🧑‍🍼 Adoptions, Improvements to Pregnancies, and more!

Could you add a playable nurseries and baby sitting in the future and live carers

As one in ten women have endometriosis/adenomyosis and struggle to have children biologically, I find this to be an amazing inclusion. 👏🏽

I'm really really hoping for IVF/ sperm donation. Even if it's just a rabbit hole in the hospital. I would love my two afab paras to be able to get pregnant 😍

Will you be adding strollers for the infants and toddlers?

Does this mean we could also potentially put a child up for adoption if our Para accidently gets pregnant? Side note if this is something that becomes available would we see our child around town as it may get adopted by another Para around town? Could make for interesting gameplay

i forgot to ask this but will there be a feature similar to inzoi and sims where you have two guys together and their child actually look like they came from them and not a random baby?

I hope you guys will add option to make a "science baby" just like in the sims 4. It would be really cool to have this option in Live Mode without going to Paramaker. if we'll even be able to go to Paramaker and do it during gameplay since the early access launch. I hope so! 🙏🏻😭

Hey Alex, make a supermarket, there aren't any in any simulation game.

I love the adoption thing <3 And the pregnancy has me sooo excited. I think it would be adorable if when a Para gets pregnant they could tell a family member or friend to be the Guardian, so in case they pass away or something, they keep the child and you continue playing in the other household <3

Random thought: What if we could Bathe up to 2-3 toddlers, in a bathtub, at the same time! It would be very convenient for a Large Household & save time / energy for other things. I don't think it's been done before, actually? ( Please correct me if I'm wrong )

As someone who was actually adopted, I'm glad putting kids up for adoption and adopting kids yourself is going to be in the game. It feels so often that life sims just kind of skim over the fact that adoption is a thing, in sims you needed a mod to have a more proper adoption system Like yes, you can adopt a random kid in sims, but there's no option to put your own characters kid up for adoption without mods, just seems dumb to have one but not the other really, breaks the immersion to since who the hell would be putting this kid you adopted up for adoption in the first place if you know there's no official way to put kids up for adoption yourself

Oh my goodness, its only a month left! I've been following the development since 2020. I'm so excited for early access!!

For early access, I think this type of system is perfect! I want to know though, how adopted kids factor in with the genetics system. Obviously, they're not biologically related, so traits wouldn't relate to their adoptive parents (since it was said in a prior post that kids can sometimes inherit grandparents' traits.) In this case, does the adopted child have "fake" unknown parents with traits similar to their's, or can their potential children only inherit from that para, as they technically don't have real "bio parents". I assume this is also how it works for paras created without parents?

Very excited for this system, and stoked that it might get more love after release! My biggest desire for this system would be to have the pool of adoptees include parakids randomly related to townies. There's rich storytelling there. Also as someone else commented, to have to have a certain number of beds in your home and not have a previous kid removed from your home would be great hurdles. Maybe evil paras have some sort of restriction as well? They have to do a good work to prove themself? Lol.

I'm assuming there are, or will be, rabbit hole careers for the hospital, like doctor and nurse. If you ever do volunteering or jobs for teens, you could have a candy striper! (Yes, I know that term is outdated.) I'm glad we we can change pregnancy length. 24 hours feels too short for me. I'm sure you've thought up other uses for the hospital to eventually add, but here's my 2 cents anyway. Minor illness or injuries like the flu or sprains and you can get treated there immediately or wait a day for them to wear off naturally. And when you do seasons, there could be a flu season--and vaccinations to ward against it. For more disability rep, there could be long term illnesses and you go to the hospital to get meds for them. Or you could do the same for trans rep and get hormones there. Actually taking the meds could just be a pretend thing, or maybe you get a special magic med or hormone that lasts an in-game season, and you get warnings when it's about to run out. Also for trans rep, there could be top or bottom surgeries. Maybe you could even do wellness classes outside (or inside, if the hospital isn't only a rabbit hole) as another town activity. I like d_yun's idea of having adoption processes be longer. Maybe you go there, apply, and they "do a background check" and the next day you get the notice whether you're good to go or not, and if not, what you need to do to improve your chances.

