🎮 Alex Walks you Through Testing Paralives

Hey everyone, Alex here!

For today’s post, I’ll walk you through highlights of the gameplay session I had yesterday to test the game. It will give you some insights on the current state of the live move! Please note that gameplay systems, gameplay content, the naming of things and the interface are still a work in progress. For example, notice how the icons for the 4 needs don’t match together (they are placeholders and we will make the final icons later on)!

As always, this post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it! 🔐

Before I get started, I wanted to say that we added a section on our Steam page about Paralives Early Access and what it means for a game to be in Early Access so I invite you to read it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118520/Paralives/

At the start of my session, I decided that I was going to play with a household of one Parafolk, and I created this character, Maxence. I had a lot of fun and I was invested in her story already!

I decided that Maxence would be someone with a large amount of energy to spend and that aims for a career in tech.

Once I left the Paramaker, I purchased an empty lot. Maxence was stressed because her Energy Surplus bar was full and she really needed to move and do things (this bar is only for Paras with the Energetic personality trait). I made her do some pushups which relieved her stress, made her happy and her energy made her progress in her skills faster!

Then, I tested the building mode and quickly came up with this simple build. Time flew by so I had to switch to testing the live mode, but I would have spent more time creating the perfect environment for Maxence.

I spent a lot of money building and furnishing the house so I had to find a job to keep the money coming. I went with an entry level programming job which I was qualified for. Choosing the technology talent when I created Maxence in the Paramaker made her start at level 3 in her Technology knowledge.

To make sure Maxence would perform well at work, I jumped right away to leveling up the programming skill on the computer. Her skill was increasing quite fast because I was in a good mood and my Energy Surplus bar was full.

Her job was only rank 1, so it didn’t really require high skill levels, but I wanted her skills to be future proof!

After her first day of work, she was tired and hungry. Being not much of a cook, she had to prepare something really easy to make.

A few days later, I made Maxence go out of the house to socialize.

I decided to flirt with Roger, and it worked!

After a few more Together cards, being really flirty, Maxence thought of getting intimate with Roger (if you know what I mean 🔥). I decided to deepen the relationship a bit first though so I picked the card “Discuss programming techniques” instead, which resulted in a small gain in the programming skill and a level up, which was nice.

Because Maxence romanced Roger until very very late at night, she went to bed when work was starting in only 3 hours!! We need to get at least a bit of sleep. Maxence is feeling quite happy but also a bit uncomfortable and angry because she’s drained.

These negative emotions impacted her job performance a bit, but nothing serious. Also, just an idea, but maybe you could get a production boost at work when you are very happy after meeting a new romantic interest!

Coming back from work, I used the special Power Nap interaction which consumes 2 points from the Energy Surplus bar to do a quick nap that relieves the sleep need by a considerable amount.

Maxence then had a quick snack.

A few days later, I got a Want to find a better job in the ‘’tehcnology’’ domain (haha, the typo)! We’re gonna ask people to proofread everything before launch so don’t worry!

Fortunately, today, there was a posting for a rank 17 job as a Front-End Developer and I was qualified for it thanks to leveling up the programming skill so much. It increased my pay, almost doubling it!

Maxence’s relationship with Roger also progressed and he eventually moved-in with her and they decided to have a baby together.

Surprise! When Maxence gave birth, the baby was really bugged!

I managed to fix it! I also bought a crib and a few illustrations to hang for the newborn. I might need to expand the house though because it’s starting to feel small… Maxence’s new salary and Roger’s income will help with that!

That’s it for today! Hope you liked the post and tell me if you have any questions or gameplay ideas!

Alex 😀