Holiday Items + New Skill-Related Paintings! 🎄

Really loving the art and the holiday objects, especially the impressionist paintings and that fun star lamp! The one thing I noticed is that in the pic of the three paras, I thought the child was sporting a fake white beard as well because of how contrasting his blush is compared to his white chin. It might just be because of the Santa hat, but maybe there's contouring that could be done around the chin to give it a little more depth and make it look more like his natural skin.

Amy Joscelyn

Speaking as the unofficial representative of the Jewish patrons, please include a menorah for Chanukah. 🙏

jrrt1459

The PAINTINGS!!?!!?!! WOW!!!! Stunning!!!! And the Holiday looks soooooo cozy and cute!!! Everyone and everything looks so beautiful!!!! Very exciting stuff!! Happy Holidays!!!!

warmestbloggerever

It would be hilarious if our paras drew the “cool S” when their skill was low.

Trinity Smith

I love all these new things but I do wish more than 1 winter holiday was represented here. I'm sure your team will have things for other types of celebrations at some point but it was a little disappointing to see "Holiday items" when you meant "Christmas items". Lovely Christmas items though i will definitely get some use out of these!

Jax

It's awesome, the attention to detail is really appreciated and gameplay once again is mastered. As for the painting's quality.... I mean, they're good ! But for a maxed out level, I would've expected flawless paintings. Like, on the impressionist painting of a woman sitting on a hill, the folds on her dress look kid of awkward and there are some reoccurring habits on the faces on every painting which shows some struggles with the anatomy. Maybe that type of job should be left to commissioned professional digital artists

Ghislain Pedro

Do we know release date?

Nelssie

These are amazing! Is it possible to leave an option for people to add in custom artwork/images to each category for paras to paint, or have them paint screenshots captured in-game for the realism/portrait categories?

Denise

Please release a build video🙂😭. The first one is so soothing and calm. I use it to calm my nerves.

Thabiso Ptk💚

I'm so obsessed with this game! 😍😍😍😍

Thabiso Ptk💚

This is so beautiful! Was thinking how in times of traditional 3D animation that tries to imitate reality in many ways, your style like drawings comes to life, is stand-out and is so beautiful. Still, feel the warmth and cosiness radiating and my heart starts to beat faster waiting for 2025, and your release. Not InZoi with its too-heavy (to run on my PC) realism, not Vivaland with their fancy multiplayer promise - YOU! I know that it will be worth the wait! No matter what, I and many others here are with you!... Keep going, but take some time off for Xmas and the New Year's Celebration, you all! That's an order from Auntie! LOL

Michelle Koleva

Love the artwork in the paintings! Perhaps it's unrealistic, but I would love to have lots of possible artworks to paint. Makes it exciting to see what the para will create ❤️

Íris Sól Þrastardóttir

OMG Team Para, you sure have been busy! I am loving it all very much and those painting are awesome. I would love to see a sleigh with maybe 2 reindeers lit up which we could maybe load with gifts or a stuffed santa? And please please please, make The snowman and dog from "The Snowman", xmas animated movie? It's an absolute favorite of mine and hubby's. <3 Paintings, I think maybe some 3 section types, especially abstract, modern and such. Hope you are all looking forward to a weekend of relaxation and fun <3 Edit: the xmas items are all outdoors of course.

TnT_Terry

I love the paintings! Will para's be able to combine painting with writing skill to create illustrated books?

Sabine Groenen

Love it!

Anthony

Loving all of the new additions, especially the artwork!

Kellie Been

Lovely paintings!! Also ooh, do we have knit sweaters yet? I'd love a nice, woolen sweater we can customize the knit pattern on somehow. Would be perfect for this season ♡

S. Hiltunen

Love the impressionist paintings!

