Paralives Developer Weekly Chat — October 10, 2025
Table of Contents
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🌟 Community’s choice question
This question got 9 votes from the Super Patrons on Discord!
SuperLoup:
Small question, since the release date of the early access approach, do you have an idea of the
release hour of the game on steam?
Gab:
It may change but, for now, the plan is 10am Eastern time ☺️
🎮 General questions
Ent of the Spooky ‘Stache:
How long does it take to impliment a system like the aspiration? How much iteration is there
versus how much to code the intial design?
Jérémie:
The initial design and implementation goes really fast, I would say. A matter of hours (and not
days), but it’s afterwards when we add content and tweak things that it takes the most time. A
I can’t really say how long that will take because we’ll be still doing it all around Early Access!
Possible Assassin (Ny):
For the start of early access should players expect the bones of most the features you guys
want in the game or will y'all have a few fleshed out and then add more as you go?
We know there will be some missing feature but im wondering what exactly that means to you
guys and also help those who might have a different thought get on the same page as you guys
Jérémie:
Our goal is for the potential of each feature to be visible when the game launches in Early
Access. This means that we want a bit more than just the “bones”, because that often wouldn’t be enough for players to have a good time. Having the Together Cards system, for instance,
without enough cards or without anything interesting that the cards can do wouldn’t help,
because people would try it out and might not see the potential, therefore not thinking that
there’s any value in this system. Things might be unbalanced and there might be content or
polish missing, but if someone can try out a feature and go “neat, can’t wait to see what they’ll
do with this in the future”, we’ll be pretty happy.
Iceman:
By the time the answer to this comes out, Paralives early access will be 52 days away!
Since we're close, do you already have an estimate for how much disk space Paralives will take
up when early access comes out?
Jérémie:
No such estimate at the moment, unfortunately. The game installed from Steam takes 7 GB
currently, but I know we are still missing the voice acting audio files and I can’t say how much
space that’ll take. Thank you for the question!
Amor Nocte:
Question from mazyfly
Are you going to update the steam page closer to release to include what is and isn't in the
game on day 1? Right now, the steam page looks great! But it feels a little misleading (I don't
mean this rudely!!) with what it says you can do in the about game description. (pets, cars/bikes)
Some people probably just won't look the game up before buying and would rely on the steam
page for all their info.
Gab:
That is a very good point, and something we are working on right now! We plan on updating the
Steam page in all confirmed languages before the Early Access release to reflect better what
features should be expected ☺️
Amor Nocte:
Question from mazyfly
Moustache man as an official para who (sometimes, maybe, occasionally) peeks into people's
windows, when?
Jérémie:
We love Roberto! I hope he stays in :’)
Joy:
Last question: I can't wait to discover the map and its places. I was thinking about the town
plaza and its shops: will the Paras have wants (not Life Wants) linked to those places when
they're near them? Like "I want to go to l'Armoire"?
Jérémie:
Yes! Having gameplay systems encourage the players to explore the town and do stuff in it is
something we’re very much looking into!
👋 Devs questions
Gui
Time for the call roll! Hi Alex! How are you? How was your week?
Alex:
Hello Gui! I’m okay, a bit tired. But things are alright :)
Hi Léa! How are you? How was your week?
Léa:
Hello Gui! My week was really calm, I worked hard and tried to rest as much as I could in my
free time! December is coming fast, but we still have a lot to do 💪
Hi Anna! How are you? How was your week?
Anna:
Hi Gui!
Hi Alice! How are you? How was your week?
Alice:
Hello Gui, I’m a bit sad about the days being shorter, but fall so far has been really nice! 🍁 Hope you’re ok too!
Hi Jérémie! How are you? How was your week?
Jérémie:
Hi Jérémie! How are you? How was your week?
Hi Sonia! How are you? How was your week?
Sonia:
Hello! I’m good thanks :D
Hi Andrei! How are you? How was your week?
