The Team Plays a First Version of the Live Mode!
Hey there!
Alex here for another Patreon post and it’s the second one in our series of three posts where the Paralives team tests the game. This week: the live mode! This post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it 🔒
Live Mode Playtest: The Goals
Everyone was given the task of playing with a household of 3 adults in a prebuilt lot.
🧪 The scope was to test the following features:
Fulfilling needs
Fulfilling wants
Leveling up skills
Developing different relationships with different characters
Optionally letting the characters autonomously perform interactions
🎯 Our goals with this playtest were to ask ourselves the following questions:
🎮 Is it easy to understand how the gameplay feature works?
😁 Are these features enjoyable and do they create an interesting experience?
✨ Are the new features and innovations that we are trying to bring to Paralives’ live mode promising so far?
Overall, many things went smoothly and were well understood by the members of the team while other gameplay features caused some friction. In any case, it gave us ideas of elements to improve. Everyone had fun testing this first version of our live mode and were eager to test the next iterations and the new features that will be added as we go!
Live Mode Playtest: A Day in The Life of 3 Parafolks
To give you an idea of how the playtest was, I’ll walk you through one day in the life of my characters. Let’s go!
I started by selecting my household of 3 roommates in the Paramaker and purchasing this prebuilt lot. Then, my Parafolks, Kim, Alex and Jason, started discussing together.
I told myself that Alex is an introvert who likes to practice many hobbies so I sent him to the piano where his skill level of 1 is clearly shown by the fact that he plays with a single finger. In the interface, you can see that Alex is performing the “Play piano” interaction if you look at the interaction queue and you can also see Alex’s thoughts.
Meanwhile, Kim and Jason visited the neighbors, Sebastian and Eli, to introduce themselves.
As Kim and Jason learned more and more about their neighbors, they all became friends.
Before, Sebastian was a stranger to Jason. At the end of the day, as shown by the relationship labels, they were now friends and they had connected over their common interest in cooking!
Back home, Alex spent the whole day working on his piano skills and had progressed a lot, to level 6! However, if you look at his thoughts, some of his needs started to require attention, especially hunger.
Jason being the cook in this household, he prepared some juicy burgers for everyone which were promptly eaten.
It’s already the end of the day. Good night sweet Paras, there’s another big day tomorrow. And the one after, and the next one too…
I hope you liked this look at my playtest session! This test was a big milestone for us and we’re looking forward to showing more of the live mode in the future as we work on personalities, careers, schools, having children and many more features, some of which are still secret ✨
Live Mode Playtest: More Highlights
Screenshots taken by different members of the team during the playtest:
Kitchen dance party!
At this size, the bed is supposed to have room for one Para only but it seems like it bugged and two people were able to get in it. I hope they like to sleep while cuddling!
Watching the morning news together.
When you don’t trust your hungry roommates and can’t leave your lunch alone for 2 minutes…
The house didn’t have enough beds so Sonia had to improvise and camp in the kitchen!
Ever eat something so good you just want to burst into a little dance? Maggie did.
Now, that’s dedication! Both Sofia and mustache man were practicing piano until late at night. These Paras in the bed really are sound sleepers!
Friends enjoying a sunny day.
“Talking to him is like talking to a wall” takes all its meaning here! We’re still working on character positioning and pathfinding so this bug wasn’t a surprise to the team.
That’s it for today’s glimpse at Paralives’ live mode and we’re very much eager to share more about the features presented today and those who are still secret and being worked on!
Have a great weekend! 🌱
Alex
Comments (63)
I actually like 2 paras being able to sleep in a twin bed. It would be great for storytelling. Maybe they could both wake up feeling sore or uncomfortable
I hope to see more romantic interactions for couples in the game. For example, cuddling on the couch, sitting on each other's laps or holding hands while walking.
2 paras in one bed sounds interesting 🥰
Shouldn't needs be arranged from top to bottom with the most urgent/important at the top instead of the bottom? 🤔
The two paras in the one bed seems more like a feature than a bug
I have so many questions! My first is that I noticed 2 of the roommates slept in the same bed. You didn't mention that they were romantically invovled so I wondered what the rules were around what relationships paras had to have with each other to allow for sleeping in the same bed. Like is non-romantic bed sharing allowed? Also I noticed it looked like there was more than one house on this lot of 3 paras. Is it possible to do that and have paras know which house is theirs? Are paras able to sleep through music or loud sounds like the ones who slept through the piano playing, or was that a bug, or does it depend on the para and their personality traits?