James Foster

I totally love the holiday food and decorations!! Holiday decorations in-game are very important to me. I'd love to see Halloween ones like jack o' lanterns, candy dishes, maybe spooky art for the walls. Perhaps Easter/Bunny Day with eggs and baskets. Very excited to see what you come up with. Love what I see here :)

Rainlily

Eu particularmente gosto de comemorar feriados em meus jogos. Sou Brasileira aqui não comemoramos halloween como nos EUA mas é legal. Poderiam incluir: Páscoa, Ano novo, dia de ação de graças, dia dos namorados 😃🤭...eu adoraria!!!

Estefani Oliveira

there's nothing wrong with these items, i say again that these are decorations, not religious objects.

Lucie Baha

It’s a holiday, what else would they say? Even if they didn’t include any other holiday, this would still fall under holidays. Some of you are unnecessarily rude for no reason.

BooDotBoo .

I love the variety of art available for Paras to create! The Christmas items are great, too! I don’t really do holidays in my life sim games (except Halloween), unless it fits in with a certain character, so I’m not too fussed about the decorations, but glad they’ll be there to have the option and for people wanting to do storytelling in their games.

BooDotBoo .

So I think this means that even if something like Sims 4 "Paint by reference" isn't added as an option to Paralives, we could still take a screen clip of the screen, crop it, save it, and then use the mod system to add the image for a para to paint. :)

Jennifer

I love the artwork you have created for the painting skill. An addition I would be excited to see are landscapes or nature scenes. I am a sucker for ocean and ship/boat paintings as well as forests. You are all doing an amazing job with this game!

Naomi

I feel like people are overreacting with the Holiday decorations not being as inclusive as they would like. It’s a start, and the team is very open minded, and has been taking feedback incredibly. What do you guys get by just stomping on someone’s hard work?

Al8302

Oh come on! does it really matter? Christmas ore holiday? It's no big deal. Let the team call it holiday if they want to.

PinkRosie

That's so cool, I love it! I understand people wanting different festivities items, but come on, Paralives team is small and they're doing amazing work! I know that a) we will have more things as time goes on, and b) modders will create beautiful things too! This game has so many possibilities!

Anna

OBSESSED with a para recreating a painting they've already done at a higher skill level and you can tell the difference that's so cool I'm really glad you put that in there

Kieran

I REALLY like that the lights aren't over the top they look realistic enough to me. off the topic but i've seen some comments regarding the items and i i have to say you guys need to chill out a bit, keep in mind that this is a work in progress. the team its making efforts to be as inclusive as posible. i dont like that people get offended so easily nowadays just for tiny little details.keep an open mind and enjoy the ride, at the end of the day its imposible to please everyone but trust the team they know what they're doing.

Joel Jimenez

i feel for the para chloes but i have to say that crop top/sweater combo actually is to die for!! 😍 as someone who’ll forever live in the terrible skill level section when it comes to art, the pieces displayed here are stunning and actually make me want to try that skill in the game! just beautiful! also, i understood what you guys meant with holidays in the title and i think the christmas decorations are really cute! hope some of these semi rude comments don’t get you down. keep up the amazing work!! 💕

Chance

This looks great. I had a suggestion. Customizable ornaments or maybe a tree topper. It would be cool to celebrate Christmas in a way that works for each person. 😁

Synthia Hubbard

Oh, as a suggestion for future holidays dishes from other countries: Rabanada! These are very famous in Brazil during the end of the year, practically a must-have here!

Isis Barcelos

Yeah Lucie, like "oh, right! The famously religious symbols: snowflakes, sugarcanes and deers!"

Isis Barcelos

People constantly say "Happy holidays" when wishing someone good Christmas. While i understand being frustrated when you expect something and get another, i really don't feel like it justifies your attitude when the problem is just a difference in interpretations of a word.

Isis Barcelos

Thank you! ^^

Lisa Hedlund

That house exterior is super cute and kind of looks like my IRL one. You can even see the sky a bit in the background, which I find so Ghibli inspired. I love it. With the beautiful builds we've seen from you guys previously, I'm so excited to see what you make of the world. Chloe has an eye for wonderful environment aesthetics.

ramaru

Beautiful artwork. I appreciate the realism of how the artwork progresses based on the skills. The eye in particular. Will there be an option for landscape paintings one day? I think they would make for lovely pieces considering the art style of the game.