I know it just means we are closer to the release date, but its still sad when team members announce that this is their last post! So I hope we get to hear from you again afterwards Jérémie!

As an adoptee myself, I’m so happy that adoption has become a feature😄. I can’t wait for early access to come out. A nice feature to add in the future might be making the adoption process longer. Maybe an adopted Para might want to reconnect with their birth parents or family.

So excitedddd

I hope we’ll eventually get a hospital interior. It would be cool if there were a reception, a general practitioner’s office (for common illnesses and faster recovery), an operating room (a maternity ward, plastic surgery to change appearance during gameplay), and maybe even a therapist (who could stabilize negative emotions).

THANK YOUUUUUUU THAAAANKKSSS!!!!!! I made and printed out a Paralives waiting calendar. I cross off every day, but to make the wait easier, I mentally forced myself to switch from counting days to counting weeks. This week, it will be exactly a month until the game starts!!! I'm crying so much with happiness!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for your post, Jérémie!!!

Deffo a rough system but still super cool considering I didnt even think we were gonna get adoption during Early access!

Thanks for the amazing (and long awaited for me at least) post Jérémie! I have so wanted to learn more about pregnancy and adoption and how they'll work in Paralives and I'm excited to find out we can customise so much. Something I think would be nice is if we could eventually adopt siblings groups. Be it twins or mixed ages of siblings who are already siblings. IDK if that would be possible but it could be as simple as a pop up asking if the Para(s) would be okay with that. And it would be nice if children removed from families got added to the adoption pool eventually. I'm also in agreement that it would be nice to have certain restrictions in place later, like having a room/rooms with all that's needed for the new little para's coming into the family before approval.

The pink hoodie is so adorable! ❤️ Also great you added an adoption system for the game. Personally I think if a child got taken away this specific para should not be able to adopt another baby (even then there are also workarounds but I prefer some consequences also for storyline purposes). This post just mentions adoption babies does that mean you can't adopt toddlers or children? (If no is there a plan for that during ea?) And can you select tha baby or do you randomly get a baby? I'm sure there are a lot of ways to expand on adoption systems and other ways to expand the family (fostering, surrogates etc. ) and I'm curious on how you will improve those systems. Also about pregnancies (this is not expected before EA) are paras automatically happy when having a baby or could they be like " oh no can't have a baby right now " ? A modder for the Sims added that to the game and I like the stories which can be created with that. ( There was the possibility to accept the pregnancy or trying to bond with the baby etc.... And also gameplay about paternity which added some chaos). Thank you for the post and have a nice weekend ☀️

This so cute!

Question, obviously not before EA, but at some point would you guys be willing to expand the adoption to allow fostering? And have your para have like foster home? There is currently a mod that does this for Sims 4, it works but I am personally not a fan of how it works. I think having the ability to foster kids would be really fun. I know adoption cost a lot of money in real life and fostering is much cheaper in real life. So something like that would be interesting to see and I personally would be excited about it. I feel like it would help give them game a bit more realism.

Maybe in the future you could enhance this (so far very basic) adoption system adding a little bit of challenge: for example, you (+ all the members in your household?) need to have very high levels of "general well-being" (needs satisfied, good mood) when you go to the hospital/orphanage to adopt, in order to be accepted as adoptive parent, otherwise your request might be denied. This could simulate the fact that social services first check that the baby goes to a "good" family. This isn't connected to money or jobs (or personality traits), just that in that moment your character(s) is/are "feeling good" with themselves. It would be nice if one day the player will be able not also to adopt but also to give the baby up for adoption. This has some aspects to handle (the baby "vanishes"? Or is it kept in the "pool" of babies that can be adopted?) but anyway it could be a future addition.

Hi! Very interesting post! It would be great if, in addition to being able to customize the probability of having twins or triplets in the settings, this probability could be temporarily altered by undergoing fertility treatments. It would even be great to have a "low fertility" trait in all genders, making it more difficult to conceive, which could be addressed either through adoption or treatment.