Love the gameplay and I get more excited with every post. One question though, will the male paras' heads actually be on the pillow in bed rather than looking as though their heads are pushed up against the headboard? They look very uncomfortable.
i know it's a bug but honestly being able to have "too many" paras sharing a bed is a WONDERFUL realism touch, especially for sleepovers or para kids going to their parents or siblings after a nightmare/bad day
I agree, I liked it, and I kind of hope you implement this as a real feature instead of a bug 😅
Can I ask why there is a bed in the back yard 😂
amazing. Keep up the good work!
Looks awesome!!
Question: If I have a Para selected and they walk outside, will the sound change as far as hearing outside noise more and inside less? And does the roof appear on buildings? I noticed in the first picture the roof was still missing even though the camera was focused on the Paras outside.
Ahhh I’m so excited!!! This looks amazing
So cute! I can't wait to play ^_^ Also even though it's a bug, it's really cute to see Paras close together in the bed. Will there be options / random chances for them to cuddle while they sleep if they are closely bonded?
cooking buddy?? yes!! i like this a lot.
All of this looks beautiful. Amazing job team!
Hey! Oh this is such an exciting milestone, I hope you and the team really enjoyed this moment and all of the hard work that hahs clearly gone into getting here! A couple of thoughts I had - - progressing a skill from level 1 to 6 within a single day seems a little OP? Even if he did nothing else and almost starved / wet himself? - becoming a friend from a single day of conversing... not completely unrealistic, but would it be harder for different Paras to become friends? - I think having the needs popups in the same place as the interaction queue might be a bit too much information going on in one space, especially since it's also where the character icons and skill progress information and everything else seems to sit. Maybe having these information elements appear in different spaces on the screen would be better? - skill information, above the para's head, maybe hidden by a "..." that you can click on to view progress, interaction queue where it is, need alerts on the other side of the screen? I'm not sure, but maybe something to think about 😊👌
I think it's common to playtest things on easymode just to make sure they work, before they start to work out how long things should take. They know now that practicing piano or making friends will work as intended, they can iron out the experience multipliers later. For now it's more about seeing if it works at all.
Loving this! Everything is looking amazing. Nice work paradevs
I don't mind the idea of a single bed but having two parafolks sleeping there. If I want a small house or apartment, maybe it'd be more beneficial to have a smaller bed, but the para has a partner and wants to sleep with them. Or maybe Elli wants to invite a friend for a sleepover and there are no more beds in the bedroom, so they sleep together! That's something that has always bugged me about the Sims and their sleepovers, I gotta buy the friend a bed! How dare they make me buy a new one... And because they're kids, they don't mind sharing the bed, but as teens, they could feel awkward or embarrassed because of sharing a bed with a friend they have a crush on. They might take longer to fall asleep and maybee even watch them sleep for a while.
I can’t wait for the day this amazing game gets released 🥳 You are all doing a wonderful job !
I love the idea of two paras squeezing into a twin bed together! I've been there at multiple points in life lol
It would also be cool if this worked with bigger beds- like kids/toddlers can get in double bed with parents after nightmares
Please let paras share a small "one person" bed together! In real life people do it all the time! You work with what you got. Not to mention it would be helpful for tiny build challenges if a couple could share a twin sized bed.
I agree. You could make it less comfortable, but it would be very good to have this. It´s not a bug, it´s a feature.
I love how this looks, however, I do think that the UI takes too much space. It would be good if the thoughts were displayed just as an icon and once you move the mouse over them you could see what they mean.
Maybe in the settings you'll be able to scale up and down the Ui
I am loving how the game looks! will adults have cuddling animations while sleeping?
the two adults sharing the twin bed brings back sweet nostalgic memories of college 🥲
The main problem with how the needs work is that they're really handhold-y, it warns you about stuff before you even have a need low enough and it's constantly on the screen and tells you exactly what to do, the main benefit of a meter is that it's much more convenient UX and UI wise and is much more open ended which promotes the player to find ways to increase a need instead of telling them exactly where to go and what to do, no matter how vague the prompt is like "I need to eat" or "I need to sleep" it takes away from player control and just makes the player feel controlled by the game instead of the other way around. progress bars are the standard for a reason, they're just well designed.
agreed! It also feels less intuitive :( Idk, it's hard know at a glance, you have to stop and read
This looks so great! And those Paras that hopped in the small bed together really just said that the coding does not apply to them.
sometimes (coding) rules are just meant to be broken ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This made me smile. I love to see the progress the team is making.