Bee

I noticed the Para laying under the easel, but I decided she was okay, she just fell asleep after painting for a long time, lol! Also I wish we could have the old style colored lights for the Christmas trees, like have different styles of decorations for the tree, I miss being able to have multi colored lights on a Christmas tree in a life simulation game like this. I hate the thing now of using all white or gold, or gold and red or white and blue, but no multi colors! And I for one am glad you say Holidays, rather then Christmas or any other religious holiday, because there are a lot of different types of holidays around this time, so it would be hard to cover all of them, plus I prefer to not have religion of any kind showcased in a game like this. Maybe you could have special DLC of different religious holidays decor, for those who want to have it in their game. But I am sure people will create mods of such things anyway for the game, just like they do for The Sims games and others.

Clara M Johnson

The paintings are fantastic. This is already giving me ideas for making a very creative para. I saw some paintings at the very end that suit what I want but I wanna ask can our paras maybe make anime like drawings and paintings?

Alexi

Will it be easy to add custom art into the game for our paras to paint for those of us that wanna mod and customize the game?

Succukitty

We are planning to add more culturally diverse winter-time holiday items sometime down the line! we decided to rework and work around the items that were showcased in the Maggie video as a starting point for this post though.

Chloé Ouellet

Really...? Anything for Hannukah....? And other winter holidays not exclusive to Christmas? Right.. maybe don't post as "holiday" decorations and then make it exclusive to Christmas only...

pil

These are decorations, not religious objects.

Lucie Baha

I don't hate Paralives. I'm not even angry about this. No need to turn this into an argument.

Kirby Tardos

I'm aware of the origins of Christmas as a pagan holiday. I know plenty of people celebrate it non-religiously. Doesn't mean they don't still call it Christmas and have the same kind of decorations. The culture being represented is Christian, whether that's the intent or not, and as a Jew myself I don't really mind because I'm used to it, I just think it's disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

Kirby Tardos

Although I think there is plenty of winter neutrality to this decor, you are right that these aren't representative specifically of Judaism. That would be a specific religion not just seasonal. Snowflakes and cookies don't have to be about Christ, European holiday decor is pretty pagan. Candy canes are a bit more specific because of the Good Shepherd stuff. I guess if you want generic wintry decor adjacent to Hanukkah there could be blue cookies and garlands?

mintyKHat

I mean ..Santa is arguably a mashup of Odin and Thor with some Christian retrofitting. Wearing winter seasonal celebration wear isn't just for the birth of Christ, there is a lot of pagan tradition and general wintry delight. Happy Holidays everyone!

mintyKHat

Hope we can place light strands on roofs!

Derek Warren

All these are great! Hamantaschen as a food item would be a good addition for Purim, but I think players could probably cobble together a Purim-like holiday if we get S4-esque festival options. Sukkot is the "festival of booths," where we make temporary shelters and decorate them a variety of items (like paper chains and harvest-type items), so there's a lot of decor there that could be added. Passover seders could be a "throw a dinner" type thing with a specific table graphic that includes a seder plate and tons of wine lol. Rosh Hashanah also has some specific food, but it and Yom Kippur are rather synagogue-heavy. As an aside, kippot are worn by observant Jews year round, or at the very least whenever they're at synagogue—it's not a festival clothing item per se.

Meghan

But you've only included specifically and identifiably Christian holiday decor, unless I missed a menorah somewhere. No one is going to look at that decor and think "that could be any religion!"

Meghan

I know it isn't totally urgent, but do you think one day it may be possible to have swatches for exterior doors that have a wreath? Just so there's an opportunity for functional holiday decor

Toto

These are Christmas items. Just by adding them you've already added Christmas to the game, imo.

Kirby Tardos

We decided to go for the term holidays (like winter holidays) rather than Christmas since we don't want people to think there's going to be straightforward Christmas and/or religions in the game!

