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Breakdown of What We’re Working On
🕑 Added 2023-03-03 16:08:41 +0000 UTCHey there,
Alex here. I hope you had a great week. In today’s post I will share an overview of what every single member of the team is currently up to (there’s 11 of us). This should give you a good perspective on our current goals. This is for Patrons only so please don’t share, thank you!
🔊 Andrei (Music Composer and Sound Designer)
Andrei has been working hard on the design of the spoken language of the Parafolks. Our goal is for it to sound interesting and real, despite the fact that it will be a made-up language. He tested various approaches and we’re getting close to being able to select one of them which is pretty exciting!
📝 Gabrielle (Communication Manager)
Gabrielle is handling our social media accounts, replying to messages and emails from the community. She is also taking care of publishing one social media post each week, like the one we shared yesterday. In addition to that, Gabrielle takes care of managing and publishing the dev chat on Discord (the weekly Q&A with the devs) for Patrons on the Hero tier or higher.
🙋♀️ Alice (Animator)
Alice is creating various one-on-one talking animations like neutral discussions, a funny discussion, an argument, etc. She is also researching how we should animate characters who are taking part in a group discussion.
A sneak peek at one of the talk animations. You can also see a bug on the left hand of the character which has now been fixed by Alice.
👩🎨Sonia (Artist)
Sonia is working on suits: shirt, vest, tie, bowtie and more. She is also putting up together the list of all the hairstyles we would like to include in the game at launch. To help with that, this week, she asked each member of the team to brainstorm about the hairstyles they would like to see in the game which was a pretty cool exercise for us.
👩🎨 Léa (Artist)
Léa recently created various new build mode objects like doors, windows, a toilet and a bathroom sink. Next, she will be working on 2 new hairstyles!
👩🎨 Chloé (Artist)
Last week, Chloé focused her efforts on creating many new wall and floor textures. This week, she worked on many new pieces of furniture: chairs, tables and beds.
One of the many new objects Chloé made. Left: the view from Blender, the 3D modelling software that we use. Right: the same chair but in the game.
👨💻 Jérémie (Programmer and Game Designer)
An important question is being tackled by Jérémie: how will the player be able to easily make multiple characters perform interactions together as a group? For instance, this includes having dinner as a family, watching TV with friends, having a chat with neighbors and so on. In other words, Jérémie is working on how exactly the player will order the characters to do group interactions.
In addition to that, Jérémie is working on the design of the relationship gameplay to determine how Parafolks will develop and make progress in their relationships.
👨💻 Richard (Programmer and Game Designer)
Richard is focusing on how Parafolks will be positioned among themselves when performing social interactions together. Read more about it in last week’s Patreon post.
👨💻 Alejandro (Programmer and Game Designer Intern)
Alejandro is currently fixing various bugs and making different improvements to existing game features. He will also be helping to develop gameplay features related to relationships.
👩💻 Anna (Programmer and Game Designer)
In order for our Parafolks to look natural while performing various interactions, they more often than not need to look at a specific object of interest. For instance, if 5 characters are standing in a circle, they need to look at the person who is currently speaking by turning their eyes, head and upper body toward them. The same thing goes when people are watching TV or when a character watches another character walk by. Anna is working on dynamically adapting what each character is looking at depending on these various situations.
Notice how the characters automatically look at their target. It can also be used while sitting, like the characters in the back.
🙂 Alex (Lead Developer)
At the moment, I’m assisting the game designers of the team with their plans for the various live mode gameplay features we are currently developing. Also, I’m often working with Gabrielle to prepare content to share on our social media accounts as well as preparing and writing Patreon posts like the one you are currently reading!
I hope you enjoyed this post and stay tuned for more updates regarding the features and content we’re creating for Paralives!
Cheers,
Alex
Comments
Dewl was here
This is all so cool! I totally love the attention to detail with the para's head and eyes following the person talking. The upper body also moving seems a tad awkward. It doesn't look like a comfortable way of interacting for the paras on the couch either. Maybe if they turned their whole body to face each other it would look more natural.
Take a lot of your time! I can't wait til this game comes out!
Ilona
I'm liking how collaborative the making of Paralives sounds! I think it will make for a very cohesive game. I'm really liking the animation previews, looks very natural, not exaggerated or over the top. The chair is looking very nice too, something that I'm sure most people have had or at least seen in someone else's backyard! Seems very down to earth, which I hope comes across as a compliment. A lot of the homes I make are based on real life and there's nothing more frustrating than having a ton of objects that aren't usable because they're too flashy or eccentric. Anyway, looking forward to future posts, as always, good job team!
