Paralives World Has Limits (Dev Chats) 

They also just released a very short video showing animations for proposals/ rejecting proposals on their RU-vid channel :) . I hope everyone is doing well. 💕 Thank you for your kind comments on my last video, truly thankful for all of you.

I still think that the sims 3 has mastered this issue. Normal boring jobs are rabbit holes, fun unusual jobs are active (ambitions). Rabbit holes are necessary in certain situations when in a simulation game 1 min is 1 second in real life. Things like school can be rabbit holes, while universities can be an experience… And if new games go in a different reaction, that’s ok. We don’t need to recreate the sims 3 or the sims 2 as we can just play those games if we want that specifically. That’s why I don’t like when people put pressure for these indie games to basically redo the sims 3 with new graphics.

I'm keeping my expectations pretty low-mid. The simulation game community has a ton of fantastic ideas for what Paralives could be, but in reality the game needs to run on a wide variety of PC builds, keeping in mind that it also needs to run on a Mac. I like rabbit holes for jobs because I want to spend the majority of play time making friends, building my family and exploring features. I don't want a work sim.

Id prefer rabbit hole jobs over click on the item and watch the animation then repeat. Active careers would be more fun if it involved a mini game you play as the parafolk. Like for the barista job if you got to play it like one of those cooking games where you actually make the drinks; I’d be down. But that would take a lot because that would require a mini-games for every career and position. Which would put massive limits on careers.

i think a good way to do rabbit holes would be to have the para get into a bus/tram/train/taxi. if you only have one para in the household, it could make for an interesting transition to a loading screen before skipping immediately to the end of the workday when the para returns home.

I just want a life stimulation game that has a clear direction to go off of and doesn't get lost in the concept that it is based on. I want a functional life stimulation game to enjoy not a constant broken one!

i honestly think its cool to keep it in english for the base town. i think it would be awesome to see other towns in other languages like french as mentioned. to make that work it would be cool to mouse over the building and it shows some kind of ui to show what the building is in your designated language. hope that makes sense. would be a very interesting way to had real diversity in the game.

the concept of ‘challenge by choice’ i think is going to be really important for paralives

About the langue on the stuff: I am someone who learned English as a second language and I don't think that's okay, I think it's great! Learning a new language is best through immersion and sometimes we need to be left with no choice but to learn it. Although I can for sure see if someone wanted to use Paralives to learn another language. But honestly the pictures are a really small part of it, so I don't think it would be too bothersome, like a dubbed cartoon will still have writings in the original language.

I really hope they consider leaning into more chaotic and imperfect para's after the release of early access (or at-least allow modders to do so). Not just in the sims but also in other games like ck3 and Rimworld, I enjoy playing with chaotic and challenging characters; it made them so much more unique and enjoyable to play.

I haven't kept up with most of Paralives development recently, so the language thing especially feels a bit "odd" to me...personally, if they're planning on selling it in various languages, why not create a "fake" language for Para's to begin with? They already "talk" in a separate language, so why not have item text in that language as well, so no one could feel left out or confused by having them in English. I dunno, just feels odd to me. Either way, I'm interested in Paralives as it is, but I'm definitely keeping an open mind until I can get my hands on it myself. I love these videos of yours since they let me catch up on a lot of news about it, without having to keep up with everything they post (because yeah ADHD brain) 😂🥰

I don’t mind rabbit holes for specific things. And to be honest I’d prefer rabbit holes at least be an option even when something is a live career

One thing I’m slightly concerned with is the constant push for coziness I feel as though this could lead to the game lacking excitement and drama, with just a utopia vibe. Leading to the game feeling boring , as we witnessed with the sims 4.The sims visually beautiful, build mode stunning but the sims themselves lack character I feel as though paralives could end up with this same problem .I understand that they want to focus on the fundamentals but building the fundamentals without the option for bad or drama could lead to a game that lacks excitement and spice and always has the same outcomes. I fear that the systems being built have no possibility for negativity even the system for socialising doesn’t allow the player to start off with the para being mean or poking fun at another character. The personality system lacks the option for a character flaw. I would much rather the devs ditch weather, horses or anything that isn’t necessary just to have them work on personality systems being less “simple”. The team suggested that the personality system design was to ensure players don’t feel overwhelmed but I doubt players would be against a wider range of character options. Players want to create their own stories and play out as many different scenarios as they want. I love the progress the team has made and have been a supporter since 2020 I just don’t want the devs to restrict the game to just being “ cozy “ .

Just a comment about the English items (like the window Hiring sign) Just because it won't be in another language from the get-go doesn't mean that there won't be a "hover" option for players. You know, hover over that Hiring sign and something pops up in that persons native language that tells them what the sign says.

