2022 Recap
Hello everyone! Jérémie here with this week’s Patreon post. As the year draws to a close, we wanted to take a look at everything we’ve done through 2022, go into more details about some aspects of the game that we haven’t talked much about and overall reflect on how things went. We are super grateful for your continued support and you allow us to make this game a reality. This post is for Patrons only, so please do not share it, thank you! Also please note that this is not the last post of the year, but the timing was right for this one!
Live Mode Planning
After focusing on the Paramaker last year, we decided that this year was going to be focused on the live mode. We spent some time in January deciding how we would proceed and then separated the Live Mode planning into chunks to do one after the other. We calculated that one of these “chunks” might take about five to six months, based on how our Paramaker planning went. There was way more game design and meetings for live mode tasks than what we were used to, and we still needed to do some work on older systems like the Paramaker and the Build Mode. It was a wild ride! We’ve managed to do a lot, but there is still quite a bit of work on the live mode that will carry over in 2023.
Being able to select a Para, open an interaction menu and have the Paras do things when that happens are all basic things, but they require a lot of thought, planning and design.
Interactions, Skills, Personality
Being able to create interactions using our mod system was something we started this year. Using this framework, it’s going to be easy to create interactions that allow characters to do things with the world around them. We still need to add a lot around this core, but we have a solid base to build on.
Mustache Man has a lot of thinking to do
We also brainstormed about Skills and Personalities a whole lot and we have some very exciting stuff brewing! Our skill system design is almost there - we could talk about some of our ideas in the future - but Personalities are an especially vast subject. What are personalities in Paralives? Is it a trait-based system, a point-based system, is the personality of your Para about the “small” things or the “important” things? We could’ve spent an extra month brainstorming that subject, which wasn’t time we had. We’ll go back to it next year and conclude this brainstorm for sure!
Music and Audio
In 2022 we worked on establishing the musical style for the Paramaker (the tracks in that post are not a perfect example of the final style we’re going with, but they were a great reference) and the Build Mode, we’ve also done a lot of tests to see how music could work in Live Mode. We also did a lot of brainstorming and testing on the overall sound design (UI sounds, ambient layers, character voices and movement noises). We also started building our audio system to allow us to add all these sound and music tracks in the game, which will be available to modders when the game comes out. Lastly, Andrei created a bunch of sound effects for both the Paramaker and the Build Mode.
Paramaker Improvements
A lot of work was done on the Paramaker in 2022. This makes sense because our fantastic artists did a lot of work on new clothes, testing fabrics, testing new sliders and trying to create new characters. As they did so, they came across issues and bugs that needed to be resolved immediately or otherwise it would hinder their progress. We also added the tattoo system, where you can move, resize and rotate tattoos, moles and other birthmarks on your Paras in a simple-ish manner.
I’ve made the tattoo small :)
A lot more things were done too, like being able to have multiple categories shown at once, scrolling to the equipped items so they are easy to find, adding layering for specific clothes and much, much more!
Codebase Tweaks
Something we didn’t talk much about that I (Jérémie) spent a good chunk of time this year was re-writing some of our Build Mode code. Not to get into the small details, but there was a piece of software we used that didn’t fit our needs anymore, so we had to take it out. That took me a few weeks, and I’m glad it’s over! I wish I could’ve spent this time creating new features instead, but that’s how these things work sometimes - it allowed me to improve some parts of the game that we hadn’t touched in a while and we feel much more confident about the codebase, neat!
Character Animations
This year, Alice worked on a lot of different animations for adults, toddlers and babies. She worked on locomotion animations, emotions, sitting animations and reactions as well. Many of these animations are already integrated in the game as live mode interactions. Anna also worked on the procedural adaptation system for animations, making sure that they work for Paras of different heights.
A few different ways to sit, both on a couch and on the floor!
Paras of All Ages
We’ve worked on old Paras and on very young Paras: both on the design of their appearances, what extra things we needed in the code to support them, and animations as well. We need to do our big aging design so we can have characters growing up - in a way we would call ‘gradual’ (more details will come later) - and decide what they can and can’t do.
I’ve made Para-Toddler climb on Para-Elder using our photo mode tools (something we also did this year!), there is no “climb on adult” interaction... yet ;)
Environments, Vegetation, Items
A bit like with the Paramaker, there was a lot of work done on items, environments and vegetation. The artists really got to work on creating new stuff, and we saw there were problems and certain features were missing or lacking in certain aspects. For the art team, being able to take what they’ve made and import it in the game has to be simple, flexible and as easy to use as possible, so we had to improve a few aspects of the Item Editor, amongst other things. I think we’re almost there!