Andrei:
🔐🔐🔐
Hi Chloé! How are you? How was your week?
Chloé:
It went fine! It’s tiring with everything we have to get ready for the game’s launch, ahah!
Hi Gab! How are you? How was your week?
Gab:
busy but good!!
Hi Richard! How are you? How was your week?
Richard:
Very good :D
Hi Alejandro! How are you? How was your week?
Alejandro:
I had a good week! Hope you had a good week as week!
Hi Charlotte! How are you? How was your week?
Charlotte:
Doing good ! Lots of shopping aha, hoping I can rest a bit this weekend.
Hi Lina! How are you? How was your week?
Lina:
Hiii! I’m doing fiiine!!
Hi Émélie! How are you? How was your week?
Émélie:
Hi Gui! Not too shabby, hope you had a great week!
Clouds:
Since it's October... what was the most intimidating/"scariest" feature to design/implement so
far?
Andrei:
It’s a bit intimidating to prepare all the recording work for the voice overs since we will only see
how it goes the day of recording with the voice actors. But I’m more than confident it’s gonna go
well!
Alejandro:
Fire 😈🔥
Léa:
By far the Parafolks subdivisions to allow them to mix and match top and bottoms, but also wear
jackets!
Alice:
I’m scared of multitasking. 😳
Gui from the House of Gravy:
What is this week achievement?
Andrei:
Staying hydrated
Alejandro:
Survived another week!
Léa:
Did my dishes every day, kept my apartment clean! ✨ Highly recommend the mental health!
Alice:
Another walk with friends to enjoy the fall colors. 🤗
Lina:
I deep cleaned my place last weekend!
Charlotte:
Finally found some dress shoes that fit me. 👞
Gui from the House of Gravy:
A bit of a more serious question for my last one this week and answer only if you are
comfortable and willing to share. What is your opinion on the current state of the Life Sims
genre?
Jérémie:
Hello Gui! While recent events on the business side of things are nothing to be overjoyed about
(and to be honest, this is happening all across the industry, and not just at a specific genre,
franchise, or even company), I’m still pretty optimistic about Life Simulation games in general.
I’m sure that day after day, there are countless game designers, programmers and artists
(amongst others!) that work tirelessly to the best of their capacity in order to bring the best
experience possible to their players. I feel that way for big corporations, medium sized AA
studios and the little indies. Nothing is perfect, every type of studio has its hurdles and pain
points, the mandates are different, the resources are different, it’s a completely unique set of
challenges no matter where you look, but yet people get up in the morning and persevere.
Making a life sim is a lot of work (especially if you want it to be competitive with the big names
on the market), but there’s a lot of room to innovate and scale things up and down as much as you
want, and I don’t think that there’s saturation in the genre either, so there’s (still) a lot of
potential here, and while I’m super proud of the work that we are doing, I also can’t wait to see
what other studios come up with!
criminal bin chicken moustache:
everyone post your pets please!
Chloé:
My eepy baby Layton! I have so many pictures of him sleeping on me, ahah
Alice:
She’s so smol. 🌞
Lina:
Émélie:
Charlotte:
criminal bin chicken moustache:
i’ve noticed some of your recent posts have been a lil stardew valley inspired which i love! i
always think it’s really fun when indie games take inspiration from each other or just add little
references and easter eggs to other indie games. what other cool indie games have have
inspired parts of paralives?
Andrei:
Not indie but I took a lot of inspiration of the Life Is Strange aesthetic and TOEM
Chloé:
The Witness inspired us a lot for the visual style of the environments :)
Jérémie:
(without context) Disco Elysium, Hades
Ent of the Spooky ‘Stache:
Question from Ent:
How was (by the time you get to answering this) your thanksgiving weekend? Did you do
anything fun?
Andrei:
Had some of our mom’s pozole soup and spent some time with fam hehe
Alejandro:
It was nice, visited my parents and ate Pozole, it was good.
