Post "🧰 Careers: New Features and Content!" by "alexmasse" from patreon

mazyfly

I know this is an old post but coming back and rereading all this has me so excited! I absolutely love how fun this looks, and I love that it seems easy to tell many different stories with this, like it's encouraging players to have different choices for their characters rather than just do the one that levels up the most or makes the most money

Maya

OMG I'm getting so excited about the live mode of Paralives ! At first I was afraid the game would be more focused on the build mode and be a bit lacking in other aspects, but I'm loving where it's going and it makes me wanna play it so hard !

Jo Gallant

How did Apple never think to use “Mapple” for Apple Maps? Missed opportunity for them lol oh well, one of my paras will get to appreciate it someday!

Simmer

No love for front-end devs from the screenshots :( JK. It looks awesome

Leah

plus tell me you can be a nurse!

SIMplycoya

I would love to see a career working at a magazine and you could build up to being editor and chief or something.

Nathalie Carluccio

Wow so more options to get great in a career or to completely mess it up 🤣🤣🤣 I like that! It will be challengin when you have a grumpy Para 🤨🤨🤣🤣

Amy Joscelyn

This is so cool, what an incredible way to feel like jobs and careers are strategizable instead of just going for whichever one is going to give the best wage for the least amount of work days. I know the art is still very early stages, but there's something about the font on the perk cards that feels particularly alpha/early stages compared to the rest of the career UI. I recently watched this video on fonts in video games and it's made me look at menus and HUDs in a completely new way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIvLywqLCW0. Like both the font (especially the round-shaped vowels) and the rounded corner card shapes aren't contrasting enough, the way the square cells feel with the same font when picking jobs. Based on the team's design choices throughout the making of this game (I've been following basically since the beginning) I have every faith that this is already on your radar and you'll be picking the right vibes for these menus as the feature is polished—Paralives has gained a really distinct and cozy style that already feels iconic, and I can't wait to see the interplay between the menus and live mode!

BasilandParsley

Getting really antsy to try this game. I like this job system. Paralives Devs are really doing a great job!

pekeniax

The job system is just awesome! I really like how every job experience will be different for each para depending on so many variables and perks. Great work as always 💚

Chance Fragodt

with career ranks, are the higher numbers a higher rank? to me it makes sense to start out at a high number such as 50 and then increase until 1 but that could be limiting if there's a plan to have unlimited ranks

Kizaco

Love the idea of having different combos with perks while also offering a flat X$ amount for people who don’t want to do all that (or for characters you don’t care about) I love roguelikes and deck builders so I know I’ll spend hours debating my para’s synergies and then get to their neighbor (who I am setting up to marry them) and just be like “take some extra money”

Kellie Been

I love the streamlined look of the interfaces, and the perks (what we've seen of them so far, at least) are a pretty cool addition. Keep up the great work, guys!

Fox

I like this and I think it's perfect, but I feel it would be better if gameplay stats were more hidden. Like instead of "This option will make your para gain 10 mind points" it would be "This option will make your para feel more mindful." I feel like the visibility of the point/stat system makes it feel less lifelike.

Derek Warren

The game looks incredible! I can't wait to play it!

Ellen Kaluza

I like the strike system honestly. I like that mood and underperformance could have an actual chance of getting me fired. The interface looks really nice and the perks are such a cool way of upgrading work performance!

Sizzy

This sounds so in-depth, I'm so excited!!!!

Benjamin Simmons

will there be a military career?

FinFan 83

thanks for info, interesting choice

Devin

From the Patrons chat in Discord, it looks like everything will reset when changing jobs. This includes strikes, vacation days, and perks/perk slots.

Chance

HONESTLY 😭😭

ZLoves

Paralives Devs, I don't need to see anything else, just point me in the direction of the shopping cart 😭

FinFan 83

That sounds very promising ! Love the upgrades that change how your worktime works (hehe) and how it can benefit your character. It isn't just going to work for the sake of earning money. Really clever mechanics. Also the freedom of choice if you want to spend your point on upgrading salary or benefits is a great option, doesn't force the player to take only one path. I was wondering if we change the job, will the perks reset, cause we earned them at different employer, or will our character keep them ?

