Animation Showcase: Town Interactions!

omg I can't wait to play it next month omggggg

It would be nice if paras who have different personalities reacted a certain way when asked to do certain tasks...like a dirty para would hate to clean, a clean para would hate to get dirty (digging in dirt with hands), a social para would become depressed if they didn't interact with people, a loner para would be overwhelmed and shy when interacting. Also, I wish the paras would react to things other paras are doing in their environment. Lastly, I'm glad things like phone booths and newspapers are a thing in this game. Not everything needs to be digital.

I think we should add efforts in yoga classes where some paras aren't as "perfect" as others with completing poses...such as toppling over or falling to the ground...esp in the tree pose lol

I have a good idea. I am not sure if this has been discussed, but let’s say the players who like the ‘Rags to Riches: Homeless Challenges’ would benefit if stores closed after certain hours and if it were impossible to enter certain lots after a set time. This would make the homeless challenges much more fun and also create a more realistic gameplay experience, as cafés, shops, museums, and other public lots would have actual opening and closing hours. Just a little tip ❤️

Like others, I was very interested in the leisure walk and yoga. These details are amazing. I hope we will see different types of walking, running, loitering, random stumbling, looking around... that's what makes paras look not generic, but diverse. :)

These animations all look good :) I admit that I had to chuckle at the stiff newspaper that was apparently made of thick cardboard, with its front page on the back page where you usually only see ads :) It's a nice detail that they can even read a newspaper, though. And young people who have never seen an actual newspaper might not even notice that, lol.

I love how paras can read the newspaper.

Love that they can take newspaper from a dispenser, you don't see that often. Altough the newspaper model could be more saggy, now it looks like the newspaper is cast in concrete ;)

A Paralives BOARD GAME!? I did not see that coming.

Yes " Who Is Moustache Man " ? I noticed that little shale I say easter egg on the newspaper. And I thank you all for having a newspaper, even though they aren't as popular as they once were, it's still nice to see it in a game. I kinda miss it in TS4, they seem to like to push for things from real life to not exist, kinda like cars! Even though with cars they could have had only electric cars, if the concern is pollution.

The yoga poses look really good and fluid (the other ones as well but they just stood out to me). Thanks for the Post 👍

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One walking style with your hands in your pockets! I'd love that. I don't know if the "risk" is that it's randomly assigned to a Para that is dressed incongrously (maybe in a swimsuit?) :-D Or both the hands behind the back

Heya, So I had a moment to look at the animations, and it looks like you are making great progress. Two questions: 1.) For animations like the wishing well. Down the line, when we get to make our own town, how will this animation respond? Or is the animation tied to the 'operating zone' around the object rather than the pre-placed one in the world? 2.) For the Yoga animation, will these animations be skill-based like the music skill? 3.) For the vending machine, why don't the para start eating their chips after getting them from the vending machine? Similar to the newspaper.

i ADORE the leisure walk animation! Looks so much more natural than just a regular walkcycle for everyone, walking is the animation you'll see the mostu during gameplay so it makes sense to have some variety in that! Is it just for NPCs or can we have our Paras take a walk like this as well? I would love if there was a "take walk around neighborhood" sorta action for our Paras to walk a few blocks to clear their head, unwind or refill energy. Or perhaps a "walk here casually" sorta thing. "Hurry here" is the one I unfortunately use most in real life because I'm constantly running late 😂

Watching this yesterday gave me GOOSEBUMPS and COLDCHILLS. I had to rewatch it once again. I am so honored to be a part of your ACHIEVEMENT. You guys will always have A forever fan in me.

This looks amazing, thank you guys for putting in the time to create more animations to make the town feel more alive. I also co-sign with the idea of more community functions in the town, such as the community farmer's market, outdoor concerts, sports, and if it's not a feature already, maybe taking a boat ride on a lake in a park. Thanks again for sharing 💕🌇🌷

