me. This genuinely looks so comfortable and intuitive ❤️
Those postcards look familiar... 👀 also Carina is a great interior designer, ok? bye
Question: Does changing the wall height change *all* existing walls? Couple of suggestions: - It'd be great to be told if stairs were placed invalidly - And what i said at the last buildmode live: I personally am getting really distracted by the bold white outline on the floor and walls, i feel it's really obfuscating when doing deco if they were thinner or dotted or both i think that would be way better :)
I'm obsessed with build mode, it's still really amazing how you can resize stuff so effortlessly, it looks so freeing :O
It looks amazing but question: Will you fix the wall texture on the upper and lower levels not matching up? That's killing everyone who is OCD haha. Also will it be possible to have walls with multiple texture zones? For example shower walls with tile 3/4 up the wall and then drywall above? Or kitchen backsplash? Thank you!
I think the misalignment came from starting to build the wall of the two floors from different points. That will be the point where the texture starts and repeats from. Since the game isn’t grid-based this can cause inconsistencies, but I think they’re totally avoidable if you do it right.
I haven't seen the livestream yet, but as for the tv screen i think it should be sped up a little it feels painstakingly slow right now (it doesn't need more frames just an up in the fps)
Maybe those will change when you change the speed of the game? You wouldn't want it to be too fast during regular speed in that case.
*Sees the cat shaped window* Oooh~ *Sees the 40 USD Early Access price* NOT ENOUGH! 60 USD! All right, all right! Fine! You've twisted my arm! 89,99 is my final offer. Jokes aside, this was a very nice build. I'll probably recreate it in my own game once this is released. It looks very cosy, and like someone really lives there.
i love the romance tv show, i used to watch novelas with my mom growing up 😂 such a cute touch! i can’t wait to watch this stream later, happy friday everyone!
I love build mode! I'm still not liking the lighting- the sun still seems to be coming in from the closed celling during the day, and at night the walls aren't lit up by the lights. I would also like to be able to change the light temperature. Thank you again for showing us your progress!
They tweaked the lighting a bit, but stated they won't make any further changes until the game is released in early access first, because advanced lighting is very demanding on weaker computers and is very difficult to optimize, requiring a lot of time. At least, I noticed they added an option to remove that "sunny light" coming from the ceiling as if there were no roof on the house. You can see that there aren't those shadow projections as if sunlight were coming from above.
The build mode looks so good! I have a few questions: 1. for the table and chairs, the chairs seem to want to snap into a specific place. do the chairs need to be “snapped” to the table to be used? or do they still function when they are not snapped to the table 2. when adding picture frames, specifically for the cute goose picture frame, the image seems to stretch when the frame is resized. this could result in warped images. would it be better to have the image crop instead to prevent this warping? that might be more limiting for the user, so I understand if that isn’t optimal. all things considered, the build mode is super impressive!! in particular, the cabinet stretching is SUPER smart and intuitive. thank you for all of the work!! and side note, I love the mini VSCode on the Para computer screens. Nice touch :)
IIRC from the last build mode stream, they said that the chairs to have to be snapped to the table to be used
Am I seeing this right?: All Patreon postcards IN THE GAME?! I'm so in love with this detail! 🤩💖🎉 Can I also hang the postcards individually? (for example, on a bulletin board) I'm so excited to see what others will create with these (modding) features. 🥰 great Job 🫶
Once again, the build mode is extremely polished and seems like a pleasure to use. :) A couple suggestions: - The advanced transform tool should be a part of the regular tools and easily accessible for everyone. It's just too useful to be hidden! - I think the cabinet handles should be shown as the icon when selecting them. Rather than showing the whole cabinet. Really excited to get my hands on this in May!
Oh I have another question about this specific build please: This lot that we have constructed on, what are the plans for it? Will it be an empty lot for sale for us to contract on, or will it have a pre-built house (the other we’ve seen on video, or maybe something different?) Thank you again 🥰
The lot construction that you saw on the video wont be available to play, it's just to showcase some of the build feature. In the town you'll be able to buy a lot that already have a house build and furnish or an empty lot to build on so it's your choice!
