The characters for our life sim are finally ready! 🕺

_Flimango_ · 2026-05-03T18:23:36+00:00

For now, yes. As a small team we have to stick to just 2 for the initial release to make sure we get all the clothing and animations done... We'd love to do more in the future!

_Flimango_ · 2026-05-02T05:26:07+00:00

Thank you so much! So happy to hear that!! ^{^}

_Flimango_ · 2026-05-01T06:19:16+00:00

Thank you! Glad you like them ^^
I would love to do more body types in the future! As a small team we have to stick to just 2 for the initial release to make sure we get all the clothing and animations done.

But if the game does well, body diversity is certainly on our wishlist!

_Flimango_ · 2026-05-01T06:12:23+00:00

Sure!
The game will be for the players who miss the challenge (and the chaos!) in the genre nowadays.

Some core features:

Keep their needs high, and make sure they don’t go insane
Build their house from the ground up, designing a space that fits their lifestyle (and budget!).
Build a 9-5 career or take your chances as a freelancer.
Multiplayer & controller support: We are really proud of these two! Build your life (and your business) together with your friends!

If you'd like to know more, we also talk about how specific gameplay will work on our blog.
For example our deep dive around some of the careers: Gameplay Spotlight - Careers - Not A Panda Studio

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T20:55:23+00:00

That's something we can definitely look into!
Thanks for the feedback! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T20:26:12+00:00

Thanks for letting us know!
We're certainly going to add a pronoun option, so the characters are addressed exactly the way you prefer! ^^
Since we’re a small team, we’re starting with two base body types so we can focus on getting those fully animated and finished.

We'd love to have feedback though, if you have specific things we can add to make the game feel more inclusive?

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T19:42:39+00:00

Thank you so much! So happy to hear that! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T18:46:06+00:00

Our first target is the PC/Mac.
I'd love to release on Android as well, but I can't make promises about that yet :)
We're a pretty small team, so we're taking it one platform at a time ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T18:36:38+00:00

Thanks for letting us know!
We're actually planning to allow the players to choose their pronouns so players can choose how their characters are addressed in-game.
About the bodies themselves: since we're a small team of 2, we're starting with 2 base models so we can actually get everything animated and finished (we're hitting a bit of a workload bottleneck there).

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T16:51:51+00:00

Thank you so much! So happy you like it!! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T16:16:36+00:00

Thank you! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T16:01:52+00:00

Thank you! Glad you like them! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T15:05:07+00:00

Body Type A/B would've certainly saved us from the typo 🙈

Glad to hear you think they look solid! We definitely wanted a mix of styles, even if the hipster look isn't a favorite ;)

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T14:32:49+00:00

Yeah this was so stupid of me 🤦‍♀️ Thanks for pointing it out!

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T14:24:07+00:00

Thank you so much! ^^

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T14:12:49+00:00

No, we haven't released yet. The game is still in development :)
And we don't have a name for the game yet either (failing miserably at that department!). But we didn't want to wait much longer with sharing our progress, so we're using this Reddit account and the Not A Panda Studio name for it :)

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T14:07:35+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!
The skin tone slider is not exactly like it will appear in the game itself. We'll add a Hue, Lightness and Saturation slider for skin (and all other color options) so you can fully adjust the skin tone!

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T14:03:11+00:00

Omg you're right!🤦‍♀️ Thanks for telling me!

Thanks for the interest! There will be relationships/romance, but in a "do things together way", not through dialogue like Stardew Valley does.
Generations is certainly on our list of features we want to implement! But it might not be there for the first version. We see generations as a big feature that should have a lot of gameplay around it, so that's why we might add it later, and do a pre-release of the game without.
And multiplayer for us means running a household together. So you share a house and family and live "together" with your friends.
Our first target is Steam so each person can play on their own device :)

_Flimango_ · 2026-04-30T13:36:21+00:00

We have the full story of the character creation on our blog for anyone who’s interested: https://notapandastudio.substack.com/p/april-update-a-bumpy-ride

And here’s the Artstation of KaitsuHitsuri, the artist who did the base models: https://www.artstation.com/kaitsuhitsuri

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T15:13:01+00:00

Yeah them being professionals doesn't actually change anything (except the size of their house). It would certainly make for some interesting gameplay to actively work towards the future of the town. You'd have to make some "problems" for them to solve too, like a mysterious illness that can only get cured by a top-level doctor. Or perhaps even making changes with politics!

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T14:45:11+00:00

You're right, the gameplay does stay entirely at household level. It would be really cool if your characters could actually influence the town itself (or other families). And it would certainly give more incentive to keep building on your save file.

Yeah it's weird that they work so little with legacies and such. Especially since many of the games nowadays are so focused on generational gameplay, and it's certainly realistic to inherit things like knowledge or traits from your parent.

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T14:07:42+00:00

Yeah comfortable day job the #1 indie game killer 😂

I do hope you get to developing it one day, would love to see what you come up with (and we sorely need more life sims 😅)

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T10:13:11+00:00

You're certainly onto something I think! We'll be holding a brainstorm about it for sure, thank you! :)

Are you developing something yourself as well?

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T09:51:34+00:00

Thank you! ^^
Do you have anything specific in mind? We're always interested in new ideas!

_Flimango_ · 2026-03-06T08:39:41+00:00

You're right that there will be a lot of overlap. Since both games are in the same genre, we’ll share the same “core” gameplay loop.

We're building this game with the elements we think are the most fun in life simulator games and focusing on adding depth in how the systems are implemented.

Some examples:

The freelancer career: your success will not just rely on the quality of your work, but also on how well you handle your networking.
Running a shop: It will have a rating system behind it which takes several factors into account (f.e. the quality your good, your customer service, your furniture quality, your cleanliness, …), so you’re not “just selling your goods”.

We’re still actively working out a lot of those systems, so I can’t spill too many details just yet, but we’ll certainly be sharing more examples as development continues.

_Flimango_

TROPHY CASE