Yes, definitely so- the graphics tend to be the last thing that are worked on in gamedev; TS3 spent a good amount of its initial dev period as a 2d game, in order to get the StoryProgression and traits right, if I recall correctly.

That being said, the early access/patreon dev model does shake things up a bit, as funders probably want to see something more flashy, as opposed to ugly placeholder models.

I do think you have a good point, but there is also the possibility that their devs have different specialities. A 3d artist will not code gameplay and vice versa. I don't know how many developers they have. I am also very curious about the gameplay. It is the main reason that I am still hesitant about this game. But if they are creating this from scratch without using one of the available game engines, this might take a while.

More Paramaker developments

WOW I love that! That's going to allow for some great precision! :lovestruc

I wonder if two arrows above the head are a height slider. The inclusion of a height slider is one of those features that made me excited about this game. I hope they do not scrap the idea of Paras who are of different heights.

Also, are there more sliders that in the Sims 4? It appears that there are more sliders already, but I am not sure.

New Paramaker Video (pre-alpha)
I have no idea how to get an image to show up with this link, so I'll just pop the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saPMQS1jquc

It looks pretty good!

Wow. That's already a heavily modded sims game + all expansions. In Paralives it's just the core game. Imagine what more the EPs or mods could add.

The new stuff looks FREAKING AWESOME. The new textures and facial features look REALLY good when you see them animated. And the clothes look awesome.
Not sold on the child yet, looks too much like a short adult imho, but that can still change.

I really hope they'll let us have a demo version of the Para Maker at some point!

This is shaping out to be everything I wanted in a Sims game. It's no surprising after so many years of EA "listening" ot its fans it comes from different developers. Well done to all of the people working on this!

I brought something like that up on the discord server and, currently, they don't have any plans to release a demo. Which is a shame because this Paramaker is SO freaking cool. It's everything I love about TS3 and TS4's CAS, rolled into one. Playing around with that would be more than enough to hold me over until the game is actually ready lol

Ah that sucks. Maybe they mean for the foreseeable future until we get closer to the release?

Then again I have vague memories of Maxis having quite a bit of trouble releasing that Body Shop demo, delaying it again and again, and that was with a large development team and the fact that they had always planned to release the Body Shop as a separate tool for custom content creation. Maybe they think they just won't have the time/manpower to create a stand alone version?

I love everything we've seen so far apart from one thing, and that's just personal taste: the highlights on the skin. Too harsh and squiggly, plus they're static. I imagine you could mod that out, colour it or something though since the game is said to support mods from day one.

Also the interaction of Seb and his kid Eli seemed really cute and genuine. Good to finally see a child parafolk!

I was shocked to learn EA patented the pull and push system they use for The Sims 4 so the Paralives Team can't use it without paying a fee. It's insane to patent such a common mechanic, and I'm pretty sure other games older than Sims 4 have used a similar system. As much as I love Sims 2 and 3, I'm not a big fan of the sliders. Once you get used to the pull and push system and you where every "slider" is, I find it to be the easiest to make unique Sims, and to make Sims similar to real life people.

Other than that, I'm still not a big fan of the art style, but I think it's an improvement over what it looked before. Now Paras have more realistic proportions. Before they looked like characters from a Pixar movie with their HUGE eyes and insanely large pupils.


I can tell they're going for a style similar to Telltale Games', but they need higher res textures to fully achieve it.

Contrary to popular belief, Telltale Games don't have low res textures and low poly meshes, quite the opposite. Face textures are in fact 2048x2048:

BTW, this is the patent that EA filed to make it so no one but them can modify a simulated character through direct manipulation: LINK

"Systems and methods for modifying images of simulated video game characters. An example method includes: identifying, by a processor, a zoom level associated with a video game character image; identifying a location, within the video game character image, of a cursor associated with an input device; identifying, based on the location and the zoom level, a modifiable portion of the video game character image; and responsive to receiving an input from the input device, modifying the portion of the video game character image in at least two directions based on a direction of movement of the cursor."

PDF FILE

Reason #99999999998 why EA sucks...

It reminded me of Sims 2-style sliders, and I actually could figure those out (Sims 3's version confused me).

TBH, the push and pull system also becomes extremely limiting if you want lots of customizability in small areas (i.e. the nose)- there are only so many grab locations available, so that you end up with a lot of sliders jostling for a spot. On the other hand, the charm of the TS2-3 slider system is that they all work independently, so you can add as many sliders as you want- some even overlapping on the same spot.

I definitely think the artstyle is better than the low-poly colour-block style in the original images, but I would personally like the outlines toned down a bit, and some more details on the faces to compensate, maybe in a painterly style. Bonus points if those details can be layerable, like with some of the Sims custom details.

I.e. with Arcane, Dontnod, or even some of the Telltale games.

I totally agree that better, but I still do not like these Paras whatsoever. This game still is a pass for me unless there is a significant change. But they are evolving, so that is good.

jje1000, the character in that image I would play.

The new Paralives video should have been longer because we can see for example the scar category but nobody who made the video clicked on the scar category. The same thing applies to the teeth category, the eyelash category and other categories. The Paralives' team should have relased a full character creation video, but I will not complain too much because I am satisfied with what we got.

I must admit that the animations look livelike and detailed and that is what makes me happy. It is like a little insight into gameplay. These animations make me think that gameplay will be detailed unlike the lack of detail that is present in TS4.

My biggest interests are the identity and genetics category. The identity category reminds me of the aspiration category from TS2. The identity part sounds to me like there might be no traits like in TS3. But, that is just my speculation.

I like the artstyle for objects and background, but not the characters. The characters skin makes them look flat like a cardboard cutout. The clothes make them look better though. But the character creation so far looks quite good overall.

EDIT : I changed my mind, I can't get over how the characters look. Even with clothes. They look like flat paper dolls inside a 3d environment.

I also hope that the characters continue to change and we have something without relief and a more realistic skin. If in the end they keep that style, I hope the gameplay is good enough to ignore it.

I think if EA doesn't start adding more of what the players want, Paralives will eat its lunch.

Totally agree. I will not get this game at this point due to the way the Paras are done. It makes no sense whatsoever to me what they are doing.

Paralives doesn't even have any 'life simulator' gameplay. As a 'building simulator' or 'people making simulator' it definitely has ambition, but that's not enough to make a good game.

Paralives isn't finished. The life simulator aspect is certainly intended, though.