Town Services & Businesses Brainstorming Recap + New Theme + Poll (Patreon)

Hello everyone,

It’s Sandrine here, back again to share with you the summary of the latest community brainstorming session as well as the new theme for the month of April. Note that this Patreon post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it. Thank you!

Town Services & Businesses Brainstorming Recap

We’d like to thank you all for participating in the Town Services & Businesses brainstorming session. We gathered your ideas from the comment section as well as from Discord and Reddit. Here’s a general summary of the ideas that stood out to us. Please keep in mind that if you don’t see your idea there, it doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t be taking it into account when working on this aspect of the game. In the same way, listing the ideas below doesn’t guarantee that we will add it to the game either since we will be focusing on the most important features first in order to be able to release the game. More interactions and features will be added overtime after launch.

• 👥 A community center where Parafolks could attend activities, learn skills, etc.
• 🚊 A public transport system
• 🏘️ Mixed-use lots with a residential upper floor and a business on the ground floor
• 🏠 A shelter for Parafolks without a home
• 🍼 Nanny and daycare for babies and toddlers
• 🏕️ Camping lots
• 🌞 Summer camps for children
• 👗 Clothing stores with rotating stock each season
• 🖌️ Being able to select a certain number of basic outfits, tattoos and piercings in the Paramaker, but when you would like to get more, you would need to go shopping or to a tattoo/piercing parlor. They would come at an additional in-game cost
• 🛎️ Have a Parafolk or NPC at a front desk on some community lots like the gym
• 💰 Entry fees to some community lots like at a fancy dance club. Memberships so you would not have to pay every time your Parafolk goes to the gym or golf club, for example
• 🏬 Different food stores with different offers depending on the area. For example, supermarkets in one town, but picturesque little corner shops in another.
• ⛸️ Urban parks activities that could be affected by the season. For example, there could be a pumpkin exhibition in autumn and a skating rink once it’s winter time
• 🌟 A Parafolk could be in good standing with a business. If a Parafolk goes frequently to a restaurant, they could unlock hidden menu items or get discounts
• ⛔️ Staff-only areas for businesses
• 🌼 Services to hire for your garden according to seasons: gardener, someone to rake leaves or shovel snow, etc.
• 📦 Being able to order items online and have it delivered to your door
• 🎡 Area or season specific businesses such as farmer’s market, food trucks, pop-up shops, fairs, festivals, boat tour/rental, etc.
• ♻️ Be able to sell/buy second-hand with garage sales and thrift stores
• 📸 Photo booths in malls in which you can take a set of pictures of your Parafolk(s)

Special thanks to Patron and Discord user Axart once again, who made a summary of his own during this month. As always, it’s been helpful to us!

Here’s a word cloud to see what has been mentioned the most in the Patreon comment section of the previous brainstorming session. It’s the smaller words that get interesting! You can spot some specific services that have been requested enough to show up on here:

Results of the poll on the Town Services & Businesses brainstorming post showed that all of the options were really important to you but that the town service you were most looking forward to was a grocery store! It was followed closely by the “bar, coffee shop and tea room” option and firefighters.

Next Monthly Brainstorming Topic

This month’s brainstorming session topic is all about Cat Whiskers! How long should they be? Should all cats have them? What are the best whiskers: long and straight or frizzy ones?

You didn’t really think I would be all serious on April Fools’ day now did you? ;) Okay, okay, here’s the real theme for April: Basic and Complex Needs! Have you heard of the hierarchy of needs? Needs are not only for food, sleep, shelter, etc., but also for love, respect, freedom and more! To get started, you can ask yourselves the following questions:

• 🔋 What needs would you like to see in Paralives?
• ⚖️ How would you prioritize or categorize needs?
• 😐 How would ignoring a need for too long impact Parafolks?
• 🍽️ What would be different ways to fulfill each need?
• 👪 Should all Parafolk have the same needs? Should it vary from one Parafolk to another?

We’d love to read all your ideas in the comment section of this post. It is very inspiring! As usual, we will open this brainstorming session to the public next week on Discord in the #basic-and-complex-needs channel and on Reddit.

Happy brainstorming!

Poll: Basic and Complex Needs

Now that the new topic has been revealed, we have a question for you: would you like fulfilling needs to be challenging or to take up less space in what you do with your day?

You can answer in the poll below. If you can think of something that is not in the options, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments. (Also, don’t hesitate to let me know about your favourite type of cat whiskers too!)

Have a good weekend everyone! 😺

Sandrine