VirtualSociety

Yes, one word. This one is already listed on Steam (*coming soon") and has a trailer as well as several YT videos; the one linked above seems the most interesting to me. Graphics are close to Paralives, but that is supposed to change, at least as far as little people are concerned.

It is heartening to notice that both newcomers, Goodies and this one, are concentrating on the essential part of the game, on characters and their reactions and relations to each other and to their environment; VirtualSociety seems quite revolutionary in this sense - let's hope they will realize everything they intend to. Once more, wait and see.

This game is very early in development, so I do not know what to say about it... The creator is making a lot of promises, and I like the ambition. There will even be terraforming tools!

The team consists of four people, so the game might not be published in the next three years. It might even take them more than three years (my prediction). There are patreon supporters (testers) as well.
Here is where you can read about the team's background.

As soon as I noticed the "Health Use Cases" title I knew that the game was already discussed here, but I could not find the thread. Finally I happened to discover the discussion on page 99 of the Paralives thread; obviously we all forgot about it. I blame the summer heat.

So, I already knew about this game, but somehow forgot about it. I guess this game flew under the radar for many people online. It doesn't surprise me, since the game is in early development. What Paralives did really paid off in the end. I guess many game studios are not that lucky.

Skimming through (I should be heading to sleep as its very late inthe morning lol) I get the impression that this might be the first non-EA life Sim that prioritizes autonomy and personality over everythjng!

Hi everyone! I’m Nico, the creator of VirtualSociety.
Thanks for sharing the game here and for the kind words

I’m glad the personality and autonomy side caught your attention!

To give a bit more background, my cofounder Jimmy and I met during our PhDs in computer science. We both come from research, with years of software development experience before starting VirtualSociety (its current version). We’ve also been working on the game itself for several years now. A lot of that time has gone into the foundations, including the building tools, modding and visual scripting, which many other parts of the game rely on.

We’re still a small team, so our resources have a big impact on how quickly we can move, but we really hope to secure more funding to grow the team and speed up development considerably, building on the work we’ve already done.

It’s lovely to see the game finding its way here (and that my communication efforts over the last few months have paid off :D).
Happy to answer questions if there’s anything you’d like to know!

The obvious question is "When will it be released?" and the obvious answer to that is "When it will be ready". I, for one, am rather tired of early access games: both InZOI and Paralives were released in a state they should not be released in. InZOI is playable now, more than a year and a half later, but it still has a lot of problems, and Paralives is improving as well but it's still very far from 1.0. Take your time; we can wait.

Also, both InZOI and, especially, Paralives are too easy and Paralives wants to be "cozy" as well: life is not easy nor, for the most part, cozy. I don't think your game will be either but I thought I should mention it nevertheless.

I think the graphics are really nice. I would say that the style of the game is cozy and vibrant. The model of the characters reminds me of that one from Ice Age (the first part).