Development Progress + Roadmap Update (Patreon)

Hello,

This week, we wanted to update you about our progress, what we're working and what's to come!

New Website Page: Development Progress  (For Patrons only. Please don't share)

We created a new page on our website and it's about the history of the development of Paralives and its progress. It's still under construction but Patrons can access it right now until we make it public in the near future. The goal of this page is to make it easier for people to know where we're at in the development of the game. I hope you find it interesting and don't hesitate if you have any questions!

The page: https://www.paralives.com/development/
Password: paranet

On that page, aside from the history of every feature we added into the game so far, we added a description of the different development phases we will be going through. Right now, we are at the pre-alpha stage which means we are building the core of the game. Then, in the alpha phase, we will add more and more features and content. Finally, there will be a beta to improve everything and make the final touch!

Note: we're still not sure if there will be a beta test phase for Patrons but it's something we are considering depending on how things go!

Regarding the Patreon rewards like the Para recreation, we will be able to deliver them once we have more hairstyles, objects and clothing options so in the Alpha or Beta phase. We will reach out to everyone for the details when we get there. A lot of you already unlocked the Hero/Legend tier rewards since you pledged for 3 months or more so you are on our list of people to contact when we are ready to deliver the rewards!

Roadmap Update (For Patrons only. Please don't share)

As you can see, the new development progress website page does not include the full roadmap with the next steps of the development. We wanted to keep this info for Patrons only. A few months ago, we shared our roadmap in a Patreon post.

At the moment, we are still in the Pre Alpha 3 development phase. We worked on the terrain tools, the clothing system and adding more customization options in the Paramaker such as the name edition panel, skin options, body hair options and improving our character. We also did a lot of things we did not mention on the roadmap during the last couple of months so here's the full recap:

- Day and night cycle changing with seasons
-️ New modding tool features: customize day and night cycle
-️ Improvements to the skin layering system to support blush, freckles, makeup, etc
-️ New Paramaker features: body hair, facial hair, tattoos, recoloring, opacity slider
-️ New Paramaker feature: name customization
-️ Character improvements following community feedback
-️ Worked on the genetics system and adding modding support to it
-️ Build tools improvements: better split level, better floor management
-️ Swatch system improvements
-️ New build mode feature: change wall height
-️ New live mode features: remove shoes in the house, secret bookcase, zipline and pool jumping
-️ Modding tools: added support for furniture as custom content
-️ Modding tools: created UI to add and manage user imported assets
-️ Improve item resizing features and internal tools
-️ Terrain tools progress: elevate/smooth/flatten terrain, paint grass, place lakes
-️ Live mode: created some new basic animations
-️ Worked on improving the saved game features
-️ Character model and rigging improvements
-️ Clothing system design and tests
-️ Added mod support for custom 3D models, animations and rigs
-️ Wall/floor color and texture customization
-️ Started to work on the furniture catalog UI
-️ Added more features to genetics system
-️ Worked on improving the character skin texture

What we are currently working on:
-️ Improving the Paramaker, adding more customization options to it
-️ Improving the build mode, adding more tools and mod support for furniture
- Improving the build mode UI and workflow
-️ Improving the genetics system to create relatives based on other Paras
-️ Working on the clothing system
-️ Working on the character animation system
-️ Improving the art style of the game
- Brainstorming and designing different aspects of the game

We're pretty happy with the progress so far! Since we had so much to do, we're still not ready to jump into the next development phase (Pre Alpha 4) where we will work on more live mode related things like personalities, interactions, etc. Because of that, we updated the "early 2021" estimate for the Alpha phase to "2021".

Right now, we're focusing on completing our remaining goals for the current Pre Alpha 3 phase: basement tools, more Paramaker tweaks and a more solid clothing system. I'm super excited to show you these things! We also have the Canadian Chalet/Cabin coming up, a house that we will build from scratch in a video in the coming 1-2 months, once we have polished the build mode UI and workflow.

That's it for today! We hope you are as excited as we are for what's to come!

Have a great weekend and take care,

Alex

EDIT: The development page (https://www.paralives.com/development/) is now public but the roadmap is still private for Patrons only :)