Slippers

I love this system! The gameplay looks so deep & interesting, I can't wait to play with it!

Chiara

Can we create new jobs through the modding tools, with all that that entails (invent the various positions/progression, set how much we will be paid, how many vacations, new perks, new schedules etc.)? And another thing: let's say I want my Para to have a less stable job, can I create a job with a really loose schedule (like, once a week) to simulate this fact? edit: Are you planning to add a (light-hearted) "crime" career like in the Sims? Maybe you get a lot of money from it but your reputation in town is damaged (and consequently your relationships more difficult)

James Foster

Appreciate the hard work. Such an in-depth system, love it.

Sehrys

thank you for this update, everything looks amazing! can't wait for early access✨ one thing i noticed is that on the "Full-time hobby" perk card, it still refers to other perks as "Extras" 👀

BooDotBoo .

I love the improvements made. Definitely makes me more excited to play the game to try it out!

Jennifer

I'd like it if you added a random button we can press to select one of the cards randomly. (But we can always use a separate random number generator or roll a die and choose based off of that)

Märta Elf

Love this!!!! 😍😍😍

Macayla

Will there be night shifts at some jobs? Like maybe nurses/doctors and 24/7 dinners? And maybe if you choose a night shift you get a little more money to start.

Maxayn Henderson

Love this!!! Please tell me we will have college and higher jobs will need a degree....happy dance!

Toto

Love this idea. Maybe the school cultures can be influenced by what part of town they're in too

Mario M.

Great update! It would be cool if different schools and high schools had their own cultures too! Different gameplay possibilities, like private, underfunded or military schools...

Melissa

great update, thanks!

Taylor Starkey

Wow, another great post! I spend a lot of time building my characters’ careers, so, seeing how fleshed out and intuitive everything is is super exciting! I can’t wait to play this game!

phoenix grey

Request Day off, Change schedule! I love all of the new features, really makes it more interactive for us as players. I love the job categories as well looks like there will be a lot of jobs to choose from.

Lucie Baha

Do you plan to include an option to choose which starting budget in the paramaker ? because a poor paras with a high budget won't really make sense maybe.

Vash T

I absolutely love this update!! Thank you Anna and team!! Well done!

tey711

I'm very excited to start a Para career, and I'm loving the gaming industry job positions. Great work! ✨️

ladyteruki

Thanks for the reply, Alex ! Wow, this is really amazing. It's really going to be impossible to have any kind of repetition in the game with all of these ingredients combined.

Ana Caroline Martins da Silva

Oh, I love the possibility of combos! It makes you think harder on your career and it's perks. Thanks for the update!!

Gill Reid

I've had a really really bad day today, I'm going between being angry or wanting to cry. Reading this has taken all that away! Thank you! I'm actually smiling again 😁 I can't wait for early access but I'll wait as long as takes ( if that makes sense!). You're all brilliant, thank you 😍

Anna

Thank you for your kind comment! The "culture trait" doesn't change depending on who's looking for a job, it's really more to hint at the kind of perks you could expect from it. You have to make your own choice depending of what you want for your selfish Para! For your other question, yes, perks (and everything related to jobs: companies, fields, job themselves..) are moddable :)

Panthro Samah

Very cool. It's not just a grind mechanic, it has a lot of potential to storytelling. I really liked the idea of different companies having different cultures and it affecting the gameplay through perks. You always create things really innovative that are focused in the experience of play the game. It's truly incredible work, congratulations!