Hey so it's me again with my little museum obsession (sorry, it's just frustrating to see museums being so underused in most games and I don't want for Paralives to stumble on the same mistake, but I stop after this one, I swear UvU ). About the unique gameplay you could maybe create into the museum to encourage the player to come back to it regularly with different paras, maybe you could create an interraction with the masterpiece paintings displayed inside of it ? Like, for creative Paras who want to increase their painting level, they could have a unique interraction with these paintings (and these paintings ONLY otherwise there's no point) where they could study and sketch them for art practice. Then the sketches would be unique pieces of decoration to pin onto our walls. Decoration we wouldn't be able to have any other way than going to the museum studying these specific paintings collected through town. I stop there. Promise UvU

little things for npcs (and your own paras) to do out in the city would add a lot of life. i think parks and other common spaces (beaches, plaza, cemetery, etc) especially should focus on this. picnics on blankets, napping or reading while lying down on the grass in the shade, playing various sports, a big chess board or a ping pong table at the park, swings and play-sets and sandboxes, playing tag or hide and seek, chalk drawing on pavement, jump rope, water playgrounds, dancing in the rain, employees on lunch break outdoors, sketching/painting passersby and nature, street artists, bird-watching, jumping in leaf piles, snowball fights and making forts, fishing and ice fishing, roller blades and kick scooters and bicycles and all, visiting a grave and leaving flowers or having a chat, visiting historical/artistic locations, foraging wild plants, communal gardening... I could probably keep going but this gives a general idea of things that would be fun to see :)

Really love the NPCs leisure walk! It brings such realism, like when you’re just walking around your own towns areas.

I love the NPC walk but those yoga poses are SO cool! Two questions: are the yoga mats just decorations that you have to direct your Paras to stand on, or are they objects you click and say "do yoga" or something to that affect? And next question, will our Paras need to buy a shovel to dig with, or will they just pick between using that and their hands?

What an awesome array. A joy to see all this and slower walking really does add to the realism

Something I like about this game is that the animations aren’t too much, but more natural than other games

I'm worried to see that everything that should be circular isn't really. Don't you have anti-aliasing enabled, or do all the circles look like hexagons?

As always the animations look fantastic and so natural! I love the little “peek” Maggie gives after tossing the coin in the well. I’m also not bothered by items “popping up” into their hands when used, since that’s typical for the Sims too. It’s a video game, not real life. The only issue I’ve noticed with animations is walking and running. When the paras get to their destination they seem to stop on a dime. I was wondering if there were plans to add transitional animations? (Slowing to a stop when walking or running / from standing to turning the direction they want to go before moving / turning or adjusting before starting new animations - that kind of thing) So far, that’s the only thing I’ve noticed that’s been ‘off.’ Great work team!!

I am so thankful that your team cares. The passion shows and I love it. As for ideas: -people walking pets (not early access though) -kids (possibly sometimes with parents) playing tag, playing ball, hide and seek. Maybe knocking on doors and running away (but very rare as otherwise it would get old fast :D )

I love different walk styles! Reminds me of that old Urbz game 🥰

Is that a tall blue inflatable waving arm guy behind Maggie reading the newspaper? If so, love it!

I loveeeee the animations! As someone who has dabbled a bit with 3D animation, I am blown away by how natural you are able to make your animations :) As for suggestions, really just small things like picking flowers, playing hopscotch, skipping pebbles on a lake/water? And maybe something silly like a breakdancing skill that teenagers can practice, or different kind of dance types like ballet, hip hop, etc that kids can take classes in and get little awards or opportunities to do a dance recital. Another thing I think would be so fun is paras autonomously sitting on kitchen counters when theyre having conversations in the kitchen. Maybe also a resting crouching animation, since a lot of non-western cultures tend to be very comfortable resting in squatting positions. Thanks for listening to our suggestions, and good luck implementing everything that you hope to implement!

I think it would be cool if artsy paras were able to sit down somewhere in town with a sketchpad and draw, like they're taking inspiration from their surroundings.

I understand that these are animations still being worked on, but I'm hoping that the objects popping into place in the para's hands isn't the final idea for these. I find that in other simulation games they keep animations like that and I just find it tacky 😭

I am so happy to see newspapers in the game! I know they have become less common in real life, but there is much more visual appeal to me of reading from a newspaper than reading on your phone or computer. I’m also very curious about that diner Maggie is in front of. 😋🍳🥪

Looks great! I love it all!

Love the animations! So I would love coupons in the paper or sales. People selling their objects as well as yard sale notifications. In town, movie night in the park would be nice or kite flying. Excited to see the board game. I love board games and would love to have family fun night in game like my family does. Now if you can make dnd as well I would be set.

I love the leisure walk!