Don’t know if anyone said but I think later on making it so a para has a certain amount of money in funds to adopt would be a good idea

I'm so glad we finally got our post about Para pregnancies! Thank you for this Jeremie, I'm so excited. That adoption system will come in handy for a 100 baby challenge I think 😌

I really hope IVF and sperm donation will be added. It's important for same sex couples to feel repsented and I that is a very common way afab couples grow families.

This sounds brilliant! I love it 😀 can you give a baby or child up for adoption though? Not that I would of course... Thank you to all the team for all your hard work. Youre all amazing. 38 days to go!

i'm so happy you decide to add adoptions, of course you decide it to be simple for now, but i'm really excited for the future, i really hope we could see and make interactions with the orphans until we decide to make and adoptions, and of course being able to adopt babies, toddlers, kids , preteens and maybe teens in the future it's would be a good adition!, but i really want to see what you have for gameplay around pregnant parafolks and kids. something i honestly would like it's a more different UI when our parafolk give birth to a babie, the actual one it's not ugly it's just that for a future update i would love to have a different one, of course it depends if other fans wants that and if you guys like the ide, for now i love the patreon post and i'm so hype for paralives the next month!

I really want sperm donor or IVF. I need repsentation for queer people building families! 🌈

maybe neglected kids could reach out once they’re older, call you or even show up at your door and confront you with it to add that layer of consequence (and yeah… a bit of chaos if it’s happened more than once). kind of leaning into actions and consequences overall here.. maybe a reputation system in town could tie into adoption too, so how you treat people (and past kids) actually affects whether you’re trusted to adopt.

"Adoption could require basic checks", like whether you can provide a stable and safe environment. On that note, things like minor crimes or having a clean/dirty record (PG-13 safe) could be really cool here, and also tie into job applications!! :O "It would be nice if adopted kids could have some kind of connection to their biological parents" Orphanages and fostering (maybe as a building in town) so you can go and meet the children before making a decision. I’d personally love if that existed, where kids could live and age up, some maybe never getting adopted. It would mean even more if neglected kids from player households could end up there and later move out into the town when they’re old enough.

This might be a silly question but what time will EA be released/available for purchase? Midnight that day or later on?

I am such a huge family gameplayer and I am so excited to see babies, toddlers and kids, especially since this has been a feature never really shown. My birthday is on the 24th and have booked a week off work, this release date couldn't fall on a more perfect date for me. All the effort and love that has gone into making sure Paralives is as perfect as possible, for an early access/release, really has shown, and the true fans and followers really appreciate it, and of course, can't wait to finally get our hands on it <3

Would be cool if you could go have your biological baby at the hospital as well :) What's a bit jarring is the babies being born with a full head of hair 😅

So we can adopt in EA?

Wow this is an amazing update! I do have a question: After a Para gives birth/goes through pregnancies, do their bodies change slightly to reflect the changes that occur IRL? For example, wider hips, weight gain, changes in the chest area, etc.

This is sooo exciting! I'm so glad you all chose to delay the early access release a few months ago... BEST DECISION EVER. Based on everything I've seen in the last few months, I know I'll get a ton of playtime out of early access now. (: Initially, I'd planned to just play around with building and making characters, but now there's a really good amount of gameplay to explore!

Everyone's saying bye again 🥺

The team is doing a wonderful job, I can't wait for May 25th. One question: on May 25th, will the Patreon posts be released to everyone? Because after the early launch, I believe players will have many questions, and I think the answers to many of those questions will come up here in the private posts. Incredible work!.🩷🇧🇷

I love how you devs make the city feel useful and necessary like having to go to the hospital to adopt a baby, or shops with exclusive items. It’s amazing, instead of everything being solved through a phone or computer like in other games of the genre. I can’t wait for May 25th!