Chloé:
Didn’t do much, everyone was away! I went hiking with my dog since the leaves are so pretty right now, and ate a bunch of Halloween candies (the boxes in my pantry are taunting me and I am losing)
Alice:
Yep, we visited friends outside of Montreal, had a big Thanksgiving turkey, and went hiking to
catch the last of the fall colors! I'm happy to report that my knee held up really well! 🚑
Charlotte:
I ate some delicious turkey with my dad and brother and then I made some photocards with my
friend !
Gab:
had a chill weekend enjoying as much time outdoors as possible while the weather is nice! saw
a lot of “wildlife” while on my bike rides hehe 🐈
Ozymandias:
No questions from me this week. Hope you all had a happy long weekend!
Andrei:
Hope you had a good weekend too!
Alejandro:
Hope you had a great weekend as well!
Alice:
Hii, I hope you did too! 😊
Lina:
Thank youuuu!! Hope you had a happy one too !!
Charlotte:
Thank you Ozymandias, hope you did too !! ✨
Tinks:
Hey devs! I’m so excited for December!! you guys never cease to amaze me over all the years
since the beginning and the fact that you have new talents joining the team is wonderful.
What is one of the elements in the game you’re all most proud of? Or wanting to play lots
yourself?
Andrei:
I can’t wait to do the biggest builds ever
Alejandro:
♥️ Thank you! And I am proud on the item state system, I feel it is used everywhere and add
endless possibilities for many features
Léa:
It’s a build that hasn’t been revealed yet, and it’s my absolute favorite. I worked really hard on it
and I’m super proud of the result!
Chloé:
I’m proud of how the town is coming along!
Charlotte:
It might be a bit corny, but I’m proud of the game as a whole ! It’s awesome seeing it all
together. I myself cannot wait to play around in the Live Mode !!
Silent:
Helloo! Nothing much to say, only that you guys are doing great!!💖what is everyone’s favorite
flavor of icee’s/Slushies?
Andrei:
Red
Alejandro:
Cherry!
Léa:
Blue Raspberry 🫐
Chloé:
Cherryyyy!
Alice:
It’s been forever, but I remember liking the green apple flavor a lot. 🍏
Charlotte:
Blue raspberry here too !
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
What's your favorite fall sweet treat?
Alejandro:
I mean I eat all types of sweets but one that is fall themed would be Pumpkin pie, it is really
good
Léa:
My mother’s pumpkin pie, can’t quite get the same taste here in Canada, I miss it 😣
Chloé:
It’s apple season, so one thing I like a lot is apple juice made from the season’s apples. It tastes
nothing like what you can get in store! It tastes just like an apple you would eat
Alice:
I really like apple pies! 🥧
Lina:
Apple crumble!
Charlotte:
Pumpkin pie !! Or anything pumpkin spice flavored.
Joy:
I recently picked up a new hobbie and I wonder: what hobbies would you like to see come to the
game? (Not asking if they will happen, just what you would advocate for as hobbies to add to
our Para's lives hehe.)
Andrei:
BAND REHEARSALS 🎸🥁
Alejandro:
Blacksmithing!
Léa:
Line Dancing 🤠
Chloé:
Knitting/Crochet would be a popular one I’m sure! Otherwise drawing/digital drawing would be
fun! (we have only painting for adults right now)
Alice:
I would love to add sewing, drawing, and pottery!
Charlotte:
I’d also love to see fabric craft related hobbies, and maybe writing as well !
🏡 Build mode
ocelot:
Will there be a difference in lot/house price as lots get closer to the town center?
Jérémie:
Ohhhh that would be a nice touch! Not currently, no. The concept of town areas having lot value
multipliers isn’t something we have in the game. But I like the idea!
Iceman:
I asked about bunk beds here 3 years ago. I just wanted to know if they're going to be part of
early access, or if they will arrive at a later point?
