Chalet Update + April Fool's (Patreon)
Content
Hi there,
Thanks to everyone on Patreon who shared their ideas regarding the identity and personality systems in Paralives! The brainstorming session is still going strong on Discord and Reddit so feel free to join everyone there to bounce some ideas you might have.
In other news, this week, Gamasutra published an article about how Paralives and other game developers use Patreon to support their projects. It's a really interesting read and I recommend it. I'm taking this opportunity to thank each and every Patron for making Paralives a reality! The game just couldn't exist without you ❤️
April Fool's Day
Yesterday, we shared a little something on our social media: an exclusive look at the live mode gameplay in Paralives.
⚠️Warning: Not actual gameplay. Jérémie made this for April Fool's Day!
All jokes aside, as you know it, we have been working on the build mode, the Paramaker and the animation system recently (check out the development page of our website to follow what we're up to). We're also designing a first version of our interactions and action queue system. That will lead us to a base version of the live mode where Paras will be able to do basic actions around the house. That will be pretty exciting and we're looking forward to showing some of that!
Chalet Update (For Patron only. Please don't share)
We're getting closer to building the Canadian Chalet, a house that we'll build from scratch in an upcoming build mode video. The features and build tools are almost ready and now we'll be working on the furniture and deco needed for this build. We'll share some of our sketches and progress in the following weeks.
The chalet video was supposed to be ready in early 2021 but we postponed it. We preferred to focus on developing core features instead of spending a lot of time creating new objects needed for the chalet. Now that we made good progress on the important build mode features, we have established a date for the public reveal of the chalet. We can't announce that date yet but we can say that you Patrons will get an exclusive look at the build before the full video will be released for everyone to enjoy. 🏡
We're spending some time finding the perfect mood and style for the chalet. Reference pictures help us visualize what it could be.
Our current to-do list for the Chalet:
- Finalize the design of the floor plan
- Make general UI and user experience tweaks
- Establish the style and color palette for each room
- Create missing objects and textures for each room
- Make it easier to align and snap objects together
- Add more sound effects and visual effects while building walls and placing objects
- Add more features to the furniture catalog menu and improve its look and feel
The furniture catalog menu that you'll use to purchase and place objects in Paralives will be showcased in that upcoming video. We're still working on this menu so tell us in the comments: what makes a great catalog menu? Would you prefer to browse objects by room, by product type, or another way? Do you need to filter by tags, styles and colors? What about a search bar? Are object descriptions important to you? Besides that, what are some features you would want us to have for our furniture catalog? Thank you!
Have a great weekend and happy Easter to those who celebrate it!
Alex