Paralives

Upcoming video game

2025 video game

Paralives

Developer(s)| Paralives Studio
Publisher(s)| Paralives Studio
Designer(s)| Alex Massé
Programmer(s)|

* Alex Massé
* Anna Thibert
* Jérémie Tessier
* Étienne Brisson
* Richard Rail
* Alejandro Flores Lerdo de Tejada

Artist(s)|

* Léa Sorribès
* Sonia M’hamdi
* Alice Joubin
* Chloé Ouellet
* Lina Molard

Composer(s)| Andrei Castañon
Engine| Unity
Platform(s)| Windows, macOS
Release| December 8, 2025 (early access)
Genre(s)| Life simulation
Mode(s)| Single-player

Paralives is an upcoming life simulation indie game by Paralives Studio for Windows and macOS. The game, heavily inspired by The Sims, features house building and management in a small town.[1] It is scheduled for release in early access on December 8, 2025.[2][3]

## Gameplay

[edit]

Paralives will take place in an open world environment with employment opportunities alongside events such as festivals.[4] Players can build houses, create characters and control their lives in a desired way.[5]

The character creator, titled as "Paramaker",[6] allows the customization of the appearance and personality of "Parafolk", the name of the in-game characters. Players are able to customize the physique and height of the Parafolk. The root and shade of hair, clothing and accessories can be toggled as intended using color swatches, color wheels and texture selection.[7][8]

A similar system is in place for objects and structures, allowing the player to adjust the size, placement, color and texture of walls, floors, windows, doors, and furniture.[9]

The simulation aspect of the game features "together cards" that appear to players after a "together bar" is filled up during a character's conversation.[3]

## Development

[edit]

Paralives is being developed by indie game designer Alex Massé.[6] After working on several projects such as PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator and a number of demos for Project Tiny, Massé quit his job and began developing Paralives regularly.[1] Development of the game started in January 2019 and was officially announced in June 2019.[10] The game is developed using Unity.

Paralives was initially a solo project by Massé, but as of June 2025, the team has expanded to fourteen people, collectively forming Paralives Studio.[6][11] Massé wants Paralives to offer a sense of endless customization with "powerful and intuitive tools that allow players to easily create any house with precision".[1] He was inspired by the road tool in Cities: Skylines and developed a similar tool in Paralives for building houses.[6] The developers incorporated the technique of procedural animation, which involves automatic reactions based on previously created animations to save developing time.

The game is being funded through the crowdfunding platform Patreon and backers are invited to propose suggestions regarding content they would like to see in the full release.[1] Massé chose to use Patreon after seeing Ooblets's success on the service. By November 2023, the Paralives Patreon page had over 15,000 supporters and earned over $35,000 per month.[12] Massé plans to release the game in Early Access on Steam and support the game with free updates and modding, where people can share their designs on the Steam Workshop.[1]

## Marketing

[edit]

In January 2021, Paralives won the title of "Most Anticipated Canadian Game" in a poll organised by CanadianGameDevs.com.[13]

On 12 June 2021, Paralives featured in Wholesome Direct event, showcasing the game's building tools.[14]

In July 2024, as part of Paralives's showcase at the 2024 Montreal Comiccon, a Paralives booth was set up for attendees to try the build mode demo of the game.

Paralives revealed the Early Access release date alongside the game's new trailer during PC Gaming Show on June 8, 2025.[15]

## See also

[edit]

* InZOI
* Life by You
* The Sims

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Welch-Murphy, Emma (2019-08-15). "Why Paralives Is Looking To Be The Sim's New Rival". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 2020-06-07. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
2. ^ Valentine, Rebekah (2024-02-07). "The Sims-like Life Simulator Paralives Gets a December 8th,2025 Release Window". IGN. Archived from the original on 2024-02-07. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
3. ^ a b Morton, Lauren (2024-02-07). "Paralives will enter early access in 2025 and will never have paid DLCs, only free expansions". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2024-02-07. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
4. ^ Schermann, Natalie (2020-06-12). "Paralives ist das alternative Sims von Fans für Fans". GameStar (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-08-24. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
5. ^ "'Paralives', un simulador de vida que recuerda a unos sims personalizados al máximo detalle". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 2020-06-08. Archived from the original on 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
6. ^ a b c d Bell, Alice (2020-07-06). "Interview: the art and inspiration of Paralives, the indie game set to take on The Sims". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
7. ^ Wald, Heather (2020-05-20). "Sims competitor Paralives shows off new character creator". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
8. ^ "Height Sliders Confirmed as Paralives Team Reveals Character Design | The Paralives Hub". 19 May 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
9. ^ Plunkett, Luke (2020-05-19). "Paralives, A New Sims-Like Game, Looks Cool". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
10. ^ "Development". Paralives. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
11. ^ "Press Kit". Paralives. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
12. ^ Watts, Rachel (2020-07-30). "How Paralives is using Patreon to compete with The Sims". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
13. ^ "CanadianGameDevs.com 2020 End of Year Poll Winners".
14. ^ Valentine, Rebekah (2021-06-12). "Wholesome Direct: Everything Announced, Including Lake Release Date, Skatebird Accessibility - Summer of Gaming". IGN. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
15. ^ Taylor, Mollie (2025-06-08). "Paralives finally has a release date so I can finally go wild on its delightfully tactile building and endlessly cozy vibes". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2025-06-09.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website