A week in the Developer Life of Jérémie
Hello everybody! Jérémie here! Today I’d love to talk to you all about what I did last week. Posts such as these are great because I feel like they give a better idea of what it’s like to work on Paralives, the kind of tasks I personally do and give some tidbits of info about upcoming things that I’ve been working on! I’ve done that in the past and it’s quite fun, and I feel like people enjoy reading about it as well! As usual, this post is for Patrons only, so even if you want to share the cat pictures, please don’t. Thank you!
Tuesday, May 9th
On this first day, I started by fixing a bug we had with underwear on our Paras where wearing certain clothes would cause them to disappear. Underwear is pretty important, because it’s the one type of clothing that always needs to be present on your characters if they’re not wearing anything else! It had been a while since I worked on the Paramaker, but this kind of bug cropped up because artists needed to add new types of clothing to the game that temporarily hid underwear when worn, such as a strapless dress.
Left: Maggie in underwear. Center: Maggie dressed with her bra still visible. Right: Maggie dressed with her bra automatically hidden.
Afterwards, we had a team brainstorm about food! What kind of food items we would love to have in the game, how they would be presented, served, eaten, all of that. It was a fun time! I think poutine was pretty much requested by everybody, so we’ll see if Léa and Chloé have added it to the list of dishes we’ll have for the release. I finished the day by working on some secret relationship system features. We’re testing a few things out and I feel that this is another aspect of the game where we can innovate and bring fresh and new ideas. We still have to test them a bit more before we can talk about them, but I personally can’t wait!
Wednesday, May 10th
On the second day of the week, I investigated a bug we have with our pixelated effect for censoring. You might have seen it in last week’s dev chat document (jump on our Discord if you’re not sure what that is!) This bug is quite tricky and I can’t explain it very easily, but figuring out complex technical issues is part of the job too! It’s not all underwear and secret relationship systems!
Here’s our mustachioed man again, showing the pixelated mosaic bug. It’s like the visual effect doesn’t see the character underneath at all anymore! We really gotta fix that one! Or find an alternate solution!
Then I answered the dev chat (hey, that’s why this bug is in there!). I love taking the time every week to answer your questions! Part of being a game designer is being enthusiastic about the features you’re working on, so I hope this transpires clearly in my answers there!
I spent the rest of the day continuing thinking about specific aspects of the wants system. You might have seen them in last week’s Patreon post, and we’re still tweaking some parts of the design! Writing design documents can be a daring task, but we have a recipe that we use more or less all the time. Strong design pillars to orient the rest of the document, an analysis of other games and how they deal with that specific feature, a comparison of the pros and cons of various solutions, then a description of what we propose. We’re currently testing ideas for more features and innovations related to wants.
Thursday, May 11th
On Thursday, I helped Alejandro with a very important feature we are currently implementing; the ability for Paras to find the right items when they want to do interactions. If a hungry Para wants to autonomously eat, if you want to throw trash in a bin, if you need to find the fridge, then oven, then the countertop in order to make the best poutine possible, we need an in-game system to help us do that. We’ll still tweak it as we go forward and add more interactions and items, but after today, it was in a good spot.
It’s clear that we need a sink to wash this dirty plate in. Which one should we choose? Hmm...
Later that day, I had a good talk with Alex as well about wants, so I did some more research into other games and made progress on having a first version of the wants system in the game and being able to test it more-or-less for real. Because we talked about it and had a solid game design document, this went really easily. Measure twice, cut once, as they say!
Friday, May 12th
Today I managed to have a first version of the wants system running. It wasn’t that complicated, and now Paras can get wants semi-randomly and fulfill them. Of course, we’re not working on having the real content for the game immediately, so things I added were just placeholders and tests, it is going to be a lot of fun thinking about everything that goes into this system when we are ready to add to it! What kind of wants would you like to have in Paralives? Tell us in the comments below!
Here, in Paralives’ modding interface, you can see the placeholder wants I was talking about! ...although sometimes after fixing bugs all day, I also want a hug.
Otherwise, I tweaked a bit of the character interaction code, had a meeting with Alex and then spent some time looking at the people’s reaction to our Patreon post, both on Discord and under the post itself. I was pretty happy with what I saw and we received great suggestions as well! Don’t hesitate to give us feedback on our ideas if you have some, it’s always appreciated! Keep in mind that we can’t answer everybody and most of the time we might have thought of something related to your feedback - we do overthink everything - but we do read it all.
Monday, May 15th
I started the day by sharing a great joke with the team about a task that Léa currently has, which is to create a new bikini for the Paramaker.
What a hilarious joke. You can see why they keep me at Studio Paralives!