I love it (I'm weirdly happy that we can buy newspaper from a dispenser, don't ask...) Do you think you will maybe add more activities (related to art and para history for example) in the museum later in the future ? As much as I know that a lot of players love the collectible aspect of it, for others it is quite immersion breaking to be a random guy bringing a rock into a museum and see it displayed. Also if we take the time to complete the museum but then start a new save with a new family... will we have to replenish the museum all over again ? Adding gameplay into the museum with original activities that can not be performed elsewhere in town would be a great move in the future, to make sure the para museum will not be abandoned. Like I don't know, a room for the kids, searching for fake dinosaur fossils in a large sandbox like little archeologists XD

The animations look great but I was wondering if the collections can be completed by one para or can it be continued by the next generation? Also when someone knocks on the door will we get a notification? Thanks for all your hard work! I cant wait to play 😁

The animations look so good, and I love the idea of a leisurely walk! I can’t wait to see the other walk styles. I don’t know how feasible it would be, but I’d love it if couples could walk around town holding hands 💕 A suggestion for town activities is outdoor concerts in the park! My town has them weekly every summer and it’s always so fun. I also like the idea of farmers markets, outdoor movie nights with projectors, maybe a community garden, and when seasons are implemented I think sledding would be fun! Any kind of game too, like frisbee! And sports like baseball are probably too hard to program but I can dream lol. Thank you for all your hard work! You’re doing great 💕

The animations just keep improving, and I love the leisurely walk animation and looking forward to other walk variations. I hadn't really thought of it before, but most games have the same walk, sprint, or run animation for all in-game characters. The fact that Paralives dev team is always reaching farther thinking out of the 'norm' box is one of the things I appreciate about this game. Keep up the great work!

"it’s a slower, more relaxed gait used randomly by NPCs who are simply taking in the sights and enjoying their surroundings, in parks for instance." I love that!! The varied walking styles will definitely make the world feel more alive, thank you for working on that! I also love the yoga poses and how it looks like Maggie is leading the class - and not everyone is *exactly* synced up in their timing. It looks great! :D Thank you for sharing all of your amazing work!!

Oh and in regards to requests or creative suggestions regarding town activities, here’s some things that come to mind: - painting classes / group painting - sketch scenarios on notebook, take inspiration on views - dance classes outside in group - being able to perform, sing/ play instruments in public and get some tips money - some sort of party scenario, where people would gather in the same spot and maybe a few stands would open and some decorations would be placed for the occasion - walking tours (of the castle or around town) - town picnics and BBQs, in group - cooking and photography classes - fireworks show during NYs (if such holiday will be present) - hiking (to be either a fitness sub skill, or part of your fitness skill) - camping eventually, with option to build a tent and work on a camp fire - children’s playground in parks with swings etc - movies & theaters for cultural activities - family fun activities like bowling, mini golf, karaoke or trampoline centers - weekly town market with fresh produce, baking, crafts from para, potentially in the future being able to sell some of those yourself

Hi Alice, thanks for this new post. This is so lovely ! It's gonna sound minor but I really liked the animation for the vending machine, especially because Maggie ACTUALLY retrieved the item that dropped. But most importantly I looove that some animations are intricately tied to personalities and/or context. Like the leisurely walk having variations depending on a Vibe, lifestage and current emotional state, and related to where the Para is (you mentioned the park, which implies some sort of "understanding" that it's the right place to look at the sights rather than in the middle of Chez Maurice during the lunch service XD ). I'd love more of that, it fits with how Paralives already registers context for Together Cards for instance, but expands it to activities and animations. The code seems to already be there, which makes it exciting for what kind of animation mods we'll see in the future, too ! For instance it'd be really cool if there was a (non-leisurely ?) walk animation that included carrying a grocery bag when walking about town (maybe occasionally stopping to check money left in their wallet and such), as if they just came back from the store. Imagine a kid proudly carrying a bag too big or heavy for them like it's the biggest responsibility they've ever had ! I also really like that the newspaper dispensers are functional. Does that mean we ONLY get the newspaper automatically in our UI if the Para household is subscribed ? That'd be a great detail ! (although of course for new players, this would need to be explained early in the tutorial, considering some tutorial-y Goals appear in the news) If not, what does reading the newspaper provide to a player-controlled Para, considering we don't have a "fun" bar ? Is the animation for art somewhat dynamic ? Let's say we hang the paintings very high or very low, does the Para look somewhat in the right direction ? "Also, if you have any requests or creative suggestions regarding town activities, we’re all ears!" I actually would love it if the Telix phone booths were functional too ! You'd walk around and find Paras animatedly talking to someone on the phone (maybe even Child/Preteen kids playing anonymous pranks... do children still do that now that there's caller ID everywhere ? "hi I'm looking for Amanda, last name Hugginkiss") ; or you could place a call yourself (even potentially useful to call townies to come join you on a hike, a day at the beach, or a museum visit !). Just because you have a phone in your pocket at all times... doesn't mean it has battery ! Plus, older Paras would probably use it a bit more often than Young Adults... This could also apply to mailboxes : Paras could send postcards/letters/packages for a small boost in relationship with NPCs they know, in a Relationship label of their choice. Imagine sending a love letter to your Secret Crush lvl5, or an extra report to your Manager lvl8... There could also be a public bookcase, with a random free book to find once a day (similar to how the free plant at Bloom works). Same with a public food pantry, actually (a great option for people who play Rags-to-Riches or Rags-to-Rags stories). As you can tell, functional stuff appeals to me... but also I like the idea that people in Town are not just bound to capitalism, and form a community that actually tries to be a community. You'd see someone drop by a box to either retrieve or place an item or two (from a bag ?), for someone else to find it later when they need it... Another idea I had would be for Paras to be able to sit somewhere and sketch something. Particularly cool for those with a Talent in arts, who could get an inspired Emotion from it (or even slight a skill boost). This could be limited to benches to avoid that NPCs sit in the middle of the road at random, or something along those lines XD Lastly, is there a system for NPCs to gather around something ? Like, if there's something happening, people approaching to see/listen to what's going on. It could be a street artist, a street vendor, an altercation between Paras, someone on a soapbox... The opportunities to mod it would expand the concept further ; admittedly that might be a lot more than a mere animation at first.