On the latest video devs replied that there is only one person who does all of the modding of the game so it is difficult to add many things. This is why it takes awhile and they are adding now in early release everything that is needed for a basic life sim. They will keep adding more features in the future too. Early release means it only has bones of the game. They will keep adding features. But like I said, there is only one modder there. So imagine the preassure that person is getting.

I would really like if they add optional goals later on, I like to presented with some challenges, and yes, that also means I'd like situations like losing power due to heavy rain or snowfall. As for the English text. I'm completely alright with that. Even though my first language is not English, I have since moved to the Anglosphere and even before that I preferred to experience media (games, books, tv/movies) that was in English in their original language, to me it is not immersion breaking at all and I will always prefer this to some clumsy translation. I think I would have even been alright with French text, even though I only speak very little French.

I like the rabbit hole option. I think having a variety of pop ups during the workday that affect your para would be fun.

I have never minded rabbit holes for most jobs; sometimes it is lovely to just send your character off and let time pass quickly before you have things to do with them again! And of course, the larger one's family is, the more this holds true: sending people off to school or work without having to follow them can be a godsend! I do think it would be fun to have some non-rabbit hold careers eventually, or have the ability to work from home, but it's a "would like" rather than a "must have" for me. In truth, what I most want to see in Paralives (or LBY, for that matter) is paras that I am not controlling truly living their lives: skilling up for their careers, getting into (or out of) relationships, moving in with other paras, having families, etc. Sims 3 did this reasonably well, and it is one of the things that drives me bonkers with Sims 4: sims showing up at whatever community lot your sim shows up at, regardless of whether or not that makes sense (children when they should be at school, adults when you know they should be at work, etc.). A life simulator should mean that ALL of the characters are actually living, not just the ones you are controlling; and what they are doing with their lives coming up against the little story you have planned in your head is part of where the drama and excitement of these games occurs! Thank you for the update! 😁

I think Paralives will be a happy family game.

Natural disasters (yes to opting out if players prefer) would be awesome. Maybe one per season. Say, blizzards for winter (since there will only be one world at launch) thunderstorms/flooding for spring, wildfires for summer and hurricanes in autumn. Perhaps earthquakes as well.

I really like the way Paralives is structuring this game, I think what they're doing is smart. I enjoyed your perspective on this, and I send well wishes your way.

Remote working in the game could be cool but IMO it doesn't need to be a launch feature. I hope that rabbit hole jobs are applied to the more boring, repetitive jobs, while allowing the more interesting ones to be active. The language situation is a no-win one, even if they added other languages from the start, some people will always lose out.

I prefer the “back to basics” approach Paralives is taking including rabbit hole jobs. If they release a base game that gets the basics RIGHT they can always build up from that foundation. Like HSY kinda bombed on the live high school day because the live focus was sitting in class as opposed to high school activities. What Paralives has over the other games is the most potential for organic growth after Early Access when players are actually PLAYING. And I think that will do them well in the long term over trying to feature pack at release. And I think it will allow them to figure out where live career and even ‘work from home’ formats fit as gameplay. I work in theater as a Stage Manager and for a long time as a Stage Hand. My job has never and will never really exist in game and unless they find a way to do it that fits the world AND is fun, I am ok with that. However, I have always talked about the problem with English on in-game objects and its why I still prefer Simlish even on my CC, it was an equalizer when it came to language on objects ‘in the world’. And liked it that way.

I am okay with a combo of remote/freelance, rabbit-hole and active careers in any simulation game. It will appeal to all and if you have several characters and only want to deal with the active career of one of them, or none if career gameplay isn't for that gamer.

I understand there must be some limits because Paralives is developed by a small team. But I also senses that the direction of development is very similar with Sims 4. A happy Northern-American suburb eutopian life simulator. I hope the game doesn't end of being "slightly better Sims 4."

I feel like the question of challenge and continually developing your character's personality is important, but not as important as they seem to think. I play to make complex stories, I often have no interest in developing a character from zero. Let me create a messy family with complex dynamics from the get-go

I love that they have basic weather base game. If that becomes standard for base game, that would be awesome. I know this has been a criticism for Sims 4 for not doing this. I do think basic weather (and basic weather related stuff) should be base game, but I don't mind having more in depth weather and weather related stuff be in DLC (ex extreme weather, some winter sports type stuff, etc). I do hope they eventually explore adding in extreme weather and storms because I do like it when its available, but I also understand the coding is going to be more complex and will take some time to complete, if they even do it at all.

