February Dev Update + Community Brainstorming: Town Services
February 2022 Dev Update
Hey everyone! Hope you’ve been doing well. We usually post a list of development updates on our website, but last month we decided to start sharing it directly on Steam every month as well. So without further ado, here’s what we’ve been working on for the month of February 2022.
📅 Worked on the planning of some live mode features 🎨 Improved the art style of the environments 🎨 Worked on the art style for vegetation 🎨 Added some textures on the Parafolks 🎨 Improved skin textures and Paramaker sliders 🛠️ Worked on the design of some live mode features such as the action system 🛠️ Started working on the live mode interaction menu 🛠️ Tested the system that makes the clothes fit with any body shape and size 🛠️ Fixed bugs and improved the Paramaker 🎶 Made demos to explore the musical style of the game 🧠 Thirteenth public community brainstorming on emotions and mood ✏️ Shared a sketch of Sebasitan’s outfit 🍇 Introduced “helpers”, a new role in our Discord server to help answer community questions ✨ Secrets!
Current Status - March 2022 ➡️ Brainstorming and designing the live mode core systems: interactions, animations, pathfinding ➡️ Improving the Paramaker, adding more features and fixing bugs ➡️ Adding body and face shapes for the adult human model ➡️ Designing and implementing the animation system and its mod support ➡️ Creating more character animations ➡️ Working on the musical direction and soundtrack of the game ➡️ Brainstorming and designing different aspects of the game
Community Brainstorming Session
Here we go again with a new Paralives community brainstorming! 🧠 The new theme is: Town Services & Businesses!
Here are some questions that you can ask yourself: 🛒 What town services and businesses would you like to see in-game? 🚒 Which services could be offered by Parafolks or NPCs (e.g. mail carrier) and which ones could be lot services (e.g. town hall, library, etc.)? 🍁 What kind of town services and businesses could be specific to one town or season? 🏡 Which services could be offered at home and which ones would you need to go out to get? 🚗 Which businesses would you need to call or visit to obtain what they offer? For example, would you need to go to a tattoo parlor to add a tattoo to your Parafolk or should it only be done in the Paramaker? Would you need to order or shop for food or should it always be available in your kitchen?
💡 To participate, share your ideas on our Discord server in the #town-services-and-businesses channel or on Reddit!
That’s all for now. See you around! The Paralives Team
Sebastian’s Outfit Design + Community Brainstorming: Emotions & Mood
Sebastian’s Newest Outfit: References and Sketch
We wanted to make a new outfit for Sebastian. Our art team thought it would be nice to share with you the references and sketch. This is the outfit we used in the Paramaker video. We’ve even improved it quite a bit since the video so here’s below the new updated version.
We’ve indeed made some improvements on the Paramaker since the video that was revealed in December. Some of us started to focus more and more on the live mode. We hope to show you some of that gameplay in the upcoming months. You can have a look at what we have been working on recently. We’ll keep you updated!
Community Brainstorming Session
Here we go again with a new brainstorming session! 🧠 This time we want to pick your brain on Emotions & Mood!
Here are some questions that you can ask yourself: 😱 What emotions would you like to see in-game? 🕑 How long should moods and emotions last? 📺 What types of action or interactions could affect your mood? How? 😡 Should moods and emotions be influenced by the current life stage of the Parafolk? If yes, how? 🏫 How do you want your mood or emotions to affect your daily activities (work, school, etc.)? 👫 How could the mood of a Parafolk influence or affect others around them?
🎮 To participate, share your ideas on our Discord server 📃 Or on Reddit: https://bit.ly/ParalivesFeb2022Brainstorm
See you around! The Paralives Team
January Dev Update + Sneak Peek at Spin Animation
Hey everyone!
Haven’t posted an update in a little while. We’ve been hard at work at the end of last year to prepare the Paramaker overview video showcased in the last Steam Announcement. We, the dev team, want to be as transparent as we can concerning the development process. We usually post a list of development updates on our website but we were thinking it would be interesting to share it directly on Steam too from now on.
So without further ado, here’s what we’ve been working on for the month of January 2022: 📅 Worked on the planning of the live mode's core features 📅 Established the project’s milestone for the year 🎨 Improved the art style of the environments 🎨 Researched the art style for vegetation 🎨 Worked on curly hair textures 🎨 Tested facial hair limitations and textures 🎨 Worked on loose fitting system for clothing 🎨 Added and improved body textures 🎨 Improved the body fat and muscle sliders 🛠️ Brainstormed and designed some live mode features 🛠️ Created new emotion animations 🛠️ Reworked various animations 🛠️ Fixed bugs and improved the Paramaker 🎶 Defined long-term audio goals 🎶 Made demos to explore the musical style of the game ✨ Secrets!
Current Status - February 2022 ➡️ Brainstorming and designing the live mode core systems: interactions, animations, pathfinding ➡️ Improving the Paramaker, adding more features and fixing bugs ➡️ Adding body and face shapes for the adult human model ➡️ Designing and implementing the animation system and its mod support ➡️ Creating more character animations ➡️ Working on the musical direction and soundtrack of the game ➡️ Brainstorming and designing different aspects of the game
We also wanted to take this opportunity to show you a sneak peek at the spinning animation used for the reveal of Marvin, one of our newest Parafolks.
📢 Video Update: Skin color wheel, tattoo placement and more!
'Tis the season of giving dev updates! 🎁⛄️
Didn’t we tell you we’d be back soon with a crunchy dev update? Today’s the day! We are happy to unveil different ways to customize your characters in Paralives using the in-game character creation tool called the Paramaker. We really wanted to offer an extra level of customization with freehand tattoo placement and scaling, heterochromia, 2 color wheels for skin tones… We are also introducing new characters (townies)! We’ll stop talking and let you enjoy the video instead! ;)
[previewyoutube="saPMQS1jquc;full"]
Please let us know in the comment section what you think and what feature you are most looking forward to using in the Paramaker! We do read those even if we don’t reply very often.
This is our last dev update of the year so we would like to take this opportunity to wish you happy holidays! May the new year bring you a new favourite game, whichever it may be!
Cheers, The Paralives Team
Sneak peek at the new sliders & character editing in Paralives
Slide, slide, slide! Discover how to freely reshape your Parafolk! 🎨🌟
[previewyoutube="wKhAb42Gmx4;rightthumb"] With this new feature, you can use our handy diagrams to quickly customize the shape, size and rotation of different parts of your Parafolk. You can edit a wide variety of sliders for important body and facial features and tweak the smallest little details. For those who like to fine tune, the sliders are also displayed in a more traditional fashion below the diagram where you can enter exact numbers and even copy-paste them between Parafolks.
