It's actually easier and quicker to model in lifelike proportions, not least because of the million and one existing free models around. Unless there is a purpose behind these proportions, it would have impressed would-be players more to have it appear as realistic as possible.

As for planet coaster type people in Paralives, personally if they can't do "realistic" then I'd rather have matchstick men and fill in the details from my own imagination - which I am fortunate to be able to do. What I can't do so well is superimpose imagination on top of a detailed but unrealistic model. So for me, the graphics should go as far as feasible towards realistic, and when they've gone as far as they can, then stop right there and leave them at that level of detail.

Those would be *perfectly* alright with me! Sure they are simple, but they seem charming, expressive and I actually like the stylization. I'd be happy with a Sim game that uses characters like that!

I think you will find that while the textures may change, the proportions will not, since already by this stage they would need to have designed the object and character skeletons so that they fit together when they are using them.

Dev:
"The graphics will stay in the same style because making it realistic would require A LOT of work. Paralives is an indie game so the focus is on the gameplay instead"

Ew. I can't give money to people who prefer gameplay over graphics. Cities Skylines prefers gameplay over graphics, and you need several hundred mods off the Workshop to not have it look like ass.

Makes sense if you're machinima worker. Idk, just it comes as interesting some prefer just to look at then get engaged purely from playing. Isn't directed at anyone in particular, but maybe there is said group. Probably is so I'm type of simmer that doesn't install buttload of cc for cas items and regular objects. Well, it's not related, but eh.

Low poly can look pretty. Fixed style does NOT mean fixed graphics :D

Well yeah I am heavily biased towards the visual aspect of it, and even TS3 only barely meets a level of detail I'm comfortable with (TS4 is out of the question entirely). It's very hard to have any sort of realistic cinematography when you know everything smaller than, say, a fridge, has obvious hard edges and very small texture maps that omit all detail. For what it's worth, TS2 still has the most detailed assets in the franchise by some margin, but TS2 obviously doesn't offer the creative freedom or the lighting engine to create believable environments.

That's not to say there's no finer detail in the Sims games of course because it's certainly possible to work with the shaders to create realistic-looking objects. But 100 different amazing-looking individual objects in one scene can still look awful together.

In an ideal world I'd run TS3 at 4k with a layered Reshade solution that does things like screen space ambient lighting and a proto-raytracing shader. But TS3 isn't reliable at 4k and Reshade isn't fully compatible with TS3. I still appear to be the only person in the world whose Reshade conflicts with the game's reflections and bugs out horribly so if I could at least find a way to solve that, I'd be halfway.

I don't remember that. I do remember conversations where some of us wanted more realism and others countermanded with "No thank you I don't want uncanny valley". I don't remember anyone saying that's what we had actually got with TS3.

"We are working on optimizing the game to make it run on laptops and lower end computers."
"Paralives aims for a Teen rating. It will not contain mature themes such as drugs, murder, sexual violence, pornography, gore, etc. Also, the game will not contain religions."

Sounds like it's got the same annoying self-imposed limitations as The Sims. Curved walls not gonna make up for it.

I take back everything I said about this game being impossible to create with a one-man team. The developer Alex talks about it as if it were no mean feat creating such a simulation, but here he is, doing it, with full intent towards a release, and apparently it's getting $2,500 per month on Patreon...so there's a good sign.
So many fangames fall by the wayside because the developers don't have the time. They've got a job, perhaps a family, and cannot finish it. That Patreon money gives an incentive and makes niche genre games like life simulation when the regular games industry won't do it.

There may come a time when the developer comes to a full stop because the money is not just there on Patreon and he might either have to give up on it and get a "proper" job or have to find a mainstream developer to expand on his ideas. I just hope that he does not get viciously trolled like some developers got recently when they went to Epic for help. They were a team of two.

I don't think you can call it a double standard when there are two entirely separate groups of people involved.

I'm pretty sure the dev HAD a day job, but QUIT it to fully work on this game every single day. However, I'm still concerned about the approach to the game itself, just like Inge said. Optimizing a game for a wide range of PC's is a hard feat, but optimizing a UNITY game like that is nearly impossible. And I still have to see stuff that is about to do with actual gameplay.

Like I've said, if build mode gets just a little bit more complex, I'd still buy it for up to $30 because even what he has now looks impressive, but for it to work as a sims competitor it has to have solid gameplay, like SOLID SOLID. I've still to find a game that has the level of detail in simulation that sims 2 has, or the power of town simulation that sims 3 has. Maxis was a giant at that time, and the games they made are iconic just because of the sheer effort that you can see those teams put into these games... I'm not convinced paralives can top the sims as a franchise and a phenomenon... but I'm p sure it can top sims 4 as the latest entry in The Sims franchise.