Chloé:
They won’t be in Early Access, since there are technical challenges and animations that need to be
done before they can be functional! We have one that works with the resizing and all (the
one that was showcased a whiiiile ago), but we won’t make it available for now since it’s not
functional for the time being.
ocelot:
Can you extend the cribs and place more then one baby in them?
Chloé:
Cribs are not resizable at the moment and so you can only put one baby in them!
criminal bin chicken moustache:
i know the create a world tool is still a while off but could multiple worlds exist in a single save
allowing you to move between them or will it be a 1 world per save situation?
Jérémie:
I’m not sure! Currently you can only have one Town per save (I think this is ‘world’ in your
context), but I don’t think it’s a limitation of our system. We could have multiple towns in the
same save, I think. But we never tried, so it’s a bit hard to say for sure! We’ll look into it
someday tho! Thank you for the question!
🎨 Art
Amor Nocte:
Question from NebulousOddity
Do we have any idea yet what the ideal size might be for uploading your own images for custom
art/tattoos etc? It’s something I’d love to do a bunch of, but I usually make my art pretty high res,
and I figure ~4K images are probably overkill and not good for performance 😅
Chloé:
Well, we have some guidelines internally for performance’s sake, and we will most likely release
those details when we release our modding guides! I wouldn’t say there’s an ideal size for
something you might add yourself. We keep things a bit on the lower end to help performance
because we have thousands of items, but if you’re just importing your art, I wouldn’t worry too
much about it! :) Maybe you want something of a bit higher quality. I’d say usually we are around
an average of 1024x1024 for textures, though.
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
is any part of the town inspired by Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls and if not, why?
Chloé:
I’m personally not that familiar with Gilmore Girls (I was barely out of the womb when the series
was airing 😂), BUT!! Stars Hollow was inspired by New England, and some scenes were even
filmed in Ontario, apparently! Not too far from our province and our inspo, Quebec City. Maybe
you can feel the resemblance through the similarities of the architectural style? 🤔
🌱 Live mode
WickedBrony:
Other than skills, what are other life areas that can trigger a Life Want? (Career, family,
relationships, etc.)
Jérémie:
While we are not ready to talk about “how” Life Goals are triggered, things that can be related
include (but are not limited to), skills, relationship labels, careers, time spent in the game,
money, how much you’ve decorated your house, and more!
ocelot:
Is there an age limit on when paras can start getting life goals?
Jérémie:
There isn’t a “hard” age limit on Life Goals, but the ones we have currently are locked behind
requirements like skill levels, relationships and career progression for instance, so you would
need to be a certain age before these could appear anyways. Adding Life Goals specifically for
younger Parafolks is on our radar!
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
any updates on some non life threatening diseases? will we be getting some common colds in
early access or is that something you'd think about implementing with an upgrade like seasons?
Anna:
Yes, there’s a little virus that you can catch at work or school, you can also get sick from spoiled
food. More might come in the future!
myj1616:
I know occults aren't planned right now, but if they are eventually released, could there be there be a
hybrid genetic system or the ability to mod one? For example, if you have a vampire and a
mermaid, their child could be a vampire (25% chance), a mermaid (25% chance), or a new
combined occult ( For this example, a siren 50% chance). This "siren" could have certain set
features from both parents, like the ability to breathe underwater as well as the need to feed off
of other paras.
And then eventually, as this siren would have children of their own, depending on the occult of
the other parent, it could cycle based on the most prominent occults. So in
the first example, if the siren and a para had a regular para child, then the genetic system for
the child could be like any other regular para.
Depending on the amount of base occults, this would end up with a set amount of combined
occults and total occults with predictability/probability.
I just really like genetics lol
Anna:
It’s hard to say how we would deal with future occults because they aren’t planned right now so
it would be very hypothetical, sorry!
