Exclusive Look at the Map View
Hey there!
Alex here to talk to you about a brand new feature that Jérémie recently developed: the map view! This is where you will be able to get a zoomed out look at the town, manage your household, purchase lots, see where your Parafolks are, and more. Let’s get started! This post is for Patrons only so please don’t share, thank you!
⚠️ Please note: The town showcased in this post is just a small temporary placeholder town that we have created for testing the map view. The final town will be larger and completely different!
🗺️ How to Use the Map View
To access the map view, simply zoom out while playing in live mode or in build mode. An overlay will appear showing the different lots. Here's a GIF to illustrate that:
The road looks quite basic right now but it’s temporary and you can see the look it will have in this Patreon post. Also, you might recognize the house from last week’s post!
When you are in the map view, just click on a lot to see more info and actions available for that lot.
In this panel, you can:
See the surface area of the lot
See the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, if it’s a residential lot
See who lives there, if the lot is occupied
Decide to play with this household, if the lot is occupied
Purchase the lot, if it is unoccupied and if you have the funds
Bulldoze and sell everything that’s on the lot if you want to start fresh and build a new house from scratch
Thanks to Alejandro, our new intern, for adding this feature last week!
👨👨👦👦 Manage your Households
When starting a new game in Paralives, you will be able to either create a new household and select a lot to move in or to select an existing household who already lives in one of the prebuilt houses.
This button allows you to enter the Paramaker and create a brand new family or group of Parafolks.
Some people like to mix things up and play with different households instead of always playing with the same family. To make that easy, we made it so you can switch to any other household in town at any time. In the future, we will add options so you can decide if the members of your different households grow up and progress in their lives while you are playing with another household.
One more thing we did is showing small icons that represent your household characters on the map view. This way, it’s pretty easy to zoom out and quickly spot where all your Parafolks are in town. You can click on one of these icons to make the camera zoom in on the corresponding Para. This will come in handy when you are looking for the children who are getting late for dinner!
There you are, Eli!
I hope you liked this look at the map view in Paralives! It’s a very important feature that will be constantly used by players and it’s been really great and satisfying to have it up and running.
Have a great rest of the day!
Alex
Comments (111)
I love all the life quality gameplay adustments ! Also will we still be able to modify the size and location of the lots ?
Looks amazing!! Will there be family/character bios?
I'm so late - I know it's such a tiny detail but I love the lil For Sale's ^_^ Imagined a little real-estate agent para popping up and plastering a big SOLD when you move in haha This game is shaping up to be so darn cozy and already feels so full of soul and life. That Create a New Household button is adorable and feels nostalgic for some reason XD
This looks awesome!! I love the ability to do rotational play, too.
I like the use of icons to spot our paras around the map, my only concern is how big the map could be in the final version, because if the map is pretty big it could be easy to lose track of our paras. Will there be something like a compass to navigate back to our paras or will we be able to snap back to our specific paras by clicking the portrait of our played paras? What if we are trying to find a specific para-person who isn't in our household
Ohh my god. Having more room for houses will make stories flow so well. In other games I feel like families with a lot of relatives are too spread out and can't even live in the same area. I'd love to keep big families somewhat nearby.
Wow ! Being able to switch to another household it's amazing ! I will not be heartbroken to see my niece getting old without me noticing it 🤣
Has this been stated before or will there be restrictions on how close to the edge of the lot that you can build? I'ld like to create houses that are wall-to-wall but on different lots (like in real life) will this be possible?
Yes, this will be possible! You can place a wall right next to the edge of the lot so two neighbour walls can touch
In the 3rd gif image, showing bulldoze action, why there is a door left behind?
I assume it’s just a temporary bug that will be fixed lol
I love it! But I was wondering if it would be possible to create your own city, or if there will be a couple of cities to choose.
This looks so awesome y’all!! Can’t wait to play this. 👏 How smooth will changing between families be? Will it be like a live/quick hop over (Like if you switch to another household the paras would be in the middle of an action/animation)? Or will there be a loading screen in between switches causing the paras to reset? Sorry for wording my question poorly
Wow, this game just gets prettier and prettier. I'm so excited to see how the gameplay turns out, but the build mode makes me want it now. Love the idea of your other character having an icon and being able to switch to them at any time. Keep up the great work! 🥰
So rotational play is possible! Yes, that's so great!