‘and nobody will blink an eye even if your previous babies were taken away because of bad parenting’ I can just image CallmeKevin exploiting that. 😂

Oh it's nice to see that there's a medical building to go to when you're sick or pregnant very nice! I do however have a few critiques and suggestions with the pregnancy and adoption system! I feel like one ingame day is a little short for a pregnancy, maybe somewhere in early access we can make it a little longer and add some gameplay surrounding the pregnancy (taking childcare courses, a wish to purchase baby related items or even making a baby shower event?) because that way pregnancy would feel a little more significant. 24 hours is a little short to have any gameplay related to it like that. Also for adoptions it would be nice if there were some restrictions, such as money and maybe also a limit for adoptions at once? I think what could be cool is also if maybe sometimes there were options to adopt a pair of siblings that can't be adopted single or something like that but honestly that's not that important i just thought it was a fun idea :D Anyways great post! I am so excited for the game. I am at a huge lan Party rn and i told some people about the game lmao. Are you planning on adding something like child protective services at some point?

i agree with AmorFati, LynnStolUrBin, and ladyteruki that it would be better for gendered language and color coding to be toned down or removed for children. it'll make the game a lot more inclusive.

Amazing post ! <3 I really hope once older, adopted people will have the ability to discuss about being adopted with close friends. For example if one of their friends chose to adopt as well, they could share advice as an adopted kid themself and what their parents did right or wrong, this sort of specific together card. Long term memory is so important in this type of game, it's where all the drama comes from.

It's been a while since we've had a Jérémie update! So cool to see what you've been working on! I'll really miss reading the devs posts, it's a big part of my routine. But I suppose playing Paralives myself will replace that haha 🩷 Bye Jérémie!! I hope we'll still hear from you and the other devs in future updates, even if just a small cameo

it's been a while since i've written a long and dedicated/detailed comment on here, its just been a rough past year for me personally but the friday posts and following discussions have always remained a highlight of my week and something to look forward to, i can't emphasise that enough. so thanks Jeremie and the rest of the Paradev Team, for all these wonderful posts and for the game you've poured your hearts into :) i can't wait to hyperfixate on all the youtube videos of people playing with and messing with this game (and maybe one day play it myself). as for adoption ideas, I'll echo what others have said in that it would be nice if the game could do a "check" for a spare room or spare bed and other such necessities before approving adoption. to me an oprhanage (at least, one that isn't a rabbithole) seems like somewhat of a stretch goal/dream, that's something i'd love persoanlly but would also simulate with a challenge happily (i may have already started converting and modifying the sims 4 orphanage challenge...). i could make suggestions for days for an orphanage but i wont XD i think that just a simple approving process and ofc being able to adopt different life stages, later down the line, would be a solid way to expand the feature without getting too detailed. more detailed that that would be maybe allowing the adopted child to have some sort of tie/relationship with their bio parents and maybe being able to express missing them or wanting to find them with together cards. Or the ability to foster, but i'd also maybe put that with stretch goal/dream in that its not something i'd feel like i needed or wanted to make gameplay complete but would be "cool/nice to have." anyway. great work team! i'm gonna miss these sneak peeks, but i am gonna devour the game's information on release day in my own way :>

Thank you for everything and for those 33 updates, Jérémie!! Love to see more about pregnancy! But honestly what I love the most is that the team is aware that a gameplay loop is necessary - I think the main issue with many modern games in the life sim and cozy genre is that developers don’t realize a loop is required!

Ooh, I love this!

