Personality Brainstorm Recap + New Brainstorm: Careers (Patreon)

Hi!

I hope you are doing well today. Everything's good on our side. This week, we made good progress on the Chalet, a house that we're building in the game. We'll have some progress updates and concept arts to share with you soon! Meanwhile, we have a lot to say today regarding our current and next community brainstorming sessions.

Personality Brainstorm Recap  (For Patrons only. Please don't share)

Hey there, Christine here reporting for the monthly brainstorming recap! Last month, we decided to tackle a big topic for the community brainstorming session: identity and personalities. And as always, you Patrons, as well as members of our Discord and Reddit were up to the challenge!

We knew that identity and personalities would be quite a popular one as it encompasses so many things that most of us care deeply about: traits, lifestyles, gender, culture, likes and dislikes, goals, attraction and the list could go on and on. In a game like Paralives, the opportunities for personality and identity to influence gameplay are practically endless.

However, identity and personalities are such complex concepts that while we want to create the most complete system possible, there are some things that will ultimately not make the cut. We are still brainstorming about it all as a team! No official decision has been taken yet regarding the presence of traits, sliders, etc. One of the main goals of this brainstorming was to get a better idea of

the elements considered as interesting by the community in order to see how they could potentially fit into the game and other systems we have in mind. We were also very interested in how personality could be presented when it comes to the interface of the game.

Enough rambling, here are some of the community ideas we received for the identity and personalities brainstorming! These are elements that we are considering but, as always, nothing is confirmed yet since we will have to see how they can be integrated with the rest of the game.

• Separating traditional personality traits from lifestyle choices (such as vegan for example). This was probably the most popular suggestion!
• Static, non-changeable traits for the core personality (you as a player would choose those in the Paramaker) combined with dynamic traits, which are basically other traits that would appear during gameplay, depending on the socialization of the Parafolk with family, friends and others. 🌱 You are a product of your environment, after all 🌱
• Overall, traits could have an impact on: skill learning, time needed to become close with another Para, specific needs, goals, happiness level
• A system combining sliders for predetermined, core traits (as an example, nothing confirmed: practical-spontaneous or reserved-sociable) and the ability to choose additional traits upon all of that to allow for more individuality
• Availability of traits (and lifestyle choices as well) depending on the lifestage. It’s kind of hard to know if a baby is spontaneous at such a young age, but it is quite easy to figure out if they are playful / aloof or calm / cranky 😉
• Disabilities and neurodiversity cannot be represented as a single trait, but some more precise traits, as “hypersentitive to lights” could be interesting to add for representation purposes
• Lifestyle choices to represent main interests and life philosophies. These are the things that your Parafolk could go to naturally when on autonomous mode or when they’re stressed and need to recharge their battery
• Some cool lifestyle choices that were suggested: vegetarian / vegan, cat / dog / horse person, music / art aficionado, foodie, workaholic, night owl / early bird, eco-friendly, spiritual, minimalist / materialistic
• Likes and dislikes for specific style (clothes, decor, music, art), weather, meal, color
• Suggestion of specific aspirations / goals based on the personality traits and lifestyle choices. The player could choose a long-term goal in the Paramaker and have shorter-term goals related to it (or not) appearing during gameplay
• Possibly more sections for the personality in the Paramaker: fears, special talent, learning method, level of social battery…
• We didn’t forget about gender and attraction, don’t worry! However, most suggestions seemed to go along vision points that we established throughout our LGBTQIA+ community survey and relationships community brainstorming
• And of course, the ability to randomize all of this! 🎲

Do you recognize something you suggested? Is there an idea here that you find particularly interesting? Don’t hesitate to share your feedback in the comments!

Our Goals for Personalities in Paralives  (For Patrons only. Please don't share)

It was great to read everyone ideas and I hope you enjoyed Christine's recap! Now, here's an overview at the top design pillars we have established for the personalities in Paralives. These core principles will guide us during the development.

• Every Para should be unique and feel unique
• The identity of your Para should be easy to create through different customization options
• Players should be able to recreate their identity and personality in the game
• The personalities of your Paras should impact the interactions and various aspects of the gameplay
• Some aspects of your Para's identity and personality could change as their story progresses

We are designing the core systems with the above vision elements in mind. Our goal is to make sure that everything works well together and that it contributes to making a fun and interesting life simulation experience!

New Monthly Community Brainstorming: Careers and Jobs

With the personality brainstorming coming to an end, it's time to announce the new theme for the next monthly brainstorming: careers and jobs. Ask yourselves the following questions and feel free to share your ideas in the comment section! Next week, we will announce and open this brainstorm to the public on Discord and Reddit.

• What are some of the professions and jobs that you would like your Parafolks to have?
• How should the job of your Paras affect their lives?
• How should career progression work?
• How would you like to see you real life job represented in the game?
• What do we need to know to accurately represent your job and career in Paralives?

Keep in mind that at launch, you won't be able to follow your Parafolks to work and actively manage them there. It would be a lot of work to add active workplaces at launch for a small team like us. It's still a possibility for updates after the initial release though!

Poll: Careers and Jobs  (For Patrons only. Please don't share)

Following the new community brainstorming theme announcement, we're curious to know: what are the most important features related to careers and jobs that you would like to see in Paralives? Please vote in the poll below!

Thank you!

Alex