Progress on Stairs + Bug Compilation + Let’s Paint with our Parafolks
Hello, hi!
Alex here to share various development updates this week. ✨ Please don’t share this post because it’s for Patrons only, thanks 🔐
Progress on the Painting Skill
Sonia and Chloé are creating a lot of illustrations that will be used for the painting skill. When clicking on the easel to start a new project, you will be able to choose the size of the canvas and the painting style (abstract, impressionist, portraits and more). Then, you will see what your Para comes up with!
Here, Chloé is showcasing how paintings made by Parafolks at a low skill level versus Parafolks of higher skill level do not have the same level of detail and polish.
Last week, Sonia made some surrealist paintings (left and bottom right), a lovely balloon dog painting (top right) and the small abstract one (center) is inspired by the bucket fill tool in Microsoft Paint!
You can see more paintings we’ve made so far in this previous post.
Stairs Development Update
Jérémie, Chloé and Richard have been working on the build mode tools to place stairs, creating stair objects in different styles and making sure that characters can go through stairs to move to a different floor inside a house.
When placing stairs, they snap and adjust themselves to the height of the closest wall. This way, it’s easy for players to connect split level platforms and floors together with stair objects.
Players can choose to have a ramp on the left of the stairs, on the right, on both sides or either. Also, some stair objects have the option to toggle the walls underneath.
Using the split level tools, you can raise a platform and choose to remove the walls underneath to create an open space. A problem with that is that we do not yet create a thickness for the floor object because most times, it’s not needed since the walls hide the edges of the floors. We will be working on that eventually to add borders.
One of the other big challenges that we will be addressing soon is how to animate characters using stairs. Because of the height slider which allows players to have characters of different heights, a taller Para will take a bigger step than a smaller Para, even if they play the same animation. We will have to adapt the stair animations dynamically, like we have done for other animations. I’m looking forward to having that up and running!
Bug Highlight Reel!
Bugs are always a fun part of game development (unless you have to spend days trying to track down and fix a difficult one)! Today, we thought we’d share three of the best bugs we got recently.
Ever felt so bored that you’d prefer if everything was on fire? Me neither but this funny bug happened to Alejandro while he was working on the features around fires in Paralives!
What is happening with these hands?! Sometimes, one small error in the 3D model file of a clothing item can create quite a bit of trouble for our Parafolks!
Am I the only one who Moonwalks on the way to the Café everyday? That’s an animation bug that Richard got while working on the animations to turn around at the start and end of a walk!
I hope you liked today’s post and have a good weekend!
Alex
Comments (59)
the fire looks simultaneously flat and very 3D marshmallow-like to me, could you try a different way of animating it or something? i do love how it spreads, that's super cool
I really hate that fire. I’m trying to be nice here but woah.
Looks amazing! I do have to wonder, will we be able to customise the boarder if the upstairs floor to match the railing? Like a sort of additional thing you put over it to make it match. Also, for taller paras, would they maybe be able to run up the stairs? Like being a certain height lets them take two steps at a time. Maybe short paras dot hat dog run up the stairs? You know the one. Where when your a kid you kinda run up the stairs on your hands and knees. Just me? Anyways, I thought they would be interesting ideas
I do agree we should definitely have the ability to change that white trim, maybe change the color and also have some wood trims?
The diagonal stairs sims could neverrrrrrrrr
Microsoft Paint! That brings back lovely memories :) I noticed the Para cringing as she looks at the lower skill painting—it would be great to see Paras respond differently to their own artwork, as well as the artwork of others. Maybe perfectionist Paras are never happy with their work, no matter how skilled they become. Meanwhile, other Paras can be excited by their finished products, even if their skills are low, and want to show it off to everyone. And if it's possible for a Para to remember art they've previously drawn, some can react to their earlier work with cringing (like the Para in the first pic) or with nostalgia. It's the same way I expect my mom para to view any artwork I made as a child haha
Love this!
Speaking of snapping things into place does this go for furniture too?? I would love an option to do both
It's so cool seeing things like this and feeling like such a part of the progress! Thanks for sharing with us!
I love seeing this game come together omg One question: will we be able to pit photos and maybe stickers on doors? Would be cool for a kids room
I've never had an exclusive look into the creation of a game like this. So interesting how working on a feature can totally break it. Cool stuff!
Ah, the risk of getting bored - spontaneous fire. 😆
Love the skill levels for paintings (edit:however an option to have the simple sketch styles even when the Para is more skilled would be great to represent an artist keeping a certain aesthetic, though that's not a priority just an idea), and seeing how thoroughly you all work to make the game playable!
I know it's a bug but not gonna lie I liked the moonwalk. Could that please be added as a dance move? Lol
Am I the only one who found the person on fire a little upsetting after Aaron Bushnell? I know it wasn’t intended but it made my heart sink.
I didn't make the connection myself, but rest in peace Aaron Bushnell 💔free Palestine!!
Split levels!? Sweet
I have loved watching this game go from conceptual and stitched together alpha programs of the basic features, to a full on playable game - just the way the camera moves, the aesthetic of the game, and watching the videos of in-game footage have really just made it come together. It's really coming to fruition! You guys are doing a great job. Hats off to you Alex for all you've done.
Love that stairs can be placed on an angle! And the bugs are a hoot, though I'm personally more of a shuffler than a moonwalker
Spiral Stairs would be incredible and the paintings are amazing!!
