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You can see this same sentiment with other indies inspired by gaming juggernauts. There are a few improvements but there's no risk-taking and I think that's what people like in Paralives, we're trying something different.' There's not much innovation, for example, the build mode-it's not changed a lot since The Sims 2. I think it's frustrating for the community. 'As a fan of The Sims, I think other fans were like me and were tired of the same thing,' Massé says 'It's always the same expansions, each time there is less and less content, and you have to buy everything every time a new base game releases. Paralives is his opportunity to show the potentials of what a life sim could achieve that EA hasn't explored. As a big fan of The Sims himself, Massé says that the decision to make Paralives came from his love of the series, but also his frustrations. Paralives' strong identity is directly tied to The Sims and this proves to be a good marketing strategy when talking about the game. But if we need to increase the size of the team or if Patreon does not work out in the future, we can always contact them.'Īlthough it's a daunting prospect, finding other means to sustain the project is something that Massé is confident in. We told them that we prefer to self publish the game and that the Patreon funding is enough for us. We are in contact with some investors who are really interested in the project. Massé says that the team has a back-up plan for if that happens. If the platform changes its terms and conditions with projects or even shuts down, it will directly sever a crucial income for those projects. Relying on Patreon's longevity as the sole income for funding comes with its own stresses. So the survey is to make sure we represent this community well in the game.' 'No matter what country you're from, or your sexual orientation, or your gender, the goal of the survey was to make sure the game is inclusive.

'The goal with Paralives is to allow everyone to recreate themselves in the game,' Massé says. One of the most recent Patreon exclusive surveys was about LGBTQIA+ diversity where patrons could have their say in options they wanted to see in the character creator. Patreon supporters of Paralives get exclusive information posts about the game and a chance to have their personal input, which makes it an unusual project. But Massé and his team are working on one game, meaning that they need to approach what they give back to Patrons differently. What Patreon supporters receive differs from project to project with many indie game developers treating the platform as a monthly game subscription service. We made them vote for the name of the characters in the game (the Parafolk), vote for the name of the money in the game, details like that.' What we try to do with the Patreon community is to get as much feedback as we can from them. 'We get to know our supporters very well, it's much more community based than Kickstarter. 'We're trying to be really close to the community,' Massé says. What we try to do with the Patreon community is to get as much feedback as we can from them Paralives founder, Alex Massé We get to know our supporters very well, it's much more community based than Kickstarter. Massé emphasizes that the community are also helping to shape what the game will become through polls and surveys they can fill out. Massé's choice to use Patreon over other services, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, was because Paralives would be an ongoing project, and a dedicated community would be key to sustainable funding. It's too early for us to decide and announce the price of the game. One option would be giving the game to anyone who has a lifetime contribution of at least 75% of the price of the game at release. We could give the game to anyone who pledged on the $20 tier for at least a month but it might not be fair for someone who pledges for 15 months on the $3 tier and gets nothing.

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'Unlike Kickstarter where you pay $20 or $40 once and get the game, we can't associate a free game key with a tier.

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Massé explains that the team are thinking of letting backers have beta access, but are still formulating a plan for when the full game is released. Unusually for a crowdfunded project, none the Patreon tiers for Paralives list a copy of the game as a reward for backers.

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Paralives' Patreon tiers vary from $3/£2 to $50/£38 per month, and patrons get access to the Paralives Discord channel, can take part in community polls, download HD wallpapers, see in-progress screenshots and, for the higher tiers, even access weekly video chats with the Paralives team.

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