Hi Jérémie, and thank you so much for this post, although I also wish it weren't your last [before release]. I have loved following your posts over the years, as well as your always thorough answers in Dev Chats, and I will miss hearing from you. You always strike me as a Paradev whose industry experience informs the nuance of his approach of various topics, and your "one week with" post remains one of my favorite I've read on the Patreon during development. I can't wait to see the result of all your hard work, but it's bittersweet that it will mean hearing less from you 💜 Why can't we have both ? XD That said, I think a lot of us were hoping for more information about things like new additions to the family, so this is a great swan song. (I also hope it'll be unlocked soon, for wiki reasons XD ) And I'm glad that you folks are transparent about the limitations for the Early Access release, as always. It feels like you made time to create things like adoption, which could have easily been added later, specifically for the launch ; it'll be great to build a more intricate feature all together over time, based on feedback too. The customization is also great, as always with Paralives. Right away I know that 24hrs will probably feel too short for me, and I'm seeing other similar reactions in the comments, but that's what Early Access is also for. But the most appealing part for me, ironically, is actually the Together Cards. I SO look forward to discovering the ToCa system in general, but in particular for non-YA/A lifestages, to see what kind of unique flavor each part of a Para's life will have. I second AmorFati's request to tone down the gender talk, however. I think as optional Together Cards, if people like the idea (similar to how Chloé already has a few mods on the Workshop), it would be preferrable. Also first time seeing the hospital from up close iirc \o/ So it's a rabbit hole, then, or is there some set dressing inside too for roleplay ? I wonder what kind of environmental sounds Andrei has created for this area (and the firestation), too. PS : someone bring back the "one week with" post formula for launch week, please !!! This is something we'll want immortalized.

I was thinking when pets are added you could maybe do pet adoptions in the town centre!

Also fun to see new paras. I wonder if they will be new Townies 👀

So happy and excited to see everything you have prepared! Thank you so much for your hard work and can’t wait for the May 25th!! On the topic of babies, I was wondering recently whether it was already possible to duplicate one of the children to create twins in the Paramaker? And I don’t remember if it was mentioned but is there an option to create a child/sibling/parent using the genetics tool in PAM?

Is fertility rate/multibirth chances going to be tweakable for all the paras across the world, or on an individual level? The latter is more interesting to me personally, since I'm from one of the families where twins skip a generation.

Ooooh please create a baby store where we can buy all stuff baby/toddler related...strollers, car seats, bouncers, walkers, eating related items like high chairs, etc.!! Super excited for all the possibilities this game has in store for its development during EA. I really appreciate the teams efforts and hard work and def looking forward to EA. One question though, will the hand be a little closer to the baby bump as it grows?? This one is off a bit in the screenshots

Love it all!!! these improvements are going to make gameplay even better, I hope that in a future update, after early access, a custody feature could be implemented into the game in the future for extra storytelling, I think people would love that option for divorced paras or even if paras give their child up for adoption and decide to choose which friends or relatives their child ends up with and maybe adding an emotional aspect to this as well! :D

I am beyond impressed with everything ya'll have done! My suggestion for adoption would be maybe some "light" procedure to have to follow like an actual adoption process. Maybe have to fill out a paper or go to a quick interview, something that feels like I am worthy of adopting a sweet little one that needs a home! 🥰

Something I recall someone saying on Reddit was that it would be nice for morning sickness to be a toggle on and off? Emetophobia is a pretty common fear so that might be a nice accessibility feature if it's at all possible! But this is exciting news and a great starting framework, can't wait to see how the pregnancy and adoption systems grow throughout early access💜💜

Hello Jereme, I will miss seeing your posts but so excited for May 25th and what's to come. I do have a question and if already asked I must have missed it, but I love that an adoption system is being added for Paras to adopt a baby, but will Paras be able to put babies up for adoption? The thought of having 3 babies all at once when just starting out kinda freaked me out. Lol. Again, thank you for all your dedication and talent devoted to Paralives! ✨️

Its insane that I finally joined now, I didnt even know about the patreon till yesterday I dont know how! Very excited to go through everything I've missed. Cant believe the game is almost in early access it feels like its been forever and like no time has passed at the same time. I feel like I've been wating forever and yet I cant believe its comming so soon. You guys have put so much into this game and I personally really appreciate it. Thank you all for what you guys do!

Thank you for all your 33 posts Jeremie 🥹 I think that 24h of pregnancy feels too short. As almost everything else in the game, it will be customizable, which is great! However it still feels so short “base” set up, 48h at least would be ideal. This made me curious how the age stages have been split up on a base note. Does 1 day represent 1 year +/- ? For example, how long is the baby going to be a new born before the next baby stage (which I suppose would be a toddle)? Thank you as always, can’t wait for the family dynamics to be further developed in EA! Definitely looking forward to more family interactions between parents and siblings, and events like baby gender reveal / baby shower or interactions of “meeting new baby” and gifting for a reason in general 😊

I'm a big fan of Paralives and have been following it since the beginning. I'm Brazilian and I'd like to know if there will be a translation.