Frankly I wouldn't be upset if active jobs were never added, I genuinely think other things are just more important than something people will get bored of in a couple days

Hi Erin! Do you know (or have heard), if the paralives team have ANY plans to include occults or the supernatural in the game? 🙂🤞🧜‍♀🧛🧞🧚‍♀🐺👽

Ideally, it would be cool to have rabbit holes for careers that would require many resources for them to be playable and not boring (police, healthcare, firefighters, science, salarymen) and maybe make them active in a DLC so people can choose. Then, make active careers for places where parafolks themselves can visit, like restaurants, grocery shops, cafes, which can be small buildings. And last, for certain careers, leave an option to work remote like some Sims 4 careers, where you can do tasks in the home.

I wanna know what's the max amount of para folk that can exist at once??? Cause in the sims it's like 800 or something

As someone who always wanted English in Sims games I'm liking the signs it makes the world feel more realistic to me. I can see why some would not like it but I'm not one of them.

The one part of the video when it showed the Para doing push ups while on the cell phone had me 😂😂😂. Over all cool video and ty so much for the update on Paralives. Your truely the BEST. And you are appreciated. Take care and have a great week. 👍✌❤🤩😍

I think translated tooltips for signs in the game could be implemented when you hover or click to read a sign, and they could let players download their language package or file, it could be a way to easily provide different languages, maybe the text on the menus also could have a variable translation like this.

im still a million times more interested in life by you so im def getting it as soon as its available but ill prolly wait until paralives is out of early access cuz it seems a bit bleh to me. i am subbed to their patreon cuz i really do want them to succeed but it will probably only be good when its got most of the features already implemented

6:25 Regarding languages, I believed mods and things are supposed to be easy for the community to make and embraced by devs. I can imagine people taking it into their own hands and making mods where all assets and textures that label things in English are replaced by various languages.

I think some people have unreasonable expectations. 1) we are comparing an indie game made by a small team to a game in a popular franchise made by one of the largest gaming companies in the world. The Paralives team simply does not have enough resources to make the ultimate life sim game everyone wants them to make. 2) we are comparing a work in progress to a series of games that each had several years of updates and dlcs after launch. For sims 4 it's been 10 years of constant new content. If we want to compare, we need to compare paralives to the basegame sims games at launch. Not what they look like now. 3) people seriously have no idea how much work some of the things they want are. Active careers would require basically designing separate games for every career to make them engaging. There's a reason why there are so many simulation games for specific jobs. And this goes for other things as well, like school, natural disasters, etc. Some of you are asking them to make like 10 games in one, especially if we're talking indie games. I personally just want the core gameplay to be satisfying and fun, Id rather have that polished than half assed with million other features tacked on top. And I'd rather they go into early access in 2025 with the features they have planned right now, than keep it in development for another 3 years to work on stuff the community wants.

For extreme weather, it should be in the base game. Then just do what the Sims 3 Seasons did: have each weather type in a special menu, click on the ones you want, and ignore rest. Simple. Want to change it? Go back to the menu and repeat.

They coukd have said "yes, we can't translate the english on the buildings, we are aware of that it will be a problem for lots of our players, we took care that none of these convey important information" At least some kind of acknowledgement that they think of us who aren't native speakers in english or french would have been nice Especially since the game will be translated in different languages

WFH option where you have to maintain work relationships through the Paralives versions of Zoom and Slack 😂

I don't know why they chose to have everything in English. While I'm an English speaker, so I wouldn't have a problem with it for the most part, it does bother me that they're falling into the problem that The Sims has run into with the complaint that everything seems to be in an American world (even though The Sims uses Simlish to get away from the language problem.) If all the items in the game are in English (rather than changing with the language of the player or having a made-up language like Simlish), they may be limiting interest in the game to people in English-speaking countries. I'm not sure that is a good business decision.

I thought the hair is suppose to have movement???

I am a new subscriber. Out of pure curiosity, what kind of teacher are you?

I'd rather the whole world be open.

I think a made up language is important or you have a group complain about everything being in English. If the game is to positive that going to be a major turn off for a lot of players. If that becomes the case then I might as well stay with sims 4.

Will character health be present in the game in the future? For example, if a character's satiety level did not rise above a certain percentage for a certain time, or a cold due to weather conditions, or overwork. If so, will other characters react to this character being sick? (I hope I can ask questions in the comments)

I do like the idea of all vibes hvaing positives, but I think it would be more fun/interresting if all vibes had negatives as well, like having energetic paras be a tad too energetic and therefore a bit inapropriate or annoying in social situations (like pinkiepie from MLP) or peaceful paras struggeling to express strong emotions wich may lead to other paras underrestimate how theyre feeling or something like that. I don't know what they're envisioning with the different traits or how difficult things are to actually add to the game, but you probably get the idea. I also feel like this helpes show the nuance in different people, how things that are seens a spositive can have negative efects and vice versa. I also feel like having vibes have negative effects as well as positive makes the positive effects for "negative" vibes feel more special and powerfull. That being said, the game isn't even in early acess yet, things can change, and I can't really say how not having negative effects affects the gameplay without having actually played the game.