However, I think it’s possible to mod in completely new species in the game right now, with their
own sets of genetics rules, but there’s not really any cross species possibilities yet. I feel like
you could still manage to mod something similar to some of your ideas, by doing a single occult
species that has dominant and recessive genetics traits for instance. You could create genetics
rules for every one of your wanted occult traits! Like, you could have the vampire fangs being
dominant over regular teeth (so a child of a vampire and something else would have more
chance to have fangs, or the opposite), same would go with modded mermaid tails or fairy
wings. You could also create rules for the skin colors or any other visual trait.
Theoretically you could also mod in your own set of animations, interactions and needs to go
with that, that you can restrict to just one type of characters!
WickedBrony:
What were some of the discussions that led to the implementation of Life Wants?
Jérémie:
I’m paraphrasing, but things such as “Wants are pretty cool, but maybe we could have more
long-term objectives for characters to complete” “Playtester feedback tells us that people want
tasks to direct their gameplay” “We already have all this code, it wouldn’t be too hard to add”
and voilà! Life Goals were born.
Ent of the Spooky ‘Stache:
Can you tell us a little about para pregnancies? Such as how long will they last, will parent have
cravings, and will the parent's happiness (or un-happiness) affect the baby at all?
Anna:
It’s still a work in progress for now, I can’t give a lot of details yet!
Joy:
Hello! I missed last week's dev chat but: is there a way to teleport Paras from one place to
another in the map? Instead of waiting for them to go across the whole map?
Jérémie:
There’s a non-official way via some keyboard shortcut currently in the game, but I’m not sure if
it’ll stay a development feature or if we’ll allow it in the final build, somehow. Thank you for the
question!
🏡 Build mode (additional lines if present in source)
ocelot:
Will there be a difference in lot/house price as lots get closer to the town center?
Jérémie:
Ohhhh that would be a nice touch! Not currently, no. The concept of town areas having lot value
multipliers isn’t something we have in the game. But I like the idea!
Iceman:
I asked about bunk beds here 3 years ago. I just wanted to know if they're going to be part of
early access, or if they will arrive at a later point?
Chloé:
They won’t be in Early Access, since there are technical challenges and animations that need to be
done before they can be functional! We have one that works with the resizing and all (the
one that was showcased a whiiiile ago), but we won’t make it available for now since it’s not
functional for the time being.
ocelot:
Can you extend the cribs and place more then one baby in them?
Chloé:
Cribs are not resizable at the moment and so you can only put one baby in them!
criminal bin chicken moustache:
i know the create a world tool is still a while off but could multiple worlds exist in a single save
allowing you to move between them or will it be a 1 world per save situation?
Jérémie:
I’m not sure! Currently you can only have one Town per save (I think this is ‘world’ in your
context), but I don’t think it’s a limitation of our system. We could have multiple towns in the
same save, I think. But we never tried, so it’s a bit hard to say for sure! We’ll look into it
someday tho! Thank you for the question!
🎨 Art (additional details preserved)
Amor Nocte:
Question from NebulousOddity
Do we have any idea yet what the ideal size might be for uploading your own images for custom
art/tattoos etc? It’s something I’d love to do a bunch of, but I usually make my art pretty high res,
and I figure ~4K images are probably overkill and not good for performance 😅
Chloé:
Well, we have some guidelines internally for performance’s sake, and we will most likely release
those details when we release our modding guides! I wouldn’t say there’s an ideal size for
something you might add yourself. We keep things a bit on the lower end to help performance
because we have thousands of items, but if you’re just importing your art, I wouldn’t worry too
much about it! :) Maybe you want something of a bit higher quality. I’d say usually we are around
an average of 1024x1024 for textures, though.
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
is any part of the town inspired by Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls and if not, why?
Chloé:
I’m personally not that familiar with Gilmore Girls (I was barely out of the womb when the series
was airing 😂), BUT!! Stars Hollow was inspired by New England, and some scenes were even
filmed in Ontario, apparently! Not too far from our province and our inspo, Quebec City. Maybe
you can feel the resemblance through the similarities of the architectural style? 🤔
🌱 Live mode (repeat of discussions and ideas as seen above)
WickedBrony:
Other than skills, what are other life areas that can trigger a Life Want? (Career, family, relationships, etc.)