Because we want to offer great modding tools for players, we have to make the tools at the same time as the game, and that takes extra time. We are quite a small team!
You might remember this house from last week’s post, it’s the culmination of our efforts on that front so far!
Genetics
Anna did some work on genetics in the past, but we wanted to give things another push in order to solidify our design and genetic features. This is required to create children from two Paras, create siblings and much more. There is a lot to think about when designing a genetic system. What exactly is the part that can be inherited from your parents? How is skin color decided? Eye color? Hair color? Do we pick one randomly? Try to use some advanced algorithm to figure something out in a more complex manner? We have the answers to some of these questions now. We will have more info on that in a future post!
Still very much a work in progress, but we can create fully grown adults from their parents.
The Town Map, Households and Lots
I really would’ve loved to show you the Town Map today, but the user interface and visuals are not ready. I designed and implemented the system, but we didn’t have the time to remove placeholder images and make it pretty. I can, however, tell you these things; when zooming out very far, you will see the Town Map overlay over the game view. It’s not a separate menu and you will be able to access it pretty much anytime you’re in Live Mode. In this view, you will be able to switch the household you are currently playing, buy lots and view where your characters are, amongst other things. We’re really excited to think about everything else that we will add in this map!
In addition, for the moment, we have decided that a household can have one, more than one or zero lots. This means that if you have enough money, you could buy multiple lots for the same household. It also means that if you want to try to set up some challenge for yourself, you’ll be able to start without a lot and rely on things like community bathrooms, restaurants and the like to fulfill your needs. This is of course subject to change, but this is where we are at at the moment. We still need some extra features, like being able to split and merge households and edit a lot without having a household selected, but this is a good first step. Again, we’ll show the town map and household management in a later post.
Some Finishing Words
There are so many more things we’ve done this year, some that you’ve already seen, others that we aren’t ready to reveal yet, but we had to take some long and hard looks at our priorities multiple times during the year in order to progress on some key components of the game. As such, we won’t have an end-of-year video like we did last year with the Paramaker, nor do we have a video planned for the holidays. Some people would’ve needed to stop forward progress a month ago and focus their energies and time on that front, but we wanted to keep the momentum going. When we come back from the holidays, we will give things a big push to be able to release a longer video showcasing many Live Mode gameplay elements.
I’m super excited to see what’s coming in 2023 for Paralives, and I hope you are too!
Jérémie out!
Comments (54)
Wow, I honestly wish I could fiddle with it already! It looks brill. RIP sims lmao
I've just now moved from SimCity to Cities Skylines and it's so awesome how much more you can do in that game! And I can't WAIT to do that with The Sims 😄
Keep up your good work, it's amazing! "for the moment, we have decided that a household can have one, more than one or zero lots" --> I'm especially hyped by this feature right now, being able to have your kids moving out without having to expel them from your active family is like a dream so I hope this feature will see through the development! Only issue would be the money aspect maybe. I don't know if it's already planned or easily feasible but if we coud have separate bank accounts for either one or several paras it would allow us to manage easily this one household - multiple groups case scenario. Well, this wish result of the way another well known game manages their worlds... I don't really know how the game flow will be managed in paralives so this wish of mine may be not relevant at all^^
Wow. RIP Sims You are literally thinking of everything. And I am so stoked to be able to watch the transparent progress. If anyone ever EARNED their billionaire status, you did. And I see that in your future, for sure. Every update makes me more and more excited to play. Especially with all the build mode options since I currently love Sims for build mode play. And Sims doesn't hold a candle to what paralives does and it's not even completed yet. So amazing! And so much hard work. Utmost respect to everyone that is bringing this together. 👏 ❤️
I'm so excited about all the work you've done this year. I can't wait to see what 2023 brings
I can already see a homeless challenge for me in the future...Also is there any plan to add occults into the world at a later date?
Howdy! We do not plan to add anything supernatural in the base game as we are aiming for something more realistic, this does not rule it out entirely for an update much much later in the future, but it's not planned at the moment
Just to remember the team about some feedback on the nails/toenails colors, seems it pops too much, would preffer a transulucent skintone or the removal of it, unless selected, it would look better imo. Thx for all that amazing year, i hope the team can continue to grow in 2023!
Wow just Wow u guys doing really great job at developing this amazing future game and please keep zero lot option ;)
Will you be able to use Accurig with paralives?
I am very happy about the amount of flexibility the player will have to tell the story THEY want to tell.
Bravo to y'all for all the hard work!! <3
I'm proud to be contributing to this project, and each post cements that further. Here's to another year, and a wonderful winter to the team. Rest well.