I'm loving Paralives, I've been following it since the beginning, I'm really looking forward to the game ;) I have an idea, it would be interesting to have an orphanage in the future so we can go in and meet babies, children and even teenagers

How about a small chance that the baby might be intersex?

It would be cool if the adopting family needs to follow some rules (get a bed, toys, ...) first, before they can finally adopt a child. They could adress the wish first and it could be a whole process.

I’m very happy adoption will be available from may 25th! Can’t wait to see how you expand it later on in development. I’d consider maybe changing pregnancy length to 48h or 60h so players can see gradual changes to the bump, role play maybe a baby shower (before social events become an official feature) etc. I understand if 72h might be too long depending on the life span of the parafolk but it’d be nice to have the experience feel like a bigger change to the paras life by making it a tad bit longer! I can’t wait for may 25th - your updates will be missed Jérémie!

This was a really exciting post and I can't wait to see how these systems are developed further in the future! One thing I'd love to see is a together card option for pregnant parents to tell their children that they are "going to have a new baby sibling". And perhaps different children might have different emotional responses to this news. Maybe some children would be excited, while others would be anxious. I think it would be really lovely for storytelling purposes. Also in the past you showed that we would be able give our paras middle names and nicknames. Is this still possible?

I'm sure you are already planning on adding the ability to adopt older life stages too, so when you do I would love it if they had some memory or relationship with a bio family! It makes sense that infants would not, but children-teens would (toddlers is hard to say, really, either way could work for them). I also know someone on Reddit was currently asking if kids get taken away, if there is a time period where you can get them back, which I think is a great idea, and then they should be adoptable to other families if the family fails.

This is all so exciting! I love how we will be able to customize things like the chance for twins or triples :)

I cant wait for this game i got my gaming laptop and gaming pc ready to go we only have 5 weeks to go

I'm so excited! Going to the hospital adds a little bit of immersion to a big event. I hope there are plans to make an orphanage or something so we can adopt other life stages someday. I love that we can control pregnancy length too!

I know a lot of people were waiting more details on this, so I'm very happy for all of you! To me it seems like 24h pregnancies might be too quick so I'll probably change it to 72h

Im sure this has been asked before, but seeing as it was mentioned in the post, what is the household size limit, and can it be adjusted? Really happy to see that adoption will be in the game from release day, even if its in its most basic form. The customizable pregnancy term limits are super cool too! Is there a way we can influence the gender of the baby, or if a pregnancy will result in twins/triplets? (like through commands or through gameplay) I'm so looking forward to Early Access. Thank you Devs! You're doing such a great job.

Maybe a nitpick, and this might not be as important to many people, but I'd really appreciate if the gendered colours/language for babies was turned down. There should probably still be a way to see the babies birth-sex, but maybe rather as a small sign or something.

Aaaah, last few posts before the game is out!! 😭 So amazing that it's actually happening, back when there were only a couple clips on youtube about build features I thought this cool looking game would never see the light of day.. You've all done amazing work and I'm so eager to play it and build fun houses! :D

Love it! I'm just wondering why hospital for adoption? 🤔 Is it just a placeholder for creating orphanage later on?

Nossa tão legal, adoro jogabilidade em família,com bebês e crianças,Chega logo dia 25/05.🩷😍

Omg this is great news❤️✨

Babies and pregnancy are basically the most important thing to me in a life sim game (or any game honestly lol) so this was all very exciting to read! Can't wait to be making families and all their stories!!!

Yay can't wait getting a new gaming laptop in August

HAPPY 33rd post Jeremie!! This is amazing I love the improvements so much 👏🏻✨

i read adoption and clicked on this so fast edit: i do hope some day there’s an option to have a surrogate, i know i can make one of my male parafolk get pregnant, but i rather not do it that way and if there was another option i would appreciate it! this was a great post!! i can’t wait to play this game 🥹