RomanEmpiree339

This is amazing! Curious if there’s a way to be demoted instead of fired

Leaf

This is really cool! I love how detailed jobs are now!

ladyteruki

Hi Anna, and thank you for this post ! "This is so cool !!!", I kept exclaiming as I read. I love that there are ways to do things very simply (want more money ? choose more money) but also ways to be more strategic (using the Para's character sheet to calculate how much advancement they get in a specific field, for instance). It really makes for very smart gameplay. And the fact that these are so random, and that more will be added as time goes by, really means the replayability is THROUGH THE ROOF ! Between the Perks Cards, the Together Cards, the Event Cards... it's going to be impossible to have twice the same experience in Paralives. I had completely forgotten that we would be able to pick our schedule (from a finite list) when our Para starts a new job. I can't wait to see how it works with the Para's schedule as a whole (which I seem to remember will be a thing, so that they wake up on time and have synchronized dinnertime with their household members). It really makes for deep customization while still streamlining some of the micromanagement. Which, really, seems to be Paralives' entire gameplay ethos at this point. "Of course, vacation days are paid." Glad to know Paras live in a developped country ! It's also very interesting how vacations are a form of Perk, instead of just... laying there. Not going to work is fully part of your professional life, in a way, which is a modern take on it. It's very interesting how work culture is defined, I'm impressed by the depth of gameplay it provides stealthily. Choosing a job is not just choosing an income (although it can also be that), it's really deciding of what's best for the Para, what can be relevant for smooth career progression, and so on. It's very good for gameplay and depicts a world where Paras have workers rights, without taking a political stand. It's very smart. Does the color of the "culture trait" change depending on who's looking for a job ? Like, say my Para is very selfish, would "teamwork" appear in red for her ? Lastly, the Job Performance is great, because it not only gives you negative consequences to trying to just go through the motion (you can't just have your Para be at work, it's not enough to have perfect attendance), but it also gives you the tool to know exactly what to improve. You know what to work on the next day (mood) or when home from work (specific skill), and that's the kind of transparency that really gives the tools to the players... because they can choose not to improve some aspects if they want to play with fire ! ...Now, question : are Perks something we'll be able to mod too ? Because the possibilities would be amazing. Imagine getting a "pack" from the Steam Workshop, that adds modded Together Cards offering you a new type of job, that takes place into a modded rabbit hole job, with modded Perks to match... Would that actually be something we could envision further down the road ?

Zedef

Thank you for the quick and elaborate reply!

Stephanie Marion

I love this so much! Je vous adore ❤️ Can't wait to play the game!!!

Anna

Thank you for all your suggestions! :) 1. They have to apply, but there’s no interview or test, you just have to get enough “application points” (whether it’s from related skills or experience, for example), and then you can directly get the job 2. It’s permanent yes, there are no different contract types 3. It’s possible there are two CEOs yes, there won’t be more than one CEO posting per day for a company, but we don’t keep track of which position has been filled, so the same posting can be back again even if one of your characters is already CEO 4. You can get vacation days randomly when you upgrade your job, it’s part of the perks you can choose. It goes into your vacation days in bank and then when you need some time off you can request them for the next work day! The chance of getting this as a perk varies depending on the company 5. No, the salary works as a pay per day (worked day or vacation day) 6. Pregnancy details including maternity leave are still being designed! 7. Same goes for parental leave! 8. Same goes for sickness! We don’t really have a full-fledged sickness gameplay right now, so we’ll see when/if we add that. 9. As I said in question 4 you don’t have automatic vacation days, but there will be perks tied to them. For instance, there is a perk that gives you more money per day if you keep your vacation days in bank and do not use them. 10. There’s no plan for retirement right now, we’ll see that when we get to polish our lifestage and aging design. 11. Schedules are fixed: you work for the same time every work day and for the same days every work week, but you can spend an upgrade point to change your schedule among the possible ones. For instance, you can change your office job schedule from a 9 to 5 to a 10 to 6 (there are usually 2 or 3 options proposed per job for working hours and days) 12. For now it is limited to work performance and perks!