The Sims 3 does fall into the uncanny valley at times because it's not realistic enough. They tried to go for a more realistic art style but they missed the mark in a lot of aspects, mainly when it comes to the appearance of Sims, some textures, specular and normal maps, etc. Technology wasn't powerful enough in 2007-2008 (when TS3 was being developed) to support a realistic art style, Crysis being one of the exceptions.

Just look at the graphics in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, released in late 2008 and late 2010 respectively:


In contrast, modern games are able to finally go past the uncanny valley and deliver very realistic graphics:


Of course, I think it's preferable to go for a more stylized art style if you don't have the resources to reach that level of realism, or you can't afford to waste resources you need for the simulation in complex things like hair physics. Ultimately going for a very stylized art style doesn't mean graphics have to be low quality. Bioshock Infinity was released a year before The Sims 4 and it boasts graphics ten times better than TS4, even though both games are very stylized.

As I mentioned in my post way back, maybe people shouldn't be looking at this game as a 1:1 challenger or a competitor. In the developer's mind, it's probably not meant to replace the sims or top the sims (sims 4, maybe). I think it will probably run better than the Sims 3 open world thanks to the amount of graphical fluff it's shaving off, but let's wait and see how the simulation part of this goes. Imo, I'm expecting Sims 1 level stuff + generational play and honestly I'm pretty ok with that. I worry that people are setting expectations way too high and that can also negatively affect the development of a game sometimes.

There has to be a reason to play this and I do not want Sims 1 level things again. If this game does not exceed what we have now there is IMO no reason to get it.

Some of the build features may be nice, but if most/many other things are a step backwards that will not do it for me. And I am one of the people who want graphics I like or I will not play a game.

And that's perfectly ok. Maybe this isn't the Sims alternative you're looking for. But I honestly think if this game is successful, other indie devs and maybe even big devs will consider putting their own version out on the market.

It will only be successful if it has enough to offer that is not currently available. I wish the developer well, but this is a very difficult task/project to do.

Simple games are great fun but you don't go and compare them to another, more complex one. Paralives could be interesting as a thing on its own but I wouldn't compare it to The Sims too easily, because that implies a certain standard it'll probably not be able to meet. I say this, of course, knowing full well that I'm currently on the TS4 board. But you get the idea.

Looks very fake which is the opposite of what I like. The NPC's shown look like paint-by-numbers paintings. Love the building mechanics though, especially the round-wall feature. Could be some copywrite issues with this. Not sure about that. But even Anime has more depth. But I wish the creator luck if all we are seeing is the "on-the-drawing-board version."
Strange as this may sound, I actually enjoy playing other games too! Like the Dragon Age series, love that too!

If the price is right I will probably buy it just for the experience and curiosity. But as yet it's not making me think it will give me what has been missing in the current Sims game, which I have stopped playing as of several months ago

I am not playing Sims much now. I am on my ipad constantly playing games where I love the games, graphics, community in some cases, and other things. This will have a lot of competition. There must be thousands of apps wanting our game time. This will need to be pretty spectacular to draw us from everything else out there now IMO.

I mean, as a person who never tried TS1, I think it has something that people love it for when often I hear about how TS4 sometimes doesn't even manage to be much more impressive than the first game. Could be do to the mature and clever humor it has, but wouldn't surprised it gets praised for Sims behaving somewhat more real to human than they currently are (hence why personality/emotion revamp is demanded). Otherwise, TS1 would not even be honorably mention in TS4, because obviously it was the first game started as a child that later grew up being a well established figure (up to TS3 point (before his life crashed down)).

Honestly, I think I might love TS1 after trying it out since I'm a fan of TS2 & TS3, since many in my position seem to be fond of it too. Honestly, even If it manages to bring Sims (or shall I say "Parafolks" as their character title have been confirmed by official vote), that retain the level of AI and depth, of (the very least) TS1 if not from TS2/TS3, than I'd say it would be a great headstart. I'd still see potential of it getting some more if it just reaches TS1 standard (minus rapid motive drop, clunky camera controls and isometric view (lets be real, its 2019 now - theres no need for said limitations or thehardcore challemge of keeping sims alive 24/7 which nobody liked,) of a life simulation. Ok, I'm probably not giving enough credit for TS4, but honestly who would be willing to move over from the crappy game to a clone crappy game. Probably I oppose to playing fake Sims that aren't diverse and emotionally sane. TS4 ain't bad, it's only bad that is getting fucked up by maxis with their counterproductive priority decisions.

ETA:

this video is out. Seems interesting lot creation process, who I would never have thought of one, oppose to just placing them down. And the flexibility provided with said tool: build a lot in any shape (even possible curved ones according to desc) and size (looks limitless) that you can also as well configure it of a lot that is already created. Mootilda's program but within a game basically.

The lot creation tool looks good. I like that there does not have to be a tile between them. I would hope they could go right up to the road though if the game will have driveways and vehicles.

I noticed that too. The grass verge along the pavement would be a sort of enforced suburbia