Chloé Ouellet

Yes that’s exactly what I was thinking of :)

chantal99

You can just say Christmas, it's ok. As someone who doesn't celebrate it, just saying "the holidays" but only depicting Christmas stuff doesn't really make it feel more inclusive. Loving the art tho, especially the studies. I'm definitely gonna be using the painting skill a lot!

Kirby Tardos

Love this! I think it would be super cool if you guys included traditional art skills besides painting. Because I really like the illustrative paintings!

Amanda Yarbrough

A house inventory would be great. Like an attic, even if the specific house doesn't have an attic. You could store decorations, unused furniture (like cribs), stuff the kids leave behind when they move out... It would keep Paras from having to carry TVs in their pockets and make things accessible to other Paras in the house.

Morgan Brilliant

Chloé, calling them "holiday decorations" supports the equivalence of "holidays" and "Christmas." Snowmen may be considered winter decorations, but the tree, the gifts, and the stockings are all clearly Christmas items. Christmas is, for many people, still a religious holiday. There's a difference between cultural diversity and religious diversity. Cultural diversity can mean differences in the way Christmas is celebrated around the world. It can also mean differences in the way Hanukkah is celebrated--can you believe not everyone has sufganiyot? I've done some custom content Judaica clutter for TS2, some for Passover, some for Shabbat. I'd love to be able to bring those to Paralives. Any idea when (or if) it will be possible to add custom content with new meshes?

Morgan Brilliant

I love it so much. It was really nice to see Eli again. As an artist myself it would be so amazing to see my parafolk self painting some of my My little pony drawings.❤️❤️❤️

PinkRosie

This is so interesting! It's funny because when I saw the eye was in intermediate and not on expert level, I immediately thought of the memes with the eye being super detailed, but never symmetrical to the other one and absolutely no detail to the rest of the drawing. I was wondering if a more Para style like expert drawing would be considered for the studies though?

mirificentjoy

I had to go back to the Maggie's holidays video to see the previous nutcracker and wow... haha this one really got yassified. I'm glad it's included though because I love nutcrackers (and the ballet). Could be cool if it had 4 variants: with nothing just straight arms, with a sword, with a staff, as as a drummer. I wonder, about the Christmas tree. Are all of the decorations the same colour? Or will it be possible to make it 2-3 coloured with a colour wheel to make the whole thing more colourful? One colour for all the baubles is a bit limiting. And I feel like the tree is still a bit bare, even with everything on it, but I understand it might be poly limitation and optimisation issue. I think the Christmas stocking are lacking a bit of thickness to them. But other than that all of the things look fantastic. Outside decorations with their lights look particularly cozy, and I love the cushions, they look so cute. Maybe it'd be fun to add the individual pinecones from the very first Happy Holidays video as well

Domon0310

The text on the calendar isn't customizable, but it's a good idea!

Chloé Ouellet

Hello! The star topper won't light up, but you should be able to turn on a fire in the fireplace! We have all the elements for it, but we haven't made the fireplace functional yet! You can sell your paintings, but I can't say for the value changing with the skill! Values like this and the in-game economy will be figured out as we advance on the Live Mode :) And correct for the circles! The expert one is a lot more cleaner! Glad you enjoyed the post!

Chloé Ouellet

Is the text on the Christmas calendar customizable? I’m kind of hoping that these objects with large legible text will be localized into the different language options as well, e.g. I know the doormat has customizable text, so by default if I'm playing in German or French, the mat could say Bienvenue or Willkommen, respectively, by default, and the christmas calendar could say Joyeuses fêtes or Frohe Festtage ☺️ That would add so much immersion (back) for the different localization options. I have always loved that in games like Animal Crossing, where the shop signs etc. were actually localized all throughout the series and not just textures that remained unchanged. I know that it's impractical for every bit of text on every small object, like milk cartons, posters etc., but it would be nice for larger, more noticeable ones

Maxx

Hello, Chloe! I immediately recognized the Christmas scene from earlier posts and I love the added items and details. Great work! Although I wanted to ask if the star tree topper will be able to light up and if we will be able to turn a fire on in the fireplace? I'm so looking forward to the painting skill, which is one of my favorite skills in another game which is a very, very profitable skill. Will we be able to sell our paintings in Paralives as a hobby and a possible career choice, and if so, will their value increase as we skill up? Oh, and the difference between the beginner and expert yellow circle painting I noticed was the refined edging to the outine. You guys consistently improve Paralives in so many aspects, and I can't wait play! ✨️

tey711

I think it would be amazing if each room had a specific style or themed items that appeared during major events. For example, Christmas decorations for the holidays, autumn-themed items in the fall, for birthdays event and so on.