Jérémie:
While we are not ready to talk about “how” Life Goals are triggered, things that can be related
include (but are not limited to), skills, relationship labels, careers, time spent in the game,
money, how much you’ve decorated your house, and more!
ocelot:
Is there an age limit on when paras can start getting life goals?
Jérémie:
There isn’t a “hard” age limit on Life Goals, but the ones we have currently are locked behind
requirements like skill levels, relationships and career progression for instance, so you would
need to be a certain age before these could appear anyways. Adding Life Goals specifically for younger Parafolks is on our radar!
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
you’re asking about non-life threatening diseases and viruses, there are some updates here:
Anna:
Yes, there’s a little virus that you can catch at work or school, you can also get sick from spoiled
food. More might come in the future!
myj1616:
I know occults aren't planned right now, but if they are eventually released, could there be a
hybrid genetic system or the ability to mod one? For example, if you have a vampire and a
mermaid, their child could be a vampire (25% chance), a mermaid (25% chance), or a new
combined occult ( For this example, a siren 50% chance). This "siren" could have certain set
features from both parents, like the ability to breathe underwater as well as the need to feed off
of other paras.
And then eventually, as this siren would have children of their own, depending on the occult of
the other parent, it could cycle based on the most prominent occults. So in the first example, if the siren and a para had a regular para child, then the genetic system for the child could be like any other regular para.
Depending on the amount of base occults, this would end up with a set amount of combined occults and total occults with predictability/probability.
I just really like genetics lol
Anna:
It’s hard to say how we would deal with future occults because they aren’t planned right now so it would be very hypothetical, sorry! However, I think it’s possible to mod in completely new species in the game right now, with their own sets of genetics rules, but there’s not really any cross species possibilities yet. I feel like you could still manage to mod something similar to some of your ideas, by doing a single occult species that has dominant and recessive genetics traits for instance. You could create genetics rules for every one of your wanted occult traits! Like, you could have the vampire fangs being dominant over regular teeth (so a child of a vampire and something else would have more chance to have fangs, or the opposite), same would go with modded mermaid tails or fairy wings. You could also create rules for the skin colors or any other visual trait. Theoretically you could also mod in your own set of animations, interactions and needs to go with that, that you can restrict to just one type of characters!
WickedBrony:
What were some of the discussions that led to the implementation of Life Wants?
Jérémie:
I’m paraphrasing, but things such as “Wants are pretty cool, but maybe we could have more long-term objectives for characters to complete” “Playtester feedback tells us that people want tasks to direct their gameplay” “We already have all this code, it wouldn’t be too hard to add” and voilà! Life Goals were born.
Ent of the Spooky ‘Stache:
Can you tell us a little about para pregnancies? Such as how long will they last, will parent have cravings, and will the parent's happiness (or un-happiness) affect the baby at all?
Anna:
It’s still a work in progress for now, I can’t give a lot of details yet!
Joy:
Hello! I missed last week's dev chat but: is there a way to teleport Paras from one place to another in the map? Instead of waiting for them to go across the whole map?
Jérémie:
There’s a non-official way via some keyboard shortcut currently in the game, but I’m not sure if it’ll stay a development feature or if we’ll allow it in the final build, somehow. Thank you for the question!
Stars Hollow inspiration discussion (Stars Hollow reference)
satomi 🍂 #1 crimeFest fan:
is any part of the town inspired by Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls and if not, why?
Chloé:
I’m personally not that familiar with Gilmore Girls (I was barely out of the womb when the series was airing 😂), BUT!! Stars Hollow was inspired by New England, and some scenes were even filmed in Ontario, apparently! Not too far from our province and our inspo, Quebec City. Maybe you can feel the resemblance through the similarities of the architectural style? 🤔