I'm playing Sims right now and something that kind of bothers be when in Buy/Build is that I can't filter items by their effects (i.e. environment, comfort, etc). Would love if you guys could incorporate this in mind for Paralives!
I think the photo idea is definitely different a bit to get used to. It’s good if we are only using it for one para in a household (clicked onto their profile or something to show we’re controlling that para), it’s also quite big but it makes sense if we’re looking for that para. Have you guys thought up what your indication may be for when you’re controlling a para, if wanted? It may not be necessary but it could be fun. Something that can be turned on and off in photo modes for live game
I really want the ability to be involved in more than one household at a time. For Example, one household is the grandparents of my main house hold (a family of 5). I would love to be able to play both and switch between them often to story tell from multiple paras perspective.
I love that you can see your family on the map while in build mode - I hope this means no one is aging while I'm building because it'll take me 10 Paralives years to build one house. LOL.
Wow it’s really coming along thanks too all team for all of yur hard work thought out.
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. Keep it up!
Looks amazing! I know Paralives will probably come out after Project: Rene, which is undoubtedly some competition, but please don’t rush this game to keep up or stay relevant. Most likely, that game will face the same issues all titles of theirs have in the past, they prioritize quantity over quality and the only drive making money. Your team has the potential to revolutionize the world of life simulation games! Super excited for it! I love the weekly updates we get and it’s fun to see it progress, keep up the good work❤️
Thank you so much for your support!❤️
This game looks incredible! Im excited to jump in and start playing 😅
I love the design of everything and that location indicator is super useful! One minor detail i think could be kinda obtrusive is the lots always saying „for sale“ in red when you open the map view, maybe you could add a sort of toggle or mode for purchasing lots rather than just navigating the town. In any case its so exciting to see a glimpse of the world (even if its just a placeholder lol)
I’m sure this will be customizable as will a lot of things in this game😊 I mean, you can change the appearance of the sun and moon—seemingly without any modding tools.
this is looking really awesome, i'm super excited! one thing i noticed though - on the bulldozing gif there seems to be a door(?) in the top left corner that doesn't go away after bulldozing? do you know why that is? and a related question - the landscaping stays even after bulldozing, so will there be a different way of quickly deleting Everything, including rocks, trees, etc.? incredible update as usual, hope you all have the bestest weekend! ✨ EDIT: checking again it seems some of the landscaping does delete, but not all?
I really don't even care that the town is small for this preview because this looks pretty great :D
Looks great, but I think the threshold for transition to map view should be a bit farther out or configurable. Perhaps a toggle to hide interface stuff for screenshots of neighborhood and towns. Yeah, speaking of screenshots, by default they could have paralives watermark and build number, with that and some other diagnostic related data in metadata. (recent inputs, para actions, errors, camera changes). Something like that might streamline troubleshooting even before release as well.
There have been so many awesome new peeks lately! I can't help but feel like we're getting close to a release announcement. Everyone on the team is doing an great job and it looks great!
This is amazing and exciting!! The game is has really come together now!! I have a couple ideas though from your pics: On the mapview of the first gif, perhaps the "For Sale" icons could also display prices and lot sizes and addresses? I LOVE that the Para households will each have an address - that's one of the things that made Paralives seem SO unique in the early days a few years ago. An address gives the households a tangible reality. Please don't loose that! And could the current lot display the current $ value? I also agree with some people above who would like to see the actually house size in 2m for both the current house and any houses for sale. I also agree with some others that the picture locating ion for Paras is an absolutely brilliant feature, but perhaps a little too large. Great stuff!!
It's so clean and beautiful! Wonderful work so far ^^
It looks great, the art style is looking better and better! Also, I'm happy that you are taking rotational/whole neighbourhood players in mind.