Fullykana

If it's possible, I'd love to see lighting options added to some of the trees, maybe the conifers. Barring that, maybe some more fake trees and one of those "trees" made of a pole with a cone of lights. And maybe a string of lights to hang from the house eaves or put on a fence. A lot of people light up their yards around here and it really makes the evenings brighter. Inflatables are also super common, though I personally have mixed feelings on them.

BonaparteBardithion .

Yes!! Making these screenshots, I was thinking it would look great with snow :) can't wait for us to add seasons!

Chloé Ouellet

I don't believe the wreaths will stay on the door for the moment, since you cannot place items directly on the door and so it wouldn't detect that it's supposed to move with the door. We don't currently plan on having options to add lights automatically either. You can change the names on the stockings! :)

Chloé Ouellet

To answer your questions!: 1) It is not currently possible to paint anything that isn't in the painting catalogue yet, but it's something some of us have talked about and could be cool to add eventually! 2) We haven't started the cooking interactions yet, so we cannot confirm how it'll work and if multiple Paras will be able to participate!

Chloé Ouellet

It should be updated shortly yes :)

Chloé Ouellet

also it would be great if your paras could maybe put the christmas decorations up and that would get them in the festive spirit. decorating the tree would also be adorable.

Emily Major

It's something we have considered and worked on at some point, but we aren't sure if and when we'll roll it out in the game since it requires quite a bit of work!

Chloé Ouellet

Seeing the cute Christmas decoration made me wonder if there’s some sort of inventory where you can store furniture or decorations without selling it? Unless the selling price is the same as the purchase price

chantal99

Also wondering if we can edit the names on the stockings

Toto

We decided to go for the term holidays (like winter holidays) rather than Christmas since we don't want people to think there's going to be straightforward Christmas and/or religions in the game! I would like to add some more culturally diverse winter-time holiday items sometime down the line though! we decided to rework and work around the items that were showcased in the Maggie video as a starting point

Chloé Ouellet

It would be interesting to save different furniture configurations for reoccurring activities events like moving couches against the walls for dance parties or slumber parties or putting different toys out in the summer.

BonaparteBardithion .

That would be cool!!

Chloé Ouellet

Will the wreaths stay on the door when they open and close? These are beautiful decorations. I was also wondering if there will be options in the future to auto-add lights to the rooflines and fences

Toto

I'm considering splitting them into subcategories since it's a bit jarring having the big hairy spider next to the gingerbread house in our catalogue ahah, but it will depend on whether or not we find it necessary!

Chloé Ouellet

Yes that's a good idea! Definitely something we have thought about, we will have to see if and/or when it would be added to the game :)

Chloé Ouellet

Can't wait until March

I kinda forGoT

so many beautiful items, I immediately get into the Christmas spirit. I would also like a table decoration that contains four candles (this is very common in Germany), as well as a train and a candle arch for the window. Also more decorations for outside, for example illuminated reindeer, illuminated gifts and a large illuminated and decorated Christmas tree for the garden or a town hall square. And for the future, a Christmas market would be very nice, as well as mountains where children and adults can go sledding and have snowball fights, and an Advent calendar from which the child can even get a candy or a piece of chocolate in their inventory. Is it possible to paint your own Paras in the game? So, for example, I take a photo of one/or more Paras and then I can actually paint them. And is it possible, for example, to bake the cookies with the whole family (including the children)? Thank you so much for the beautiful work! I am so excited to play this game ❣️

Josephin01

Lucie Baha

It all looks exciting Chloé. Thank you. ☺️I was wondering if you could do Christmas crackers that could be pulled by 2 paras or indoor fireworks with streamers?