aza

I am literally so excited for this ahhhhhh

Zedef

Really loving this careers update! So many new and improved features. Work culture and atmosphere sound interesting, especially in combination with the available perks, financial incentives and personalites. Also like how perks work now. Some questions and/or suggestions though: 1. Will paras always get a job if they apply to one that matches their skills or do they also have to actually *apply*, for example a job interview and/or cognitive tests? Both could be influenced by certain skills, personality (in combination with work culture) and current mood, which could result in not getting the job even though on paper they're the perfect candidate. 2. If paras get a job, is it then always permanent unless they get fired through 3 strikes and/or decide to apply elsewhere? I think it could be neat if some jobs would only offer a 6 month or 1-2 years contract and then at the end, the para could apply for a permanent position (if there is one) or apply elsewhere. 3. If there are (new) job openings daily, does that mean there are just a huge number of positions or that certain slots aren't "fixed", i.e. having two CEOs at the same company or two mayors in town? 4. Love the (paid) vacation days! How do they work? As a European, I expect a minimum of 4 times your weekly hours, e.g. working 40 hours means you've got 160 paid vacation hours. At the start of your job, for the whole year, not starting with x number of days in your first year and having to "earn" more the longer you work there. A perk could be additional paid leave, but it should not be dependent on your work performance. And depending on the work culture & atmosphere, some companies could offer more than the minimum 4x or perhaps allow you to "buy" more paid leave, by exchanging some of your salary for leave. 5. Could the paid leave be in hours instead of days? That way paras could opt to take x number of hours leave instead of a whole day, for example they want to take a Friday afternoon off and a Monday morning. Or leave work two hours early because their kid has a big homework project they need help with. 6. Will paras also get paid maternity leave? And if so, is this mandatory and set or can they decide themselves when (during the pregnancy) they can take it? E.g. some ambitious paras might work up through going into labor, while others might want to take a week or two prior to their due date. I understand this will also depend on how pregnancy/delivery works. 7. Will paras get the option for (paid) parental leave? In my country both parents are entitled to a certain amount of parental leave they can take for the first eight years of their child's life. For some the leave is fully paid, sometimes only the first x days are 100% paid and the rest 60-95% and sometimes the whole parental leave is only getting paid a certain percentage of your salary. 8. Will paras get sick days or can they simply call in sick if they are sick (and perhaps the misschievous ones will call in sick when they aren't actually sick)? And will they get paid or does this depend on the company? Please don't pull a USA here and make paras use their paid leave when they are sick. 9. Can paras ask to get money instead of their (paid) leave? Say they have 10 days left at the end of the year and they get the choice: 1) schedule time off, 2) sell your days back to the company for x paradimes, 3) save the days for next year 10. How does retirement work? Will all paras simply retire once they become elderly or is it a choice? Can elderly paras who underperform get the choice between getting fired and going into retirement? How much money will they get for their retirement? Is it their previous salary, a percentage of their previouw salary, nothing unless they built up a retirement fund, ...? 11. Is there variation in the number of working hours? Like, can some jobs be part-time (and even then differ in the working hours per week) and others fulltime? Could a para request to work fewer hours at some point, for example if they work fulltime and have great work performance but want to work 1 day a week less once they have kids? 12. Can certain skills or even shenanigans at work affect the number of strikes or is this limited to work performance and possibly perks? Examples: a misschievous para causes trouble at the workplace resulting in getting a strike or even fired immediately, whereas another para might sleep with their boss to get rid of a strike or even get a promotion or perk?

Megan Runels

The game is looking amazing! Can’t wait to play!!

Artistforeternity

Oh I see! Thank you for explaining!

Anna

It's not planned for early access!

Anna

There might be perks that have negative aspects: for instance, one perk could get you more job performance or more pay, but your character will come back stressed from work. Career upgrades are everyday because we found it was the right frequency to make job progression interesting and engaging! Also, the chance of getting upgrade points depends on your job performance, so it might not be exactly every day.

Anna

Yes! As long as there is no schedule conflicts

Stewby

I love this layout a lot better than the pervious one with the extras thing. Thank you for letting us see it.

Una_simple_ kpoper

I usually find simulation games jobs like a task just to earn money that I don't really care about. But I'm really hyped with this system, the different perks and all I've read. I don't know if this has been already talked about or not, but will we have the opportunity to be like autonomous workers? Not only like selling out paintings, but being an independent artist and all that

Artistforeternity

I’m really intrigued by this system! Will there be any negatives in careers besides getting fired? Also just curious as to why the career upgrades are everyday?

