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Gameplay Systems Around our Younger Parafolks
🕑 Added 2025-08-01 13:05:01 +0000 UTCHeya everyone! Jérémie here for this week’s Patreon post, where I go into more details about gameplay mechanics around babies, toddlers and children. In this previous post, Richard showcased the animations, interactions and visual flourishes that are in the game, but I’m going to get into the nitty-gritty of the systems and how things will work when the game releases in early access. As usual, this post is for our Patreon subscribers only, so keep it to yourself! Thank you!
Progression
As we’ve talked about in the past, in Paralives, your personality levels up as you complete Wants, allowing you to unlock more personality traits, upgrade them and improve your character’s stats. When you create an adult in the Paramaker, they’ll start with the basics (7 stat points to allocate, one vibe, one talent, one social trait). When you create a younger Parafolk, or if you give birth, the new characters won’t have all of that and will need to unlock different parts of their personality as they age up.
It will more or less line up with the moments where gameplay content starts making sense for that lifestage; for instance, when children can start leveling up their skills, they’ll be able to unlock their talent.
Eli is still growing up, so he has less stats to spend than older Parafolks, and he has no Vibe or Social Skill yet. He’ll get there eventually!
Needs
No matter your age, everyone still has the same basic needs. Eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom and being clean are all fundamental parts of life. Things are different for the younger life stages in the finer details:
Babies and toddlers have a lower need capacity than older life stages (you can see that in the screenshot below), this means they’ll get hungry and tired faster, among other things.
Some needs act a bit differently for babies/toddler than older lifestages. Going into critical bathroom need for an adult might be an emergency, but for a baby it’s just a normal part of life (going into their diapers is their only option after all!)
While toddlers get a bit of autonomy and can start working on their needs by themselves, babies need a responsible older Parafolk (teen and up) to feed them, clean them up and change their diapers.
The difference between the need levels of babies, toddlers and children.
Daycare
Because babies and toddlers need another Parafolk, that is a teen or older, to take care of all their needs, they’ll be sent to the daycare if you ever leave them alone on a lot for a certain amount of time. If you’re a single parent and need to go to work (or if you just forget your young one at the park! That would never happen though... wouldn’t it?), they’ll automatically be taken there, their needs will be met, and they’ll have a chill time. When your character returns from work, they’ll be brought back home.
Things are slightly different if you leave them somewhere that isn’t your house (like the park in my previous example), they’ll still be taken to daycare, but they’ll only come back when you get back home, AND you’ll have a hefty transport fee tacked on to your daycare bill.
These numbers still need to be balanced (we’re currently looking at slashing them by 75%), but here’s the result of my leaving the kids alone at the park and then going to work. They had to be picked up and stayed there for a while. Keep that in mind when budgeting for children!
Social Services
For game rating reasons (and on moral grounds, on some levels), you cannot neglect the hunger need of your babies, toddlers and children indefinitely. They cannot die from any cause, of course, but if you leave the hunger need in the red too long, they’ll be taken away by social services for their own safety, removing them from your household.
While this is all a bit of a work in progress, I think the black background makes it clear something bad is going on.
They will also be taken away if your household doesn’t have any teen-or-older Parafolk present, so if a fire decimates the family, any babies, toddlers and children will also be taken away (it’s probably game over at that point).
Lastly, children with too many (3 or more) failing grades at school will also have to go with the social services. While this might sound a bit excessive on first read, it’s something that won’t happen by mistake; you would have to be ignoring their needs, letting them go to school with a bunch of negative emotions and neglecting homework for a while before they get to that critical state. You’ll get a warning at 2 failing grades, so it really won’t be a surprise. We feel that this is an okay balance between realism and gameplay considerations at the moment!
Skills
Because babies and toddlers cannot do most interactions older Parafolks can, them having all the same skills wouldn’t make much sense, so they are limited in that capacity.
We also didn’t want to have baby/toddler-specific skills if we couldn’t strongly feel that we could add enough content to make them meaningful before Early Access. We do understand that babies and toddlers improve in many different ways, but for now, we didn’t want to go down the road of making skills that you can improve, but don’t do anything, just for the sake of having them in the game. If we find this part to be lacking later on, we’ll be able to add more. That’s the beauty of game development!
The big thing we have at the moment for babies and toddlers is a language skill that they can improve in many ways. Using Together Cards, being in a group discussion with older Parafolks chatting amongst themselves, or reading books (for toddlers). Improving your language skill will give you access to more complex, different conversation options, and your baby will be able to say their first word or first sentence when they level it up enough!
Different cards you’ll get at different language levels
Hope this gives you a better idea of the direction we’re going with the younger Parafolks, and I very much hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen here! Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you again!
Jérémie
Comments
Dawn Kelley
I kinda like the idea of your kid being shipped home if left at the park and you being charged for it :D , but I would love the option to have a babysitting service or hire another para as a babysitter.
Keythedon
Wow this definitely will make me think twice lol very creative though!
Alica
What happens to children who been taken by social Service? Can you call them on the phone or invite them? Will they age up at some point and you Could Meet them as an NPC by chance?
NHFoodie
Finding another way to make the Para’s thumbnail stand out when their needs aren’t being met would be helpful because the black doesn’t stand out to me at all 😅
Francis McDonald
The music for the different stores/activities is the bomb. I also wondered, that when they leave the store can they take stroll around the streets
EaselEar
Will we be able to get babysitters eventually? I've always liked the idea for i.e grandpa to stop by every Tuesday or so to take over child care, especially if we're able to take control of the carer temporarily! Balancing daycare with babysitters and part time work would be a lot of fun, I think, and really add some realism.
Lane Brettschneider
Oh my gosh I *adore* the together cards for babies and toddlers! I never would have expected that, but they're so cute and fun and will add so much life and interactivity to having younger Parafolks in the family! Amazing!
Another Plumbob
This is amazing! And I for one love the consequences with social services when kids are doing terribly at school - please do not remove those! I know it’s not exactly like that in real life but the fun of games is that there’s a consequence! I am also wondering: what happens to the babies that are taken away? Can they be an adopted or fostered by other households? And what happens to their siblings (perhaps social services takes away all your kids even if you only neglect one of them)?
SIMplycoya
Catching up on the latest post and I am loving where this is going! I love the daycare system! So essential! Some “prestigious” daycare options would be cool too for our boujie Paras 🤭 For the different needs based on age, will this also apply to pregnant Paras? So when they’re pregnant their needs decrease quicker, maybe even in their last trimester walking a bit slower because if the affects. Excited to see how this develops! Amazing work as always!
Derek Warren
Thank you! I always look forward to seeing the developments of Paralives. It is unclear precisely what the future of this game will hold. I am hopeful it sells well!
Eleanor Swan
Since there are preteens, how many points do preteens have in their personality?
Januarie Stories
i just love how focused your game design is! there's such a good sense of progression, especially when it comes to interactions! i.e. the together cards
Mooncinder
This all looks great! Thank you for including warnings to let players know if their kids are in danger of being taken away. I remember my first time playing Sims 1, it just happened and they were gone forever! If there's an option to still keep the kids in the game somehow, that would be good too.