Mysteri

everything looks beautiful as always :) A bit offtopic: will there be a shadow cast by objects? e.g. shadow under the armchair. I see that there are shadows on the wall, but some objects that are on the floor look like they are floating without shadows. I guess it depends on the light source the objects are exposed to - I'm not sure :D

teszter.bp

I am looking forward to your future winter holiday posts, when you guys get to add snow 💜🎄💙

Vera Ohlsen

I hope we get a way to save the edits made to holiday items, so we don't have to re-create the family stockings every time.

Vera Ohlsen

Oh for Hanukkah clutter, dreidels and chocolate coins! Somehow forgot about those.

Swampboot

The chocolate calender could work like a pizza, where it has a certain amount of "pieces", before it turns into trash.

Vera Ohlsen

These aren’t holiday items, they’re Christmas items. Although I celebrate Christmas, a lot of my friends don’t, and I want them to feel included too - and not just with a token menorah for Hannukah, which isn’t even a major holiday. (Although that should be included.) Unfortunately the only Jewish holiday I’ve spent with friends is Passover, so I can’t suggest much beyond matzah, matzah ball soup, and kippas - hopefully other people can weigh in with suggestions? And in terms of other cultures to include, how about lunar new year?

Swampboot

One thing I loved about the Other Game was how your high level skill painter could paint portraits of the people around them; so you’d select “Paint Portrait of…” and then that person would walk over and pose and get painted. I used this frequently when doing legacy games so I could have paintings of each generation and I thought it was a lovely touch.

Toria Stock

Aw, a few of my favorite things: Christmas, art, and Paralives 🥹 I obviously can't get enough of the holiday decor, everything looks so cozy and welcoming! The soft lights on the porch warmed my inner child's heart. Not sure if it's on the to-do list, but having those soft white (or multicolor) Christmas lights spiraled around the columns on the porch would feel even more like a winter wonderland 😍 The different art styles look incredible, too, I can't wait to unveil each one on a canvas! Thanks so much for sharing! 🥹💕

ZLoves

With regards to the illustrative paintings, I remember in sims 3 we were able to make comic books if the sim's drawing skill was high enough I think. It would be cool if the painting skill could also be used that way in paralives (making manga/ picture books). :)

Jodie Fong

In terms of christmass-y food items, I'd love to have Baklava as a dessert/treat item. Baklava is something I often have around Christmas time. Also I don't super love marzipan, but it seems like my local Lidl is flooding with marzipan treats now that we're in the holiday season so I feel like something with marzipan for Christmas would be great. Also a chocolate yule log!

Dizzardy

This all looks so amazing!! ❤️ Would we be able to filter out different holidays when we're looking for items?

Sarah Rodrigues

One thing I think would really be nice is being able to draw other paras! Maybe asking them to pose for you. And then using like one of those photo filters. Like pencil painting. And also to create paintings based on photos!

The_Unknown_USB

The holiday items are so nice and the advent calendar is adorbs! Loving the paintings as well.

phoenix grey

I love the additions, especially the outdoor Christmas decorations. The body shape of the wooden reindeer reminded me of the Catalan log/Tió de Nadal from Barcelona. Hope the team has a happy holiday season ⛄️

Allie Glass

For Christmas themed items I'd love an advent calendar object...and maybe a para could interact with it once a day to get a chocolate or a treat. Could be interesting if there was a way to customize what kind of items could be in too.

Dizzardy

Cool!

Artis Zaķis

It should be fixed!

Chloé Ouellet

It may have been a reference, indeed...

Chloé Ouellet

It's true what they say... the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime ! XD (ah, phew ! I'm glad we still have a few updates before we enter 2025 !)

ladyteruki

Am I seeing a portrait painting of Chappell Roan? :D I don't know but it reminds me of her Grammies performance

Artis Zaķis

We haven't quite decided on that yet, since such decisions will be decided when we will get working on seasons!