This is exactly what I was talking about last week : the way things are slowly starting to tie in together ! Look at that map ! Look at that UI ! At the risk of repeating myself, this is exciting \o/ Just one quick note : I have a small issue with the fact that the household needs a name, in this case "The Marquez household". What happens if we have several unrelated characters ? Whose name is picked by the engine ? Not that the alternative, having to write it manually, would be better (...because then we would have to pick which Para's name to use ourselves, or have to come up with a "creative" household name). Why not just use the address of the household ? Or just bypass the title altogether (especially for households not yet placed on the map), since their character icons appear in the UI anyway.
I'd like to see both sets of information. On the very early street videos, they used to have the street address prominent. I really loved that - the street address really added realism and individuality to each household. Perhaps they could have something like "The Marquez Household, 2 Poplar Street, Paraville", if it will fit. Or have it in two separate fields.
This is so amazing and exciting!!! It looks so great already and very promising! I love how you’ve taken into account that some players play with multiple households, such as myself. I wonder if there’ll be an option to see all the other paras’ icons in map view too? I love knowing where everyone in my towns are. I must say I absolutely love that we can see how many beds and baths are in a house! That’s so genius and helpful! I wonder how does the game know? Does it look for a complete room with a bed/toilet in it?
This looks amazing! I love seeing the world come together with the art style and vegetation! Just curious - have you guys started brainstorming names for the base game town yet??
Amazing! I’m appreciating the art style more and more with each new post. There’s something very soothing about it. I love watching the progress and talent displayed. I’m primarily a builder and love to experiment with different options so undo and redo options is something I’m always playing with. I don’t know if this is a possibility (I have zero technical experience )but if there would some sort of undo history option where you could go back and forth between a large number of steps and compare different options. (I use adobe photoshop a lot -so like how the history palette works. Where you can capture a specific point in history and toggle between the images.)
This is so exciting! It's so amazing seeing how everything is coming together, you all are working hard over there and it shows!! Thanks for sharing 💕
I like the neighborhood. The streets are big enough to do entertaining but mundane things such as riding a bike or walking your dog.
It would be really helpful if each household keeps track of how long you've played with them in the info panel on map view. For example, it might say "Thursday, Week 2" if you've played with them through the Thursday of the second week. The purpose of this is time synchronicity and managing aging for rotational players.
I think this is a fantastic idea and would be so helpful for people with terrible mememories for that kind of thing.
As someone who only does rotational play, I'm glad you're keeping this in mind. I really like my families to be frozen in a "save state" when I'm not playing with them. After I switch to a new family, I would hope to see my other families appear in the town as non-playable "clones" of themselves that we can interact with. These clones should exist to record any inventory changes and relationship changes so that once I go back to play them as active, their save states are updated.
yes, like Sims 2!!! I've never found a way to play Sims 3 or 4 that way that satisfied me.
this is jus wonderfull, for real 2 things that i think will be fixed, but s good to point out: 1-this blueish tone that appears when you zoom out is not good for visbility. 2-the para icon could be smaller i think
This looks awesome!!
Oh god, I love this update !! I am so excited again !!
Something I just thought about for the routing of the paras (Inspired by the gif of Eli running into the neighbor's yard), but did any one else as a kid get yelled at by neighbors for being on their property? As a kid I didn't understand how rude it was to just use someone's yard as a shortcut, but now as an adult it almost feels like an invasion of privacy. Should paras be routed to go around lot boundaries that aren't their own? Or should it be allowed, but also allow paras that are the owner of that property to go interact with that para such as: tell them to get out, yell at them, or even call the police and have them arrested/escorted home with a fine?
So beautiful. Eagerly awaiting release. But loving seeing these updates and how things keep progressing. It’s very cool to get to see the process. 😊💛
Thank you! It's really nice to be able to share our progress with the community😊
And this is why I will continue to plege my support!
Thank you so much for supporting the project!
Will we be able to build without having a family chosen? Will the picture of the para when you zoom out be changeable (in case it blocks the view of other stuff)? And is it possible to show the "m²" of the living area and not just the lot surface :). Yet again, this is amazing!! Thank you guys for making this
Hi! Yes, it will be possible to build without having a family chosen :) We are not sure about the possibility to change the zoomed out picture yet. And we are also thinking making it show the "m2"of the living area, not just the lot surface!
