Interview: Palia Developer Talks Housing, Community And More

Summary

• Palia stands out in the life simulation genre by emphasizing community and cooperation among players for a meaningful experience.
• Singularity Six plans to expand housing features in Palia to cater to both single-player and social-driven gameplay.
• The recent Temple of the Roots update in Palia introduced new quests, lore, and rewards, with more big updates in the works for the MMO.

Palia, the life simulation MMO developed by Singularity Six, was released on Steam in open beta after a six-month early access period. Since then, Palia has maintained an impressive average of several thousand daily players, no easy feat for a new IP MMO.

DualShockers, in an interview conducted by Emma Ward, had the opportunity to speak to developer Singularity Six about Palia’s recent launch on Steam, and some of the studio’s upcoming plans for its fledgling MMO.

Cosy Community

The life simulation genre has become increasingly popular in recent years, but a unique aspect of Palia is the game's social dimension. We've seen limited 'sharing' systems in life sims before, the ability to visit islands in Animal Crossing comes to mind. However, a full-blown life simulation MMO that leans heavily into the social aspect is novel.

Of course, MMOs require longevity, something that is usually sustained by the player's need to grind for ever-moving goalposts, a polarising facet of the genre. Singularity Six (S6) had to adapt the MMO formula to suit the game's vision.

"Our goal with Palia has always been to create a meaningful cooperative experience that encourages collaboration, community, and a sense of togetherness while playing," S6 told us. "In Palia, players come together for parties, to create communal neighbourhoods, gather shared resources and join in the same activities, but can opt in to play socially at their leisure. Essentially, unlike traditional MMOs, we encourage players to return for positive social incentives."

A positively startling aspect of Palia is the collaborative nature of the community. Any individual who cuts their MMO teeth in RuneScape will know how competitive ore mining and tree-cutting spots can be, as players compete over convenient levelling spots. In Palia, we've witnessed players wait for others to arrive before they harvest rare resources, sharing in the spoils. This is encouraging to S6, and they want to "build out maps and quests that players can explore together." Co-operation is at the heart of Palia.

Home Is Where The Palcat Is

Housing is a popular feature of Palia, because who doesn't love showing off their hard work to others? It's something that Singularity Six has plans for in the immediate future, "We have some big plans around the housing features in Palia set for the coming months as well as some more long-term plans," the developer teased.

"Without revealing too much, it’s absolutely going to expand and get even better. We’re planning to implement features that will continue to refine the housing experience as something that’s rewarding for those focusing more on the single-player experience as well as something that’s community and socially driven."

Palia was recently released on Steam, having had a Nintendo Switch release in December. Though S6 emphasises it is "continuing cross-platform expansion," the studio has no news to share regarding Xbox or PlayStation versions of the game.

Palia's most recent update was Patch 0.178, a patch that coincided with the game's Steam release. The biggest addition in the update was the Temple of the Roots, complete with new quests, lore and rewards. Singularity Six is unable to elaborate on when the next big update or area is coming, but assures players that the team is "always working on growing and evolving the world of Palia," and big updates "are definitely in the works."

Palia is currently available on Nintendo Switch and Steam in free-to-play Open Beta.