Chloé Ouellet

Hi! The interrior screenshots were taken during daytime, and so it is not the same lighting scenario as the Maggie video. Since then though, we have had to make changes to the lighting of the game also to address different issues that arose during development. I believe the Maggie video had custom lighting which clashes with the now in-game day-based lighting, and some post-process which we now realise is too demanding for the game. The lighting is still changed and tweaked from time to time to tackle different issues we encounter with it!

Chloé Ouellet

ah okay good to know, thank you! it would be even nicer then to have it in the game if it's a part of so many people's advent time <3

Melina W

I love everything you've shown❤️ but is it just my phone or are there some accidental repetitions in this post? The same picture of the porch repeats twice, and the paragraph about the mantle and nutcracker is also twice? Love all the art you do regardless🥰

Lisa Hedlund

The post looks amazing, it always bring peace and joy to my heart ❤️ as well as excitement when I see the small detail you guys always add into the game. The painting skill looks absolutely breathtaking 😍 this will make playing an artist even more immersion. I am curious to see how the other skills, that are maybe less 'showy' such as handiness or something, will be approached. You mentioned something about the southern hemisphere. Have there been plans of how to address the whole seasons thing. Seeing as I am from the south, Xmas is anything but snow ❄️ so I think it would be cool if on some saves I can follow a Northern Wearher pattern and other a southern. Or even you select a general region (continent) and that is the seasons your game follows.

Jean321x .

Yes, there was an issue that arose when we published the post! It has just been fixed!

Chloé Ouellet

It would be great if you could add like "The Elf on the Shelf". Maybe some days it destroys something it would be really funny :)

Berkem Sen

I love all of this, you guys always do such an incredible work with this game, congratulations!! I have a question relating to lightning, though. Seeing these festive socks made me remember the old videos. The first holiday video that we’ve got was released in 2019 (the one that the socks appeared), the other one was in 2020 (Outfits and an improved look to Maggie), in both videos we see a darker tone to it, but with the lightning a little bit focused, the shadows are a bit more prominent. This year I perceived that the lightning is more blend and doesn’t have that comfortable lightning such as the Maggie’s reveal video. I would like to ask if this is the new style of the game or if you plan to take that lighting system back? Thanks for making this game possible <3

Igor Bricio

Who knows? Ahaha but yes, the left one has Art written on it, while the right one has nothing! I was thinking of ways to be a bit creative with the contemporary art, and took the skill progression in mind when creating these two. So regardless of whether or not you are colorblind, you will always see the intermediate one first, which has text, and then you see the expert one which is blank, which just creates a lot of doubt for the viewer! A bit evil, but I think it's within the spirit of contemporary art, ahah!

Chloé Ouellet

This would be make my life easy and it would be realistic. :>

Berkem Sen

Don't worry, this is not the last post of the year! I'm glad you like the paintings! Painting the different art levels made me, myself, feel called out ahah! I would go on my old art accounts and sketchbooks to see my own progression and integrate it in the game paintings :) The eye drawings, the characters with the arms hidden behind them to avoid drawing hands... I'm guilty of a lot of art crimes and I shall see them represented in the game, ahah!

Chloé Ouellet

We have that tradition in North America too. We call them advent wreathes here.

Thaaeroprincess87

This is so so gorgeous and we can see that every single detail was made with love ❤️❤️ Happy Holidays 🎅🎄

Yvette Lopez

Once again, everything looks great! ❤️ A suggestion I've been wishing for since I started playing Life Simulations: It would be extremely cool if you could decorate the house once for a holiday and save the placement of the decorations as a sort of "template". That way you wouldn't have to decorate everything manually every time the holiday comes around, but there could simply be an interaction in Life Mode after which the house is set to the state of this "template". I would find that very cool and practical, if it is technically possible at all. 😄

CookieCake

One of them does and one of them doesnt (I'm pretty sure)!

bonkybon

These all look great! For the winter holiday decor, it would be nice to have some yule logs, santa figurines, and garland for windows, walls, and doors as well. Also as someone who taught themselves how to draw manga, the first thing I worked on other than getting thr curve of noses right, was the eyes because they are highly important in drawing someone. So thank you for that little detail. I wouldn't mind having some more Renaissance paintings in the game as well for expert level painters. Although with the ease of changing pictures into art in the game it won't be a big deal if it's not in there.

