Last I knew everyone would get the game at the same time when it releases into early access this year on Steam. As for playtesting, I think I read in a dev chat (or maybe I'm just making this up) it was being limited to in house, in person because they learned more from watching people play. I also assume it's for security reasons--if they send out copies no doubt it would leak.

They've been to a few public events too to let people playtest, but yes they're always there to watch and take notes personally.

I'm sure some youtubers might get access a few days before. The devs always give them a heads up or press kit when they reveal something big.

At last, the town post is public. Or at least, the first one. They aim for the first prebuilt town to have 50-70 lots. It's really big. Honestly, feels even bigger than most TS3 worlds. I also love the look of things. When I make custom worlds in TS3, I love trying to make it look old townie and bricked up (I fail. I'm not a great builder). But they're pulling off the look well.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/121188950

That looks awesome!

🤭🤭🤫



Yes it’s much bigger than I was expecting and I think bigger than others thought too. As a poor ex sims 4 player, more than 12 lots is barely comprehensible for me, and I’m interested to see how the lots will be split over the different areas!

I browsed some Quebec photos and got exhausted just by looking at all those stairs; I do hope our Paras won't have to climb them all the time. I love the idea of a walkable town; it feels very familiar since I am living in one and use my car only for out-of-town trips. - They mentioned "a small castle". I hope they realize they have to add at least one town church as well: it is a must, no matter whether you are a believer or an atheist. - 50-70 lots is really not that much, even for a small town, and some of them will surely be empty, to let us go wild. - Lots of details, just as it should be.

Looking great so far.

That reminds me, related to the discussion from a few days ago, the town post reminded me of something else. Lore. The Sims has always been pretty great with lore (I dunno about sims 4 but I assume it does). From what I've seen of Inzoi so far, there's very little of it. Like, you have the whole cat god simulator angle, but that's it? I don't see a "Bella Goth" so to speak. Just a life sim, a true sandbox.

With this patreon posts and others, I feel like there is lots of lore. Maybe not "Bella Goth" type, but I feel like buildings have a reason to exist. Paras have a reason to exist. That it isn't JUST a sandbox, that there's potential for all of these little computer people to be well. People. I dunno if they're gonna do anything like this, but I can imagine making my Para walk to old town and go into a building and finding a mysterious pile of bones next to a knife and seeing missing posters all around town. Like, "Oh my, this building was the scene of a murder. When did it happen? Who is responsible? Will my para be next for finding it??" (Sims 2 vibes)

From what I've seen of Inzoi, both locations are very polished. Realistic. Super clean even if you change the town to look dirty. Nothing really feels personal, it's like you've been plopped in a city built 2 seconds ago. Not to mention, none of the existing zois seem to matter. With every Sims game I feel like there's a townie or two that sticks out, whether it's the marketing team or the fanbase. Do any of the preexisting zois have an interesting, mysterious, or fun backstory? Or challenge ala the Broke family?

I wonder, if that's also what's missing from Inzoi? A more personalized setting? More personalized Townies?

The InZOI system is similar to the TS4 one, but simplified. A Zoi has a fixed (single) trait that automatically determines a bunch of subtraits. He also has a desired lifestyle (that you can change at any time) and 10 preferences (that can be changed as well). He acquires ambitions (changeable), urges and skills (might be changeable or not - I never tried it). His friends are assessed on three levels, love, business and friendship. And that's it.
The result is the same as in TS4: the trait is influential up to a point but lifestyle and preferences are basically just cosmetics. No backstories, no skeletons, no surprises.

I am really pleased with the look of Paralives' town reveal, and the amount of thought going into each building is energising.
Do we know if we will be able to build whole new towns from scratch and share them?

I am just guessing, but probably not right from the start. Later on empty worlds will certainly be available - if developers won't provide them modders will. - I like their basic scheme (old town roughly in the middle. forest/mountain, rural and industrial areas around it); stylized but makes a lot of sense. I hope it will be adjustable (19th/20th century town instead of old one, with big suburbia, etc.) - possibilities could be endless.

They said they will release a world building tool post early access. Or during early access? One of those. Pretty much like Sims 3. As for sharing them, I'm sure you can upload those to the steam workshop like all the other cc and paras.

Hello everyone!

I just hopped in to say how much I love this game! I haven't played it yet, but everything in the patreon posts makes me excited.

The team just started to deliver patreon rewards and they have a new team member (12 people now). You can read that yourself in the title of the post, in case you are not subscribed to their patreon.

More hair! https://www.patreon.com/posts/124309288
I'm going to let someone else link the pictures as I have memory fail how to do it each time!
Oh I so hope the game part of this game is good, we need some hope in life sim world!

Won't discuss in detail for obvious reasons, but there was a cool post about the autonomy system today. The paras seem pretty "smart" so far

The Paralives' team decided to offer free DLCs. Is that a good or a bad decision? A video by Simmer Erin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiK...nnel=SimmerErin.

This honestly feels like an old talking point with a little bit of nuance. We all know that there are successful games who had free DLCs and then there are those who were unsuccessful. But, I didn't know that Stardew Valley earned 518 million dollars! That is so much money for an indie company (no shade was intentional).

Also, tax laws regarding gaming studios seem to be looser in Canada. That explains a lot!

emotions
I showed this to my TS4 Sims. You should see the faces they pulled.
Great living room. For once, books look real.

I really love that they aren't so exaggerated but still obvious what they convey. I always found the TS2 animations a bit too much on average. Never really played TS4 but I found those always just awful and too cartoonish. TS3 always was the best for me with a range between exaggerated emotions shown on their faces and more subtle idle movements.

I noticed quite a few new videos on Paralives appearing on YT: always suspicious, so I went around to see if any new information appeared on sellers' sites.
GOG: nothing.
Steam: planned release date 2025, no price.
CDKeys: release date to be announced, preorder price (-5%) 20,19 €.

In my experience CDKeys is always cheaper than Steam (e.g., their InZOI price ATM is 30,49 €) but it does not pull its numbers out of thin air, so this can give us at least an approximation of the Steam price.

So, it will be cheaper than a TS4 expansion pack?

TS4 is so overpriced!

Thank you, I hit the 'notify me' button on cdkeys so I won't miss anything. Showing as -5% £16.99.
At that price this is going to whizz off those virtual shelves.
Can't wait