I hope I can build a mobile home

i honestly don't care what language is displayed in the world. i english, my native language (german), arabic or some fantasy language. i don't need a sighn with "geöffnet" (open) to feel representated,. 🤷‍♀

I once met a german singer and i asked him why doesn’t he sing in english as well to have a wider audience. And he said that he can’t express the feelings in his songs in english as it is not his first language. So the people making this game are english, so idk why it is considered as a privilege to create your artwork in your language. What immersion are they breaking? I honestly don’t want to see anything in digital media in my own language. Computers and the internet were not invented in my country so i honestly don’t want to see them in my language. It’s how i learned a new language from a young age to begin with.

Why still talkin about life by you when it has been deleted and will not come out??

I am a native English speaker who lives in Korea (who speaks a little Korean). I definitely get that those people would want to see their own language everywhere. But in Korea, English is becoming quite visible on many signs - in fact I'd say that most new shops opening seem to have quirky English names. Many shops are being named with English names in English script, and some with English words in Korean script (Konglish). Also English translations are on most of the road signs and many other signs. So this part of the game may not be as off-putting as English speakers might think. Countries that don't have English as a first language still have signs and shop names in English anyway. Korean people are very used to seeing many, if not most of their shop signs in English. Although, once again, I suspect that it'd be nice to have people's native languages, for Korea the architecture is different anyway. For very authentic architecture, see InZoi - the architecture and everything there is EXACTLY how it is in Korea.

I had to jump in to see what this was about. I like how ts4 do careers ( rabbit holes, interactive and work from home , but yeah it could be a bit better) and I don't think it's because of the closed districts. It seems like jobs aren't going to be part of the challenge other than what ts4 does in order to get a promotion. I don't think it'll be nothing needed to get a promotion. This is when an in game language is good. Seeing as the only life simulation games are after Sims and most wanting to take EA down, yeah that's why weather in BG is happening. I feel like the idea of no chainsaw is fine because as possible say gaming is an escape so why throw in the negatives of life. Then there's people with different ideas of how much negative. A simple being fired, or breakup/ divorce, cheating, failing school vs adding stuff like being laid off, robbery, any illness other than cold and flu, disasters like the cure burnt the house down I think adding in modrs like life is good, like real life or life is hard would be difficult to program and expensive. Anyway, this seems like they're doing like ts3 with the world.

I've said it before somewhere else, I'm gonna say it again. Jobs are only fun if they have drama. Just think of TV shows about hospitals, offices, police department etc etc. We're not interested in them because of the work part, we're interested in them because of the characters. If they make coworkers and bosses and clients like in a way that creates an actual human environment, it wouldn't be boring. Give us the gossip, the rivalry, the Karens. Allow us to sabotage our colleagues with risk of being caught and suffering the consequences. Allow us the bosses to be jerks. Allow clients to Karen. Allow accidents to happen. That would be game changing (no pun intended).

English would be okay to be used in the game but use it in a limited bilingual sense- similar to how non-English speaking countries use it for industry specific signage or branding, but all other text and speech are in their own language.

Something like "working from home" could easily be integrated with mods as well, and Paralives is very much going to be a moddifiable game according to devs.

I love rabbit holes. Honestly probably 90% of your school and career time was mundane and boring. I would be OK with being asked to have an active or rabbit hole career day, in case someone wants to experience it. I understand the social aspects may be more interesting, but even then I'm ok with the pop up options. Or focus on after school/work social events.

Cute thumbnail!!!!😂

I just want a school rabbit hole.

Only in paralives will you see a person get paid $30 an hour to be a barista lmao And they're only working 5 hours a day 😆

I work remotely too, but if I was a character in a simulation, I would be not much fun to watch for hours, just sitting at my PC moving hands. Technical difficulties for a dosen of possible remote careers? I mean, a couple scenarios for each career would already make a BIG list, and then after 2-3 days of work it would be just repetition. Too much development work for almost no result in fun. Personally, I don't need my characters to perfectly represent my work life. I rather hope they will be able to make their living from hobbies, like painting/gardening/knitting etc. To sit and look at my screen where a character sits and looks at her screen is a bit too meta for me :)

They should call an Uber 😂

I dont want to do *my* job, I dont want to *actually* do one in a life sim as well

Personally having everything in English would be a good thing for me. If I was making a game, I would do the same because it is a personal preference and I wouldn't care about the complaints 😋. Since Paralives will also be allowing mods, they'll either add more languages or let people add different languages to their game which should make everyone happy.