I Second this, Spiral staircases would be absolutely amazing! But i can Imagine that they are difficult to animate x.x
The bugs had me cackling lol, first we had the human torch from the Fantastic Four and then Michael Jackson getting his morning fix 🤣🤣 absolutely hilarious. LOVE the split level tool, definitely need some type of floor thickness thing though. The ability to create half-landing stairs of interesting shapes is essential for me as a player 👍🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Stairs are awesome 😎 I can't wait to see how we can custom them!! Just a little thing: some ramps are very thin, it give me the impression that they will broke x)
And yes I think it will be much better if floors have borders
The different skill levels in art is so fun to see! I’ve seen my friends and myself do that journey and it’s been depicted rlly well! Also the stairs look super smooth and blend so well even at different sizes! Good job team!
I think it would be cool along with paintings if paras can purchase a sketchpad or sketchbook and make sketches. If they have an advanced skill, they can sketch other paras or can take a picture of their surroundings and sketch it.
Thank you for the info on split level tool and ability to create landings for our stairs. Was wondering if it will be possible, or we will always be stuck with long straight stairs. The variety of materials and handrails seems to be promising too. Oh and as for paintings - love that the starter ones are not comically primitive, at a pre-school toddler level, but also represent some drawing that can be identified as one.
For painting i think requiring to have art supplies that cost money to start a painting would be cool. It gives more gameplay of the struggling artist. Ive dealt with that so many times in art school lol.
Honestly the last clips is so relatable LOL. I too have been that happy to get my iced latte in the morning.
super unnecessary idea, but is it possible to route onto the stairs itself or stop midway on the stairs? i understand if the stairs is just an object + animation that must be completed to the end, but i always liked the idea of people just hanging out on stairs looking over the railing
and by routing i mean treating the stairs like how you would route a para going up and down a hill but with a stairs climbing animation
Sheesh that Para’s breath must’ve been awful.
I’d like to see caracol stairs in a future update 🤍
Love it! Please let paras run up/down stairs if chosen. Also would be amazing if they can turn around mid-way down the stairs and walk up again. In TS4 I only play in small houses because everything takes so long with the stairs.
And the fire bug made me lol
I think the moon walk bug is actually kinda cute lmao
Looks great! Thank you for sharing!
I love the moonwalk. Maybe the ground was icy 🤔😁 thanks for all your hard work, I can't wait to play the game!
All looks good thanks for yur hard work love the freedom that yur giving with the stars
The moon walk seems not like a bug, but a feature :D
Beautiful paintings and It's a nice option to remove the wall under the platform!
"Using the split level tools, you can raise a platform and choose to remove the walls underneath to create an open space" Uh, what ? But... that's awesome ! Did I know we could do that ? I don't think I knew we could do that. This opens a lot of possibilities in terms of floorplans ! Oh I'd love a showcase of various ways to use that because I might just be imagining things that aren't possible ; maybe you'll show us different possible uses once you showcase the animations (good luck, it sounds like a tough one to implement !). But that sounds delicious to my builder's brain. I'm not worried about the border :) Actually the thickness could even be an additional object we choose to place or not.
Those paintings look so cool!
Absolutely love the progress of the art skill. It’s such a better way to showcase your Para’s progress. I’d love to see different art fields like a sketchbook for fashion or a drafting table for architecture/interior design. Obviously not at launch (that’d be unrealistic), but as future update. The fires also made me realize something. It’d be cool if different worlds/towns had different weather effects. Like, if there was a desert world, during the summer, there were a higher chance of fires. I’m just so excited to see the game in action next year (even if it’s just a beta).
On the topic of stairs, will platforms/different floor heights in one room be a possibility? Think: The entryway of your typical Japanese home, or a conversation pit. 👀
Those paintings are so beautiful!
thank you renée 😊
Really love this update. I really like seeing how things are implemented. And bugs are always funny to see :)
i love that we can choose which side we want the handrails to be and how seamless the walls underneath the stairs match the staircase! i also appreciate that you're mentioning a few things you still need to work on/figure out in addition to showing what you have also big compliments for the art pieces! i especially love the surrealist ones and i didn't even know i like that art style haha
thank you so much! :)
Love the art progress, but one thing I love the most about painting skills, is the capability of painting in game moments, like taking a picture. Very good to enhance immersion and to capture great moments. I always had my sim, create paintings of his bride in wedding dress, masterpieces here and there, it is such a turn on mechanic to me ♥️🔥, would love to see it implemented. Sure it can be achieved by developing some filters or idk, you guys are good at developing sure you can find out xD ♥️♥️
Oh, could we make stairs in L or square shape using the platforms? Or is it difficult to implement? (Will be nice either way, I'm not worried :P)
That's what I'm hoping too. I think it depends how the paras interact with the stairs, since if only one can use a set of stairs at once it leads to a lot of broken routing. But since we can create group interactions it might be fine
Loved the stairs flexibility, our engineers sure have been working hard! 😤
Would love to see some panels of the art in progress later on, like first setting foundation colors/sketching, applying colors over and so on. Painting is Such a favorite skill of mine 🙏🏻🔥
Will we have spiral stairs? ❤️
We don't have spiral stairs for now but we'd love to add them to the game in the future! :)
Moonwalking man gets 10% discount for style
I burn like that everyday while working 🤣