I'm in love 💕💕
*insert Jonah Hill excited screaming gif* so excited for actually homeless paras! I love playing rags to riches, so this is a dream come true!
Oh wow this is a lot to take in ! So much information in that recap :) I can't wait to see the town in the future, but at the moment I can't help but applaud the fact that we'll be able to own so little (or so much) with our Paras. In the last years I played That Other Game 4™, I'd ONLY do rags to riches narratives (oftentimes regretting that I can't do rags to rags, since that game is intent on forcing wealth on just about every playthrough), starting with as little as possible, so the perspective of having an additional tool to craft the most dire of circumstances is really appealing ; but also, I'm very interested in the idea that Paras could, if things go wrong, LOSE their lot. This is the kind of thing I'm after, because the kind of life simulation I like to run is more like, extreme struggle and basically modern/urban survival, so knowing the tools will be in place for that is exciting.
Thank you for the kind words! Although we plan to let people create households that start the game without a lot, we do not plan to create special gameplay around that idea. If players want to try challenges or create stories for themselves, we're all up for that, but losing a lot through gameplay, is not something we want to do. Have a great day!
Will the town map be similar to the way The Sims 3 allows you to zoom out and see a birds-eye view? I love watching from such a high angle and seeing the birds fly around, cars driving, people going about their life etc. as well having the music more subdued - and having the small icon to show you all of the houses and businesses. It created a strong sense that you are observing a living and breathing world. I hope it won’t be a static world map as that is very lifeless and uninteresting. Great work so far this year, seeing all the developments every week keeps me excited and makes me look forward to reading the new post every Friday :-)
Yayyy yayyy I can’t wait for the longer video and the town map🤤🤤
Omg 😱para-Elder so cute
I simply love where this is all going. I probably missed something on aging, can we freeze the aging process as to where our para folk don't get older than twenties or thirties?
If public transit is a thing it would be cool if the stops appeared on the map and the different routes that would pass by these different lots and a wait time to catch the next bus so paras could possibly be late to places due to delays. I’m curious if some lots will appear autonomously or if that is possible? Instead of players building lots to fill up a town lots would/could also appear on their own? Are neighborhood to be a possibility of looking at too? Like zoning of different areas being a specific part of town we can name. But it’s on the same map
I have a suggestion about town map, i think it would be interesting if we could zoom into the map and hover over the lots and it’d pop up with information. Like closing/opening times, sales happening, the type of lot it is, price range of items found there, and like an indication stating if a lot is packed that evening or not like rush hour times etc.
Oooh homeless paras with no lots please keep this 😍😍 oh this would be so great to have and the stories would be endless to play out. Would eviction be possible too? Like paras being able to be set up in a home but then later move to a zero based lot?
Great work Paralives team! I'm so excited to see what's to come in 2023. I really have to applaud you for your consistency! You're great with keeping us posted and giving regular updates - this means a lot to me. I think I'm most excited to see the town map (the postcard really gave me New Hampshire/Maine/Nova Scotia vibes so I wonder if the town will actually look like that!) but also the in-depth live mode showcase :)
Ahhh! We can have homeless Paras that are actually playable?!?! This is amazing! 😍😍😍
I am curious about how restricted the mods will "have" to be in the game. Will mod creators have free will or will they have to follow certain rules?
Wondering the same thing? I hope script mods are being considered too
So much to be excited about! I love the flexibility of what I'm reading between the lines for the town map!! Sounds absolutely fabulous!! I also love that Paras can have multiple or zero lots, so that I can play homeless too!! I love starting my Paras from scratch and watching them grow. I'll be using these systems a lot!! I just hope that the slope to becoming rich is much, MUCH slower (no millionaires within weeks!). The money struggle is part of the fun of accomplishment! And I can't wait to see the genetics and personality systems, the skills systems and the emotion systems and all the other systems!! Upcoming is the most exciting part of development for me - the genetics and personality systems and all the systems that drive it!! I can't wait to see how they're going to work and how they are going to affect and drive gameplay! I want to play a REAL life sim!! This game is shaping up to be absolutely awesome! Seeing the climbing toddler, would it be possible to have toddlers be able to climb into parents'/people's laps? This is what toddlers do a lot - when they need social attention, when they're tired, when they're scared (new person in the room) etc - particularly some personalities can be clingy. These are some of the natural everyday things I'd love to see in the game.
