Paralives Dev Chats: June 2023 Highlights
The upcoming indie life sim, Paralives, is still currently in early development, but did you know each week the devs host a Q&A over at their discord channel for Patreon supporters? These dev chats are easily overlooked as they aren’t usually published on the Paralives TWITTER account (You heard that right, Musk: Her name is Twitter, not X)
Each month The Paralives Hub aims to deliver the most interesting highlights from these dev chats. Hungry for more Paralives info? This article covers delicious details on the following:
- Bed ownership
- Kids toys
- Advanced modding
- Clothing physics/animation
- Nail polish customisation
- Cultural representation
- Voice actors
- Needs per age groups
- Juicy Speculation!
Parafolks will sleep in their OWN bed.
It was confirmed that the devs are planning to implement ways for Parafolks to remember which household bed belongs to them so they don’t just sleep in any random bed.
Question:
Do you think it’d be possible to mark a bed for use by a specific para, so that all parafolk sleep in their own beds at night? Cribs too, please!
Entirago – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
Hello! I think that’s pretty much going to be required, yes. Otherwise characters would sleep anywhere and everywhere, which would be quite strange! I’m not exactly sure how it would work and every little edge case that would entail, but that’s part of our plans right now. Thank you for the question!
Jérémie – Paralives Discord
Question:
To expand on Ent’s question, could we temporarily assign beds to visiting paras so that they have the same bed for the full duration of their stay with our para(s)? I imagine it would go back to “unassigned” as soon as the visitors leave.
Zahlea – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
It’s a bit too early to tell how bed management would work, but we’ll try to make it simple and efficient to allow various scenarios. We haven’t thought a lot about “visiting Paras” yet, so we’ll just have to see in the future! Thank you for the question!
Jérémie – Paralives Discord
Children’s toys
Now that babies & toddlers have been revealed, the devs are planning to create a selection of toys that we will be able to give to our Para kids. Whether these toys are just for fun or will help them build skills has yet to be decided.
Question:
Curious about if you guys thought about what kinds of toys you’ll be adding for kids? Whether it’s just for fun or skill development
Platypus – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
Hi Platypus! The list we have is still not 100% final because we might add or remove some as we go on with production, but so far we have some plushies and dolls, block toys and development toys (pattern recognition, color recognition, that sort of toys!) planned. As for whether or not they will have an impact on the child’s skill, that is still to be determined!
Chloé – Paralives Discord
Mods: Fans will be able to add new objects, interactions and animations to the game
It was confirmed a while back that “script mods” will not be supported in Paralives, but this does not mean cool new fan-made features are completely off the table.
Question:
Since script mods support isn’t planned for now, will the mod tools have a way to add brand new functions to the game? A while back Alex mentioned how modders will be able to add 3d models, animations, and textures which is great to hear but I wanted to know if modders will be able to go further than that.
For example, say you guys added snow boarding if someone wanted skiing they could just change the animations to show skis and the option to just say go skiing, but what if they wanted both? Would they be able to duplicate the snowboarding fiction or just add in a skiing function?
Possible Assassin – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
They would be able to duplicate the snowboarding function to add skiing interactions without it replacing snowboarding interactions. They would have to create and integrate the skiing animation and equipment which our tools allow.
Alex – Paralives Discord
Some clothing items will have animation
Some items of clothing that Paras wear will have subtle animation effects, similar to how longer hair styles move when you spin a Para around in the Paramaker. It is unclear whether this will happen in Live Mode or just be restricted to the Paramaker, but it’s still a nice little detail.
Question:
Will there be physics for clothing, just as there is hair physics?
GracePrince – Paralives Discord
Speaking of hair physics, by the way:
Dev response:
Some clothing items like dresses, for instance, have an animated physics effect that you can see when you rotate your character in the Paramaker, just like we do for hair!
Alex – Paralives Discord
Nail polish customisation
A developer has confirmed that it will be possible for Parafolks to be able to wear multiple colours of nail polish at the same time.