Then it was a full day of tests; I had to play with some parts of our autonomy system to make sure that it worked well with the item finding system I’ve talked about earlier. I wanted to make sure that every option we currently have related to the wants are functional and behave as intended, and also had to tweak some stuff here and there in my code to support all of that.
The rest of my day was spent on... a secret feature that we’re not ready to talk about just yet... But I can say that if it works like we want, it will help spice up the gameplay and even have the potential to add drama and chaos in the game if players are into that. It’s still just too early to share anything about it though, since going from an idea to something confirmed needs multiple rounds of design, tests, and all that, and we’re not there yet. But eventually...!
I hope you enjoyed reading this! I love writing this kind of post, I could probably do it every week... But we have other kinds of stuff to show you all, so I guess I can’t really do that! ...oh yeah, I talked about cat pictures earlier, haven’t I?
My programming companions, Tofu and Soya 🐱
Have a great weekend!
Jérémie
Comments (61)
the I want things idk , i wanna see my wants and a few i want and do what i want :(
Very cool! I wonder if there's a way to keep the bra visible under a shirt? It would be a cool thing to be able to swich on and off if possible!
I hope this need hasn't been mentioned yet, but I think I speak for all introverts out there when I say please add "I want to be alone". (⌒▽⌒)♡
I love this post! And I'm excited to hear more about this drama and chaos addition...hehe. Your programming buddies are the cutest - give them a pet from us!
Will we be able to make our characters not look sunburnt?
Howdy! I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but if you think the blush effect is too strong on Maggie in the first screenshots, you'll be able to adjust them. Thank you for the question!
I do like the idea of "I want a hug" or similar wants if you have a para who's especially into physical affection, who then gets sad if they don't it get it frequently enough. That's very realistic for a lot of people and I think it's cute for a game like this
1) Mustachioed man has nicer toe nails than me. Please keep this in the game! 2) For washing dishes, is there a way to set the kitchen sink as the default sink? Nothing worse than watching a character walk to the opposite end of the house to washes dishes in the bathroom sink when there's a perfectly good sink in the kitchen. 3) I ❤️ Tofu and Soya
Thank you for all the kind words! I don't know if there's going a way to manually set the default [sink] (or toilet, or garbage can, or other object) that should be used. It's a bit of micromanagement that we're not planning at the moment! If a Para goes to the bathroom sink to wash dishes, they better have a good reason!
Love everything im seeing!
Kitties!! <3
This might sound weird but that was a very vibrant picture of bikini bottom. Another thing I noticed is that you guys chose to go with the pixelated censor look. Will we as players be able to choose between the previous censor looks shown in the video pertaining to the different types of censors? If not, that’s okay 😊
Howdy! The part about the pixelated mosaic censor is that we're currently having a few bugs with it, so it's not set in stone whether it'll be available or not. We'll see if we can figure out how to have it as an option, but I don't know at the moment :') Thank you!
I love this style of post! As far as ideas for wants, it'd be fun if they're motivated by emotions and needs. Like if they're really sad or anxious, they might want to cope by eating ice cream or wanting an alcoholic drink. If they're excited they might want to dance or gush to a friend, etc. It'd also be fun is pregnant Paras had weird wants too like wanting certain foods at weird times of day.
Thanks for sharing your week with us, Jérémie ! It's true that this type of Patreon post is always instructive, and fun (and humorous ! a bikini !!!). Of course all my questions are about the secret secrets :P but otherwise it's very interesting how you jump from one thing to the other. As for the wants, obviously the more personalized to the current Para, the better. But not just because the wants need to match the Para's personality ; to me what matters is that it feels like it furthers the Para's personality, by pretending they have an inner life. This helps me bond with them (dare I say... form a Parasocial relationship ? PARAsocial ? get it ? that's right, I'm funny too !). And really what I'm looking for with this game is, well, building, but after that, emotion. So far Paralives has tried to be less cartoon-y and more cozy than That Other Game 4™, be it in visual style, musical style, or UI style, and I hope the gameplay is like that too. That it makes me feel close to the Paras I'm playing with. The wants are a big part of that, they're basically their way of surprising us and moving us. One of my fondest memories of That Other Game 3™ was when two married people I had been playing for their entire adult life retired. Near the "end", the wife got more tired, and needed to sleep a lot ; her husband would autonomously sit in the chair next to the bed. They'd have dinner together, and I'd put on some music, and they'd dance a bit after dinner. And then she died, and he never sat in the chair again, and didn't dance again. It was very bittersweet, and made me cry. Of course part of that was that I left them relatively autonomous, and some of their behaviors were probably internal logic (there were only two characters in the house, so he sat in proximity to the other one, for instance, and the fact that she was sleeping didn't matter as much as putting them in the same room). But if the equivalent of that couple, in Paralives, had the want "I want to spend more time with my wife" or "I want to slow dance with my husband as often as I can", it'd have essentially the same effect on me. And that's basically the kind of wants I'm hoping for. Not just things to do. Things to feel.