I just got goosebumps looking at this. You're all so amazing i just can't
Aw thank you, Alysia 😊
I love this so much.
Thank you so much! :)
Pleased to see things taking shape ! I have one question : if I just want to zoom out above the town to see it but not see all the functionality of the map view, it is possible ?
I suppose it would be like the sims game, you press Tab to hide the UI
Omg! Thank you so much! I suggested that you can see the Parafolks in the world view! Thank you so much for putting it in the game!
Thank you for the great suggestion! 😊
I can't wait until you guys look at the aging issue. I fell in love with playing rotationally in the sims 2 (the sims don't age until the play them, so i only play the premade families and rotate playing every family so they age in sync). So i hope there are options that would allow me to play rotationally (i also hope the premade stories are interesting enough to keep me interested)
I agree, this is how I play TS2 in my custom neighbourhood now. I’d love if players could choose in Paralives between that aging system, or age progression outside the household if they prefer that (like people who do mainly play one family but don’t want everyone else to never age). Having the option of either one would be ideal!
I’m just excited 😒
Looks great ❤️👍🏻so excited
Thank you! 🥰
Will there be an option for paras to own multiple houses or maybe a real-estate feature? Is this maybe even a future possibility in a update or exspansion?
Owning more than one lot is already possible🤩
Are you planning on creating just a big, customizable world, or different, smaller individual worlds? I'm in love with the idea for people who likes playing with different households. I'd love to do that now, but the games I play don't make it easy, so I'd love to try your way!! Ugh, I can't wait
As of now, we plan on having just one customizable world for the base game :)
it's amazing to see features like this in action
thank you so much!
Will there be a way to view or change the street names/house numbers?
We are planning on it, yes :)
I want this game to come out soooo badly 😂
We understand the anticipation and are working as efficiently as we can!
fantastic features as always!
Thank you so much!
This is really looking exciting, I'm very much looking forward to it!
Thank you, Joe!
So excited 😬
So are we!!
every post i get more and more excited for this game!! its really coming alive!!
It really is, thanks for your support 😊
I internally screamed at the changing family at any time part! I love playing with many families and it have always been such a pain to switch
We're really glad you're liking that feature!
Absolutely love it (I know, I'm shocked too). Love this town view and so excited by the "find your para" feature. :)
Hehe, thanks Stewby! 😊
Love seeing this! I have a small suggestion to the UI art direction: for the blue house icons with the red “for sale” indicator, wouldn’t it be charming to make it look like one of the for sale signs that actually appear in the front yard of real life properties? Similar to this: https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/for-sale-sign
Oh this would be amazing!
this looks so cool! I love how it smoothly transitions in and out of map view <3
Thank you😊
I love it, couldn't be happier with these possibilities! Such ease to switch households (which I often did in TS3), see which lots/houses are for sale and eeven buying it and even track your paras! Will it also be possible to split households like this, for example move one adult from a family household into an empty lot/house in order to move out of the family home? Or when a family splits up and one parent wants to move out with their kid(s) while the others remain in the household. Or would that work differently?
Thank you! We're planning on having the possibility of splitting households but we still need to work on the details of it :)
oh, I will love this year. it's starting to look like a game and that's the most exciting part
2023 is off to a great start!
This is so cool! I'm so excited for what is to come this year for Paralives
Thank you! So are we😊
This looks amazing!!!
Thank you! 🥰
omgg it already looks so cool!! it’s getting me all so excited for the game and makes it all so much more real!! thank you guys! you’re doing such an amazing job 🧸🤎
Thank you so much for your kind words! ❤️
as someone who likes to often switch between households in one save file: THANK YOU!!! this looks incredible!
We're really glad you are enjoying the look of it! 😊
So excited seeing these things come together omgg
We're just as excited!!
OMG!! Thankyou so much! I love the town view so so much. Also love how you can see and pin your paras on the map. You guys have done amazing I’m so excited !! 😍🥰♥️
Thank you so much for the kind words, Becky! 🥰
It looks lovely!
Thank you, Thomas! 😊