Anna

Not now, but it might be in future updates!

Anna

Vacation days are not represented as an amount you get per year, it's mostly given via the perks you can randomly get when you upgrade your job. Some of the companies give those options more frequently though!

Lenina Hastley

Can we have more than one job at a time?

Ragnar

So... Can we edit the standard amount of vacation days to reflect the real life policies in our home country? Where I'm from everyone gets 25 days each year regardless of occupation, 5 more if you're over 60, and in the high skilled private sector there's often paid vacation during the entire Easter and Christmas holidays. Work week is 37hrs and retirement age is 67 (although you can still work and rack up a govt pention until you're 75)

Chiara

I like this update, thank you! I want my character to be an actor, is this career path available?

Anna

And yes other service industry jobs include jobs like store clerks or receptionists!

Anna

Yes it will be possible to do that with the mod system! It's not considered part of the town creation tools

Tiffany Perry

Every post makes me fall more in love with this game. When are we going to get a update on the Early release date?

Falling For Dead Roses

This looks like such an amazing system!!

Allison Marshaw

While town creation tools aren't gonna be available at release, are we going to be able to make our workplaces when they do come out? I imagine each job is tied to a certain location in the town so I maybe you're able to define the job options at any given career rabbit hole?

Lenina Hastley

😿

Toria Stock

Makes sense! Thank you for clarifying! 😁

Anna

The fields are used to determine which perks you can have for a given job and also to determine your "experience" in a field for applying to a new job (for instance if you get 5 days of job in the "Food" field, you get 5 application points for food related positions)

Jean

I LOVE how diverse these career options are, even within the same field! It really helps with the roleplay/simulation aspect, plus it gives a reason to not lock your Para down with one career path. After all, how many people out there are working for the same company they had for their first job?

Anna

A lobby area would be nice but for now they're just shells!

Toria Stock

That makes sense - so other service industry jobs might be like retail or working for a hotel?

Anna

Active jobs are not planned right now!

Anna

All the fields are not final yet so they might be subject to changes! It's mostly to distinguish jobs for now, so like a cook would be considered as part of the "Food" field but not the service industry field, since they don't have any interaction with clients, on the contrary to the Waiter job, that is considered in both fields.

Auntyleti

I just LOVE that workplaces have impactful cultures and atmospheres, really. I like the idea of playing with multiple paras, so having rabbitholes suits my playing style. And this just seem like it would make that part of the gameplay so interesting!

Daria Hammond

I love how interactive this is, it makes you feel so involved even if they’re rabbit holes! I’m curious about the buildings in the world for each job — will they be shells? Or will there be a sort of lobby area they go through and then disappear behind a door?? So excited!!

Noeba

But does it also mean your job title never changes when you get promoted?

Lenina Hastley

It's great to see how they have separated by type of work, that order gives me peace of mind, very intuitive. Although I would obviously like to know what they have in mind for the future with the active jobs. Do you want to have a few to start with, will you try to have good depth when it comes to the tasks to be performed in the active position? Greetings.

spunkyace

A very fun and unique system!!

Noeba

Ah okay interesting, thanks! I also like what others mentioned, that there's different companies within the same industry so if you are not being promoted at your company, you can apply for a higher rank at a different company (if you meet the application points) - same as in real life!

Anna

Yes, there are some perks that help you build relationships with your coworkers! It might also helps your performance to be in good relationships with them :)

Impish

I think the graphic stays the same and the little arrow points to where your performance is at

Impish

I really love this system! It reminds me of skill trees in some RPGs

Toria Stock

What is the difference between Food and Service Industry for jobs? Can you provide some examples? Usually I think of Food as being part of the Service Industry.