Thaaeroprincess87

Wait, is this already the last post of the year ? In any case, hi Chloé, and thank you for this update. I'm not big on Christmas, but I have to admit the gingerbread house has my attention ! It's very cute. Even if it's not edible ; in fact, I suspect that most gingerbread houses are never eaten. I also love the art ! Personally I tend to prefer modern and abstract styles, in general and in this case in particular (the futuristic landscape is great ! I want to have it in lots of colors !!!), because I find them less "obtrusive" in a way. Seeing a face in a corner of the screen while you're playing a simulation game can make you think there's some character lurking when in fact it's just a painting ! XD But despite those personal preferences, I really love the woman looking at a window. For some reason it reminded me of Tamara de Lempicka's art deco portraits, if that makes sense ? The blue flowers are also very sweet. These pieces ARE very peaceful. " we thought rendering eyes is always the first thing artists learn to do (we are guilty of this!)" Well I feel called out XD When I was in my drawing phase, 90% of my output was eyes. In hindsight (ha ha !), it was a little creepy. But what else was I gonna draw, HANDS ?!

ladyteruki

Lmao... I'm colorblind. I'm curious, in the contemporary art section, do those dot grids have numbers in them in them??

CWTocci

All those details! I agree with the eye thing too! But for me, some images and paragraphs are repeated, not sure if that’s just a bug for me. It all looks fantastic skill and I can’t wait to collect all the paintings! Amazing job team, thanks for the post!

Cece

It's already possible with our mod sytem and it's not too hard to do! It could be nice to have an easier way of adding your own images without having to go through the mod system, I'll mention it to the team :)

Chloé Ouellet

What a cozy post, so much heart going into this game! Love the different art styles too, so clever :)

kayakwizardry

oh i love the items and it's really cool seeing a difference in detail compared to some earlier versions! i would love if later on there could be in interaction added to advent calendars so once a day a para can "open" it (without actually getting an item) and get a little mood boost. this interaction could maybe be unlocked on the first day of winter or however the seasons are going to work there is also a german christmas tradition called adventskranz, i'm not sure where else this is popular, but it's a wreath that lays on the table and has four candles on them. on each advent day (the four sundays leading up to christmas) you light up one more candle, so one on the first sunday, two on the second and so on. since you already have wreaths i think this one wouldn't be too hard to do and even for non germans this would be a pretty decorative item! it doesn't have to be "functional" either also something that i would love to see in the far future is christmas markets! i just walked across the one in my town yesterday and that's how i finally got into the christmas spirit haha it's just so magical, so if that could be added some day that would be amazing the paintings are also amazing and something i can actually see my paras put up instead of just painting and selling them again!

Melina W

I don't know if this is a feature already but it would be neat if we could upload our own images for the paras to paint in addition to the defaults. That way I can decorate my bathroom with Shrek paintings 😆

bonkybon

Wow that's gorgeous!! I am so proud of how much this game have upgraded, what was already great is now perfect!! I love it 🎁🎄

Millena Xavier

I love the decorations, especially the illuminated ones outside! Looks so pretty. Also well done on the paintings. I couldn't paint to save my life and know nothing about art, so this looks good to me!!

Noeba

those paintings are so good! I'd buy them IRL!

Phoenix

I don’t think I was ever as hyped for a game as I am for this one ❤️ And this post makes me want to paint in real life.

Andrea van Reenen

Cant wait to play, Hanukkah please, snowball fight building a snowman

Sláine Sheils

I cannot express to you how excited I am to be able to play this - it looks beautiful <3

Leslie Kiszka

those winter treats look so delicious!!!! and those paintings are just beautiful! the skill progression and different types of painting is so awesome

Chance Fragodt