I want my paras to have messy and toxic wants based on their personalities. Like some paras might simply want to go on a date with someone, but a para with certain personality traits will want to go on a date with someone already in a relationship (and other awful things like that lol). A para may want a promotion, but a certain para will want to sabotage their coworker for a promotion or schmooze their boss for the promotion. Like how they want to go about doing things will be different based on their personality.
I have to agree with Michael that context is important for wants. They should be prompted by the objects/people in the surrounding area, the season (holiday events, etc.). I think what is really, really important is that wants come from the personality traits of the Para and combine with environment to create some wants that give that Para uniqueness! A memory system would be really beautiful to have, and if Paras can get wants based on memories AND context (time etc.) AND surroundings, that would really make the Para feel dynamic and engaging. Example: Para has a favorite hobby of swimming, the weather is hot, and the Para remembers a great swimming party with friends last year. This prompts a need to revisit old favorite events and, and the Para gets the want to visit a pool. (I really want weather, of you couldn't tell.) For foods, It's probably too specific but beer would be cool if you are doing adult beverages.
All neat ideas! We're going to be building on the Wants system step by step and we'll see where our designs take us!
Is that part of an underwater lot?
Handsome Squidward probably lives there!
I love these dev diaries 😭 That bug is so strange! I wonder what causes that. Btw, the paras finding items to perform interactions part… I was wondering if paras will actually open counter doors/cabinets to grab plates and stuff to prepare meals. I was playing the Sims 2 recently and I was baffled at that detail in an early 2000s game. I think its lovely and will make those cabinet doors feel more real rather than just decorative.
Thank you for the kind words! At the moment we don't see cabinets opening being a priority, but I can see how neat a little detail it can be. We'll see :)
I think a "fresh air" want could make a quick change of pace. In other games, I often end up keeping my character in the same area/room due to them working on stuff, so having a want for going outside might help break that monotony. Heck, a want for a change in surroundings could help with those of us who tend to be at home at all times. It would realistic if the want was connected to an activity the Para had previously enjoyed, gamewise I am thinking "set amount of joy gained from performing activity/being on a lot" [hidden count], which unlocks the want to be triggered. (It doesn't make sense to yearn for a place you hated, or an activity that doesn't suit the personality of the Para, after all.)
Interesting ideas for sure, thank you!
I would like to have introverted desires. E.g., the need to be alone for a while or the desire to get home quickly when you're at a party.
Oh! Or a "quiet corner" want - wanting to be away from the noise without leaving the party. The Para could walk outside the house where the party takes place, and just sort of... stand there, head spinning. (I've tried that, myself. Can't leave, can't stay? Quiet corner!)
Thank you team (but jérémie in specific this time cuz he's the one who wrote this post) 💖💖
I'd love to thank all you wonderful Patrons as well (but Pvydrow in specific this time because I'm replying to them on patreon!!!)
Super interesting! To answer your questions: In terms of types of wants (1) immediate, context-related wants -need related wants (social action if lonely, eat action if hungry, do something fun if bored -environment related wants (do actions relevant to the immediate surrounds. If at a community lot, wants to do actions related to that lot such as swim in the pool if at a public pool (2) moderate-term wants -examples include gain a skill point, become freinds with X, get promoted (3) longer-term wants -reach level X of skill, have a baby, paint X number of masterpieces, gain 5,000 paradimes etc. In terms of features (1) want "chaining" or progressive wants after an initial want is fulfilled -fulfilling a want to be friends with X para may cause a chained want to be best friends with that para to be rolled (2) wants that are related to general aspirations of paras: (family, romance, creativity, knowledge, exploration, fame, money, etc.) -small short-term wants can be general, but major wants should be related to these aspirations (3) consequences if wants are ignored. Potential option to disable this feature
Thank you for the suggestions!
I am FLABBERGASTED with the cat content. The wishes system might not play out exactly like that, but I'm just imagining how cute it would be for a para to come home after a long day of work and one of their wishes is to hug their partner or to have a movie night at home with their close friends! Or two paras don't spend as much quality time as they wish they did and to compensate one of them wants to make their favorite dish! Lastly, it might just be something to get used to. Still, I think that the ab lines of the paras (in this case, Maggie) could be a little lighter in color, just slightly more brownish, because I think the way they currently are draws too much attention from the face and ends up clashing a little bit. Everything else looks gorgeous! I can't wait to see what poutine seems like in the game :)))
Can’t wait to find out what “spicy” features you are working on. I love some drama. But not too much. Will there be an option for the level of “drama” you can have? Like; None, little, middle ground, a lot, extra spicy! 😂😄
As someone who is always hungry and always near a fridge, autonomous actions being tested and tweaked on my birthday (may 11th) is lowkey iconic. 1 question: will we be able to have underwear be visible with outfits that would normally remove them?