The should be an option to dim the lights brightness and stuff
I am so excited just simply for the build mode that comes with this game! I can’t express how more often than not I get superrrrr angry with the Sims because I can’t clutter just right or do this, or do that. This is going to consume me I feel like 🥲😅
Thank you for the post Sonia 🤩 One question, will we be able to build communal lots (like another castle / park or shops) in EA or after? I would have more questions on this subject, do you know if we’re to expect a patreon post about shops and communal lots gameplay anytime soon? Thank you for the great work !!
The town edit feature wont be available at the launch of early acess, maybe they will coming during but not before a while. Funny you say that but yes, there's a post planned about that but I can't tell you more about it yet hihi
So impressed with how effortless it is to change the size and color of everything. When the blinds were dragged out and up and down, I gasped!
I was wondering if it was possible to make the objects in the catalog stand out more. Right now they are rather hard to see, especially beneath the bold category icons 🤔 The livestream definitely made me excited about decorating. It seems so easy! And being able to resize mirrors is just great 😍
A user on Discord proposed a fan-made edit of the Build UI where when you select a category (and subcategory), the others are slightly darkened, so that the one selected stands out and the screen is less cluttered. This isn't exactly what you're saying but it goes in that direction.
I love this update, and I absolutely love computer screens. I was wondering, however, if tv shows have an impact on gameplay. For example, if my Para watches a cooking show, will he feel like cooking? Or if they watch a romantic show, will they feel like kissing their partner or something?
EDIT: Tv show don't directly give you want but they give your Para emotions and thoses emotions can give you related want. For exemple if you're watching a romantic show, your Para is going to feel romantic and may have some romance related wants. Now the relation to mood and want is not too defined, like if your Para watch a cooking show they may feel Inspired and that can translate in a cooking want or any other want that involve inspiration like wiring or making art. But it's definitely a good idea!
So cool can't wait 🤗
So I did notice one thing not trying to be rude or mean it all looks amazing but the outside wall paper isn't matching up like it's different
Hi Sonia, thanks for this post ! The romance show is so telenovela coded XD And if I'm not mistaken, that's the first time we're seeing mushrooms... which I'm guessing are some of the collectibles ? I really like the painting styles. Personally I'm all about abstract in other games (I think it tends to fit better as decoration afterwards), but it makes for a more interesting menu than just the names. I imagine styles like comics/manga also exist, but don't appear here ? I mean, you gotta be able to draw Miki ! Modding TV channels had been mentioned in passing before in a past Dev Chat, but it's fascinating to see it explained here. It actually looks fairly straightforward once you understand how the Storyboard stuff works. "maybe we could make a real tutorial later on about how to correctly implement that" That'd be fantastic. I'm especially curious about how to sync with audio (a Parli dialogue you recorded in a different scene, for instance, or a song from the soundtrack). (as a sidenote, it'd be great if the Storyboards post could be unlocked sometime in the future, or if Storyboards were the object of a social media post at any point ; as far as I can tell it's the only place this system has ever been mentioned, which means it's impossible to praise this feature to non-Patrons the same way we can discuss the Photo Mode !) And now I'm off to watch the video of the stream :P
Yes the mushroom are collectible, we talk about it more in detail in this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/139137747 Comic/Manga style of art appear in the Illustrative section. we do love Miki and she has a bunch of paintings of her available already , you can see some of them and other paintings in theses post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/holiday-items-117391992 https://www.patreon.com/posts/paintings-done-85006255 Yea we should really showcase the storyboard systheme more, I thinks it's really fun to use and easy to create video with that!
Build mode has my mouth watering. I cannot wait to build a medieval castle.
Can you do a live stream showing family game play like para pregnancy from the start of the pregnancy to what they give birth and para's looking after baby,infant, toddler and kid please.
When we polish that part, we plan on showing more of the pregnancy and family gameplay!
I really hope the roof snaps to the grid. 😰
...What grid ?