Question
Will you be able to paint nails individually? For example: The thumbnail is green and the other nails are yellow Or maybe just one or two painted nails overall and the others are unpainted
Crayario – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
We haven’t implemented that kind of nail yet but it’s technically possible. For our system we can have up to 4 colors for an item so you may have 2 nails the same color, a mix between 2 colors or a non-recolorable color but the exemple you’re giving is doable!
Sonia – Paralives Discord
Diversity in Paralives
Although the game’s primary inspiration seems based on a North American or Canadian aesthetic, it will also feature elements from different cultures, for diversity. These items will likely be scattered though the build mode catalogue and the Paramaker, allowing players to access different items and objects reflecting a range of cultures and backgrounds. The devs hope to expand on these concepts through free pack updates some time after the initial release.
Question:
We were talking about cultural representation earlier today, and so I’m wondering if you guys have given that some thought yet. Would you be more likely to have a lot of small things from different cultures, or would you really want to focus and go deep on one (and then add more over time)? Or maybe a mix of both?
llAmorFatill – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
We definitely have a “main” culture we’re focusing on that our current items and clothes are inspired from. I’d say we try to add small things of other cultures as well for diversity, but since we’re focusing on having enough “basic” items for the release (and it’s already a big list!) we’re very far from being exhaustive on the representation of any culture really! Maybe focusing on adding cultural elements as free pack updates in the future would be something we’d be interested in doing but that would be quite some time after the full release anyway!
Anna – Paralives Discord
Professional actors to provide Parafolk’s voices
The devs plan to hire professional voice actors to provide spoken dialogue to the game in the form of a fictional language called Parli. When it comes to toddlers and children, it is very likely adult voice actors will be impersonating younger voices.
Question:
It’s well known that, in TS franchise, the sounds for Sims of all ages (including toddlers and infants) and pets is done by voice actors. You mentioned wanting to hire some professional voice actors at some point but I was wondering if you have already thought of how you’re going to approach voicing children and pets in Paralives? Do you plan on having everything be done by voice actors as well or do you plan on maybe getting some of the sounds from actual kids and pets?
Minakie – through llAmorFatil – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
That’s a really great question! We’ve given some thought to it in the case of kids and toddlers. One idea we had was to hire voice actors who’d be able to fake a kid’s voice (and an elderly one too if possible). This is especially common with feminine-sounding voice actors. This way, our paras’ “voice identity” would remain the same throughout all of their life stages while just changing tone. The idea obviously comes with its downsides so we are still considering our options. Hope that answers the question ✨
Andrei – Paralives Discord
Speculation: Parafolks will have different places to take a nap
It’s not entirely clear if the response to this question is related to gameplay or lore, but a dev has hinted that Parafolks will be able to nap in a few different places, such as trees, lounge chairs, couches and even the floor.
Question:
What is each named Paras’, so far, favorite napping spot?
Gui – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
Marvin’s could be a fancy lounge chair in his backyard, Sebastian a comfy couch while Eli is watching cartoons. I feel like Eli could be the type that just fall asleep everywhere, especially on the floor. Maggie’s favorite napping spot could be a very old tree where she likes to read
Léa – Paralives Discord
Different needs for different age groups
It’s being considered that a Parafolk’s needs, such as energy bars, will change as they age.
Question:
Will needs be dynamic as a para ages? Such as a child’s energy bar draining slower than an adults.
WickedBrony – Paralives Discord
Dev response:
It’s something we should totally be able to do, and that’s something we are considering, yes! As you grow older, you also usually need less sleep, which is something else we could explore. Thank you for the question!
Jérémie – Paralives Discord
Well, that’s a wrap for this month. We are planning to release a Dev Chat article each month, highlighting only the most interesting pieces of new Paralives information that surface in these weekly chats, so you should definitely come visit us again soon! Thanks for reading! Do you find anything particularly exciting? Feel free to leave a comment.
Paralives is an upcoming indie life simulation video game developed by the Canadian studio Paralives Inc. The game aims to provide players with a fresh and cozy take on the life simulation genre, drawing inspiration from the popular “The Sims” franchise.
That hair animation GIF gets me laughing every time!