The yoga poses are so smooth and I swear I can even see the muscles being used!! So amazing and beautiful! 🥰

I love how smooth and lifelike the animations are! I also appreciate the variety you guys have implemented. Great job! We truly appreciate your hard work! 💜

I love that these activities all have unique animations rather than one swipe, and with props too❤️

The animations look so great team!

Also I know this is about animations but can we talk about how cool that overgrown field looks during the leisure walk? It's just a simple field but so detailed <3

Ahh, I love these; the animations are so adorable. I was thinking it would be super amazing to have paras do different versions of the same animation by generation too like younger paras would dig with their hands while older paras would use tools. But maybe that's just nitpicky by me :3

Town activity suggestions: - Walking tours - Ask for directions of some places - Picnics - Group long activities, such as creating a community urban garden (and seeing how people collaborate and how it has grown over time). Tysm for your work!💗

"Who is moustache man?" :O :D

very exciting to hear about the walk styles being based on so many things, i can't wait to see them!!! theyre going to look awesome im sure. also thank you for bringing us a boardgame! ive seen it suggested so many times on the discord server, thank you for taking the time to make it :)

Is it possible to introduce a function where two couples walk but hold hands? If it was possible, it would be great and it would also give the game more realism... Anyway, I can't wait for May to finally test this game 😩

Thank you for the post! I love the fact that there will be different types of walk and can’t wait to find out more about it, the leisure walk looks great and so real. I’m also super curious about the parks and their different activities, which makes me think of some questions: - will we get to find out more about them and which activities to expect before the EA release? - with the one we’ve been presented to, there seems to be a “teacher” or “leader” at the yoga class (Maggie), are the classes all having a para responsible to teach the group, is it maybe a job or hobby that a para can have? - is yoga a fitness sub skill? Can paras evolve and be very bad or very good at it? Other than some paras being slower, in the video they all manage to do the steps (love the animations btw!), is this representative of a yoga skills or generally their fitness skill? I think that would be pretty good to have! Thank you 🥰

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wow, i'm just blown away! the yoga animations, the way that leisurely walk will work, board games for our para to play, this is all rlly helpful for the immersion of the world and paras! i know some anims are being reworked so one suggestion from me would be in the second yoga pose, to have paras twisting/shuffling their back foot as they try to ensure their grip on the floor and it doesnt look so smooth/steady (maybe for less phsycially gifted paras?) but overall i do really love the anims and thats a small detail i could live without but as an animation nerd, couldnt help but imagine. keep up the great work team!! im excited to see those other walk and toddler animations!

I like this small detail that in group yoga people are a bit delayed which makes it look more realistic!

i love hearing birds as well so peaceful cant wait

Awesome so excited to play ▶️

I’m so excited for townies and friends to knock at my door and visit!! Or even go by to see what they’re up to!! 🤗🤩 amazing animations so far!!

While I can’t wait to play, I also very much appreciate your taking the time and making sure that you will produce a magnificent game for us all. ❤️

Love those animations! As for the Paralives board game, can’t wait to see it in game! I hope we can get a real life version of that!