Regarding their comment on translation: I see that as my first disappointment with them. If they think that it is too "tedious" to translate everything, it must mean they really plan on letting fans translate the UI with mods and they won't bother to budget for actual translation. It's a bad idea, and they might regret it when players are neglecting their game because they are not treated the same as English speaking players. Translation isn't that expensive if you go directly to independent translators and not big agencies taking a big cut for themselves. You just have to plan for it and allocate a budget, just like for any other aspect of the game. I'm prepared for some massive cringe at the French version. And they're french speaking as well! They should be able to see how ridiculous that is.

Good, open world isn't a good idea

I think they should just make some imaginary characters to replace the Latin alphabet in English. Like having the game signage in English Is a weird hill to die on when it’s so easy to make up a quick 26 character alphabet.

I prefer rabbitholes for jobs actually. I hope the option is still there when they do add in active careers/jobs. I feel like the upgrade options we have seen is plenty for me to be involved in my Para's career/job

I wish they would have chosen a made of language

As much as I love the concept of Paralives, and think it will do great for the half of the Sims community that thrives on the cozy/storybuilding aspects, I'm yet to hear of a life sim with a slightly more chaotic outlook. From what I'm usually hearing, it seems like it's marketed towards people who enjoy cozy gameplay with little conflict and more of a life sim in the way that it represents how you wish you lived. I know so many people though, including myself who, despite still enjoying a bit of cozy gameplay, also thrive on chaos. As much as I wish I could be excited, without at least one relative dying of laughter or every generation having at least one grilled-cheese-caused fire or even something as basic as making my Para a genuinely terrible person to be around I think I'd get easily bored.

One thing sims 3 did was expand on rabbit hole careers to enhance open world, with things like tasks outside of work (interviewing sims for example) that get you out and about. Also the opportunity system, and just little interactions in the world that pop up if you are in certain careers (reviewing a movie at the theater). I think rabbit hole careers can work beautifully in open world and be just as engaging without feeling like a chore that active open careers sometimes feel like.

I personally dont want active careers lol. rabbit holes existed for a reason, imo it's better for them to focus and spend recourses on something else. honestly, how many people play the active careers all the time and replay them? 😭it's one of those things everyone thinks they want until they get it lol, as a kid I hated rabbitholes but now I'm not against them at all

Honestly I do perfer rabbit holes because i once went back to play the sims 3 and both of my sims had active careers. One got completely ignored because i could not juggle two sims with active careers. I also like how they are keeping the world small and more compact. I much rather a smaller area with more filled out then a large area that is empty.

Sims 3 was full of rabbit holes and I had no issue, I also rarely if ever play a live career. I prefer that to stands all over town or being stuck at work while the rest of my family gets into who knows what. Work from home would be nice but if not or it comes later that's fine, with open world it's not as needed. I'm good with a nice cosy game that I can chill out and relax. I'm not drama driven like I was when I was younger...lol.

I prefer rabbit hole jobs. Never bothered with the professions in TS3 and going to work with sims in TS4 is frankly boring and quite stupid with tasks such as 'Read a book', 'talk to colleague'. It's not very stimulating. I prefer the sim to just go to work while I get the house in order while they are out.

There's one drawback of active careers. If you had multiple characters with active careers, it would actually be _harder_ to play since you'd constantly keep switching characters whereas careers that worked similar to The Sims' career system wouldn't have that problem. The Sims 4 Get to Work fixed this by asking if you want to follow the Sim every time the Sim goes to work. The things people need to consider is the setting. It wouldn't make sense for a game set in the United States or based on it to use a language other than English. I think the reason disasters aren't included because they could be see as an annoyance if they constantly happened. For example, having an enemy with a multi-target instant death or statuses the disable commands like Stun/Paralyze. A good example is the monster under the bed in The Sims 4 which is the most controversial addition because it interferes with sleep which is something you literately do everyday. Something I noticed is that Paralives video thumbnails show "Teen" like The Sims 4 videos do but I don't know if Paralives even has a rating in _any_ country. I know Indie games that are exclusive to PC usually have to no rating although games _can_ be assigned 18+, but this is not to be confused with the 18 rating (i.e., PEGI 18). For example, the Brookhaven Grimoire Steam page doesn't tell you what rating the game has whereas a game from a known franchise will tell the rating.