Howdy! Thank you for the question, this is not something we're planning at the moment, but we'll see if such a feature would be useful! I'm sure it wouldn't be technically impossible to do, but we do have a few considerations to take into account. Thanks again!
Thank you for sharing with us what you did last week. I find that very inspiring. I wish I had a job as interesting as yours!
Thank you for the kind words! I have a really cool job indeed :)
You got some great companions that will distract you all the time though. 😂 Have they “accidentally” stepped on your keyboard before, in the middle of working on something. And then you have to start over? 😂
Haha no! Sometimes when I play games they'll hit a key and something will happen, but they haven't caused bugs in the game... yet :)
So much hard work you're all doing for us! Thank you so much 😊 *hugs all around*
Oooh yeah I'm all for the drama and chaos :D
We’re all so proud of you guys! Seems like each day is a full day of work. Great job and keep it up! If I remember correctly, some folks on the team are focusing/developing the different age groups of paras, right? I was wondering if pets are being worked on simultaneously (I know right now we’ve confirmed cats, dogs, and horses). Are the horses/cats in the game right now, or will that be worked on at a later date? And are you guys thinking of having animals lifespans/stages be the same as paras or different depending on the animal group? Thanks so much!! Love to see all the updates :)) 🤎🖤🤎
Thank you for the kind words! While some people on the team did some work on various aspects of other age groups, the team isn't really split that way, we don't have that much manpower as a 10 person team :) Animals aren't being worked on yet, we still have some work to do on humans before we can get there. Thank you for the question!
So, I see that the mustache man has white toenails. So, does this mean there will be an option of painted nails? Its a tiny detail, but I would love that!
Yes, it's something that's gonna be available! :)
Hi! I haven’t checked the patreon in a while but I am SO excited about the game!! Have you confirmed what life states will be in the game yet?
Hi! Thank you for the kind words! We haven't confirmed the life stages yet. Have a great day!
does this emphasis on underwear being visible under clothing mean there will also be a difference to the para's shape depending on what undies they wear? ie lower boobs if no bra; flatter chest if sports bra or binder; a firmer tapering of the waist if there's a corset, etc?? if so that's HUGE
At the moment this is more an issue about certain pieces of clothing showing bra straps and that doesn't make much sense considering how they're usually worn, thank you!
"spice up gameplay", "add drama and chaos"... OOOOh!! Sounds GREAT! I can't wait to see that!! Oh, and who's a cute kittie, den? <3<3
Tofu is pretty cute! ...when he's sleeping, that is : )
You've probably already considered this, but I'd like the ability to lock in or cancel wants. Like Marry [Partner] may take longer to set up than it takes the wants to reshuffle and Cook Poutine may pop up more times than I want to do. Being able to freely skip individual wants without having to reshuffle the whole set also makes it easier for the player in case the system glitches out and repeatedly favors something in particular.
Oh we have absolutely already considered this, our wants system is still at its very beginnings so we'll have more to say about it in the future :) Thank you!
Ok, I just thought of this idea. If romantic relationships are based on the 4 types of love languages which are words of affirmation, physical touch, receiving gifts,quality time and acts of service, then paras could have wants based on their love language. For example, if a paras love lang, is acts of service then they may want to do something special for their partner based on what their partner likes. Or if it’s physical touch, they may want to give a massage to their partner or give them a hug and kiss.
Yes, this could be interesting! We'll have to see how romantic relationships are driven before deciding about how that'll work. Thank you for the suggestion!
Oh, this is so exciting! I love seeing you guys post more of your development of this game. I’d love to see wants based on paras relationships or hobbies. For example, a para wants to spend more spend more time with another para to deepen their knowledge of them. For hobbies, a para that is into woodworking may want to build a stool or a couch. If the para has an entrepreneurial spirit, they may want to start selling their woodworkings too. Another idea is like to see, are paras wanting things that might not be good for them and causing unintended negative consequences if the player selects their wants.
These are all neat ideas! We're certainly considering things in that ballpark :)
Being able to choose which underwear your para is wearing might be a better option than having underwear disappear with only certain types of clothing.
We're planning to have various underwear choices for sure, but ultimately certain pieces of clothing would just look better if no straps or bits of underwear were visible, so having them being hidden is a nice alternative to having to change underwear manually if you change your clothes! Of course, as we go along and integrate more clothing we'll see how well it works. Thanks!
Very interesting, and the special feature sounds good, drama and chaos can be great fun!
Looks like you’re getting a ton done! Tell your kitties I said pspssspsss! 🥰 They’re so cute!
Consider Tofu and Soya properly psspsspsspsss'd!