Super interesting to see. I tried to look at this for game on release, so that's why these observations: - Red & Orange are too close in hue. There's an "I'm starving" notif right below the bathroom notif. Not sure how much time there is between the notif and actual starving ramifications, but might make it darker or put a border around it or something to make the red stand out more. Also know from playing various games that players will eventually complain the UI is too large! That said, I want to know what a cooking buddy is! I like that you can have friends/acquaintances that are only in particular situations. That's very true to life! Small things like the person lounging head-down on the couch really make the scenes come to life.
this brought a smile on my face
Jason got cake
This is awesome! It's great to see the progress of Live Mode. It says, "Jason being the cook in this household, he prepared some juicy burgers for everyone which were promptly eaten." I'm not sure if this has been addressed, but has there been any consideration into setting specific roles within a household like this? I think it would be great for storytelling to define roles like 'Household Chef'. I know in another specific life sim I've played I have a household where one is a chef and the other isn't but it always bothers me when the non-cook tries to make dinner for everyone. Obviously if the needs are too low autonomy should kick in, but it would add a nice touch of realism + storytelling :-) Also single beds should be able to fit two Paras! I can't be the only one who has squished into a twin bed with a friend 😂 Amazing work as always!!
It's a good point that if you don't micromanage your Paras, and give them some autonomy, you end up with the case of the "wrong" Para cooking for everyone... And in a way I find your suggestion interesting. But maybe that becomes the story ! When your household has a terrible meal that's so disgusting they have to order a pizza, it's more interesting than Day 712 of Jason cooking a perfect cheese soufflé for dinner". So imho if this were to be a feature, I'd prefer it to be optional. Memories come from weird things happening :)
So. cool. It feels surreal to see Alex hanging out with Paras :D it makes me so excited to make myself into a Para and introduce myself to everyone haha! I can't wait to see what changes/improvements/adjustments these tests inspire. Thank you for sharing!!
I get more and more excited for this game every week. Cant wait!
Everything looks great! I can't wait to play the game. 😁😁 I liked two Paras in a bed for one. Let it be a feature for the ones that are really in love ❤️❤️; or close (example: parent and child). Eating hamburgers with two hands would be more realistic. And about Sonia, why not make a couch that extends into guest bed when needed or "improvise a bed on the floor using couch pillows and blankets" instead of placing a bed in the kitchen? That would be true camping. 😁
The team just needs to create a sleeping bag, that would solve the issue. And it doubles as a good item for Rags to Riches homeless challenges.
Looks great so far! 🥰 Talking about skills: What is the max. level a para can reach? I'm just asking, because reaching level 6 in a single day seams like a lot to me. Will we be able to adjust the speed for learning skills or leveling relationships in the settings? That would be awesome, since I love playing a little more realistically and slowly 😁
This skill system and its levels are still very much a work in progress 😊 There are definitely things that we were able to notice during the playtest and that will likely be tweaked and improved very soon!
I have nothing to say but I can't wait to play. I love it so much
Congratulations on turning such a corner ! It really looks like you were playing a life simulation, as opposed to testing isolated features :) Did the Paras feel alive when playing ? I'm also curious about the autonomy part ; you mention that it was optional, but don't really say much more about it. Was anyone able to test it ? Maybe that'll be a topic for after you discuss the Build mode next week. It's really something I'm looking forward to, as the AI is the invisible but key part to replayability. (is the image ratio correct ? some of these look "compressed" horizontally...)
Yes, testing the beginnings of the autonomy system was one of the pillars of this playtest 😊 I personally had not really played in the Live mode since all those new features were added and it was super cool to see the characters come to life and roam around the house, interact with things or talk to each other!
The two paras in the bed was actually super-cute! Instead of bug, maybe feature? :3
Everything is looking amazing so far! :D
So satisfying to see the evolution of the game ! Hope to see a video of the gameplay soon ! ☺️ i follow you from France and i love your work👍
I really like the idea of connection over a common interest. A cooking buddy.
I can’t describe how much I actually want to be there with you to play test the game. It already looks so promising 🙌🏻
So happy to see some gameplay! I would love to see some gifs of this💓
This makes me so excited for the game!
This is so exciting!
Wow, the lighting at night is so pretty!
I love the style of this game! Every new item is a pleasant surprise.🤗
The way Eli sits is goddamn adorable!!
I had the urge to tell him to sit properly, there's guests over! But yes, he is cute :)
Another patreon post for the week! I’m liking the progress so far. I hope to see more gameplay. Thank you!
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