Togetherness: Make your Parafolks do Anything as a Group in Paralives (Patreon)

Hi, Alex here! 

One big design goal for us with Paralives is to support many different playstyles. That’s why the game lets you play with a single character, with a big and busy household or anything in-between. When we were thinking of gameplay styles based around multiple characters and making them socialize, one key element was very important to us: We want a feeling of togetherness in the game so it should be very easy for players to make their characters do almost any interaction as a group.

How it Works

At the start of this animated GIF, only Sebastian is selected. Then, I simply click and drag my mouse cursor to create a selection rectangle and select everybody.

In the interface at the bottom, you can also shift+click characters to choose those you want selected. The white circles under each character indicate those who are selected but this might still be changed.

Doing a group interaction is super simple and quick: just select your characters and click on an object to perform any interaction, just like you would with only one character selected.
⚠️ Note: In today’s Patreon post, you might see characters turn around too suddenly and walk through each other. We will be working on making these movements more fluid!

More Examples

Our goal is to make every interaction in the game doable as a solo character or as a group. We might not be able to do it for 100% of the interactions but so far, we haven’t seen many cases where won’t be able to support it.

Walk somewhere as a group.

Do push-ups as a group.

Use the toilet as a group. In that case, as you can see in this GIF where I accelerated the time, they will take turns using the toilet while the rest hangout together while waiting. If there are multiple toilets nearby, they will each use a different one.

Or simply chat as a group.

More examples that are planned:

• 🍝 Making a family eat dinner together at the same time will be very easy with the system.
• 🌱 Selecting multiple characters and asking them to water the plants will make each Para find different plants to water, completing the task faster than doing it solo.
• 🛌 Clicking on a bed and selecting the Sleep interaction while having multiple Paras selected will make each Para go sleep in their own bed so you don’t need to order every Para individually.
• 🎮 Play a game together as a group.
• 💦 Go swim in the pool together as a group.
• ➕ And much much more!

Interacting with Townies

Everything explained in this Patreon post also works to interact with other characters from the town that are not in your household and that you do not control. You can use the selection tool to select them along with your own character and choose an interaction to perform. It’s possible that these characters refuse though because they have their own life and their own autonomy.

On the left are the two characters from my own household and on the right, we have two townie characters that I do not control. Don’t ask a very hungry Townie Parafolk to dance though, they will probably refuse!

Props to Richard for all his work on the features showcased today! We’re really confident this will allow players to easily perform interactions as a group in Paralives, strengthening the feeling of togetherness that is really important in our vision of a life simulation game. 🤼✨

Have a great rest of the day!

Alex

Edit - February 7, 2024: This post is now public, feel free to share it!