Ryn

This looks very interesting! Will the jobs system have any connection with the relationship system? For example, can we choose perks that boost our relationship levels with coworkers? And will our relationships impact our job performance? For example, would having a high "coworker" relationship level with another para improve my para's job performance? I think that could be especially interesting in the "education" job field! Maybe if my para is a teacher and has a high "teacher-student" relationship with their class, that could impact how well-behaved/disruptive the students are - and how stressful the job is as a result! Or perhaps students learn faster if they have a high relationship with their teachers. All in all, very exciting!

Anna

There's no maximum rank! You can just level it up once per day maximum, so you will eventually get limited to the number of days your Para has

Anna

The little blue arrow in the middle is the thing that indicates your performance and the thing that will change. The red part is just there to show you when you will get a strike (here it's <10% but it might change depending on companies or perks)

Sarah

Love the UI for the personal career tab! I also really love how simple (but clear!) the vacations day icon is.

Anna

For now we don't have completely random events like these, I like the idea though! (from Anna)

Noeba

Sounds really good! One question - I don't know if this was addressed before but how many ranks will there be? Because I noticed rank 23 in the job posting so was wondering how high up it goes!

Fran Smith

This looks great! It really looks like it'll add gameplay that will make me want to play every character differently! Awesome!! I just wondered, though... Those "Performance" graphic pic at the the beginning of the post...Are they meant to be a performance graphic that changes? I was confused looking at them because the graph doesn't change, but I was expecting it to change in accordance to the performance percentage, to mostly red. It's not a big thing, but if it's only a picture, it's a little confusing and could be construed as a bug. This looks like a circular graph like those in Excel and people generally expect graphs to change when the data changes. I was expecting the second graph to be mostly red at 5% performance. Is it an error or is this only a picture of a graph?

Anna

It's a good idea, you're right!

Anna

With the mod system you will be able to add your own jobs and companies, yes!

sjbros814

I have a suggestion: will we be able to create custom workplaces? Like a boxing gym? What you have here is great, but it would definitely be better if we were to create our own custom workplaces. P.S. Boxing Gym for a workplace venue is an idea I have for awhile now.

Kateřina Králová

All these updates are making me so excited for the full game!! I can't wait to play it!!

jamie

This update looks so so good! It’d be awesome if instead of “upgrade job rank” the language could be a little more true-to-life, such as “request raise” or “get promotion” - the feature is wonderful but this would make it so much more immersive

Robot

This is all looking great! I love the perk system. I just hope all the perks won't make the game too easy with time. Will it ever be possible to lose ever your job by chance, just by the company having layoffs or something? I think random curveballs are important for a game like this to keep the challenge for the player.

Oddface

Some great refinements to the system here. Feels a lot more balanced and addresses the main worry I had with getting too many upgrades too fast.

Anna

We are currently thoroughly playtesting this to make sure it is balanced!

Swampboot

Ooh, I love how this is going to make each job feel more unique, even if they’re in the same field.

Melina W

i really like the changes and developments! i think it's a great system to have positive effects if your para's job performance is good and negative effects of it's bad, i always love how you handle actions and consequences in the game! i also absolutely love having different vibes and work environments for different work places, that is so useful for storytelling and the player experience! i'm also a fan of all the new perks shown here and the fact that vacation days are paid! you did a really good job with this in my opinion!

Mason

Ooo this is a very cool way for jobs to work

Nami

Wow, I really like this update, the small changes to the job / career system seem very interesting and robust!

Trisha

A big hello and thank you for the post! It's so exciting to see more about careers and how much they're coming along. I'm loving the new interface and the colours being used. The addition of different colours for the perks to represent different things is such a good idea so we know exactly what kind we're selecting. I think it makes the interface look nicer also. Also lots of different ones? Sign me up!! Another thing I'm giddy about is the different workplace environments. That's going to make for some great gameplay elements and a nice way to show differences in characters ambitions and prioritizes when they reach the point of working.

Carelle

Whats the difficulty going to be like? My main thing is getting too many boons that stack later on. I know that balance is hard and making it where is not crazy difficult or super easy is not an easy one and maintaining the feel of making progress while the game doesn't get to easy is even harder.