Not sure where to begin, so many interesting subjects in this recap! Looking forward to more info on live mode, (gradual) aging, genetics, more on babies/toddlers and elders and the town map/view/options next year. The lot info is awesome, hope you will be able to keep the option to start out without a house/lot and maybe allow second homes, split household over multiple lots (divorced paras with two houses for the kids to peddle between) and renting out lots in the future. Would like to learn more about how to start up with a para/household; can the player set a household amount freely or are there specific amounts depending on difficulty level and/or size of the household, can you choose education/qualifications/jobs and lot/house before they leave the paramaker and so on. It's understandable if you won't be able to share more about this process until later as it might be too detailed at the moment. I'm very excited to learn about the town options, I've mentioned before that I'm a big fan of the Awesomemod for TS3 which allows for similar options, including switching households from live mode/town view (by right-clicking IIRC) and the ability to track certain sims with an indicator so when you zoom out you can see the location of the labeled ones. Looking forward to how this is going play out in Paralives. Will the team be on leave for the second half of December/end of the year? A long vacation would certainly be well deserved!
There are so many exciting features in this post that I look forward to hearing more about! But for now the one I'm happiest to hear about is the ability to have zero, one, or more lots for a household. I love rags to riches challenges, and this will make them so much better!
It’d be interesting if we could rent out the extra lots for cash! Like build a home on a second lot and rent it out
I'm loving it all! ❤ I have a feeling this game will be my favorite of all time...
The town map sounds really excellent i love the Idea of starting at the bottom with nothing and living off the map, getting a job and working your way up to one lot or two! The freedom of the map to design your own town would be a great idea!
I am so excited!!!! Especially about the town map and households! It sounds like you are putting so much thought and care into every party of the game, which ultimately is what is going to make this game so great! :)
Can't wait for more info on the open world.
I'm speechless. It is so amazing to see the progress that has happened over this year. 🙌 Maybe we can get abandoned houses if we don't want to start with an empty lot. I would love it if my Para could stay at a house they don't own and try to save up to buy it. I look forward to more news.
Perhaps even squatting and risk being evicted by the actual owner if they show up? I would really like it if paras were able to rent out lots/houses or keep them (temporarily) empty/abandoned, but that the ownership would come with responsibilities: like a landlord would have to (hire someone to) repair broken things, check in every now and then to make sure the house isn't neglected or there are squatters and so on.
You all have done an amazing job! I am so so excited to see what 2023 has in store for Paralives! <3
AHH!!! Homeless Paras!!! One of my favorite challenges! You guys have done such amazing work this past year. I'm so excited to see what's been happening behind the scenes that we haven't seen yet, too :)
I get more and more excited for this game and its future, so many ideas to try! Multiple households and the genetics, fantastic elements just to name a couple!
Did- did I just read that my suggestion is being put into the game? Cause Jeremie just said that you’ll be able to see where your Parafolk is. I suggested that you’ll be able to go to the parafolk’s location instead of clicking on the house and then see your sim’s location so if that’s the case thank you so much Paralives team!
So much work done! Great job, team! I'm so excited for what's up to come. Love the character design of the parents in the Genetics picture btw!! <3
Next year sure sounds exciting! I for one can’t wait to see the town map feature, do you have concept for the town yet? I really can’t wait to see more of the vibe of the town after the house showcase last week. So quaint! It really feels like all the three game modes are coming together slowly but surely for a great base for the game. I’m beyond stoked
The fact we'll be able to have a homeless para is awesome!!!! I love that 😃
I’m loving everything i’m seeing and hearing about Paralives and its driving my excitement through the roof! I especially love the idea of multiple houses and households on one lot! That’s typically how i love to play my poor to rich legacy challenges! Can’t wait to see what’s in store!
Seeing the toddler on the adults back makes me want to see piggyback riding be a thing xD maybe as an extra way of carrying
incredible team ❤️ and the black haired para from Genetics section...is he single? 😁
Aaaaa this is so nice to read!! 2022 was a great year for the game and I can't wait to be here to see more 💖
This is an incredible update! Thank you Jérémie and thank you to the whole Paralives team! It was especially exciting to hear about the map :) This has been a fantastic year of progress and I can't wait to see what next year holds!
I'm so excited for this games future!! Been following the progress for around 2.5 years now ❤️
Thinking about the possibility of buying more lots... What if we had the option to rent a second home? So maybe to earn some extra money, for those who maybe decide not to follow an initially very profitable career (a writer, an artist, etc.)
It's certainly something that we'll think about :)
This made my day!! Omg I’m so proud of the long journey of seeing so much amazing work that’s been put into Paralives! 🥰♥️ I’m excited to see what 2023 brings !! Keep it up team!