I liked that you have to have certain skills to get jobs. I think the world is looking better and better. I also watched a little of someone else's review video. Both people commented about the graphics. She looked better until in the gym I saw those knees and went yikes.

I think the personality system looks good.

And how will a game survive if no paid DLC and free expansions? Both reviewers were wondering about that?

If they're as good people as I'd like them to be, I think they want to make the game good enough on its own and maybe then release expansions that are really ambitious. Maybe they could feed on product placement + donations+ base game xD

I feel like the biggest grump because I didn't squee even a little bit.

I like the design decisions they're making in regards to things like the bills, personality, jobs and those sorts of things--but I already knew that. But I didn't like the cards, popups and what not taking up so much of the screen. It was really distracting. I'm not sure how it feels to play it but watching it killed the immersion. Also, really felt the lack of interaction with the environment--everything felt like set dressing. Not just the street either, even the house didn't feel real to me.

So nice to see an actual game taking shape though!

@mielwell Yes, without interaction everything is lost, also the faces and the micro expressions and so on. Everything is a question of balance and all games show that they are still missing "that something", the main fear we all have is that it will come out without reaching it. Since expectations are very low and there are many companies that want to get their paws on the sims after having been prostituted for so many years.

I thought the same about those work windows, I liked the option, but the windows seemed very big to me, although it is curious that I do like some parts of the larger menu, I think it is because in LbY it seems too small to me.

I found all the popups distracting also. And for both this and LBY players need to be able to lose the circle on the ground as that totally ruins photos. I thought it was odd when it was there for all 3 characters and not just the one being played. There needs to be an option to nuke those.

Sims handles the popups better in having them be in the top corner and not smack in the screen. And they were pretty darn big.

The size of the UI is set to large so that it's easier to see in videos (and probably so the devs can see better while developing)

I do not mind large UIs generally. For reasons I will not go into I now have to play my Sims 3 in Windowed mode and all is so tiny I almost have to have my nose on the screen to see with my bad eyes.

So most of this stuff, we've seen as Patrons, and with more details on how each mechanic works. I didn't know about Early Access and the free DLC. I'm sure there's more examples, but what comes to mind is Stardew Valley, there's no paid DLC. All updates were free, each ones adding a lot to the game. Not sure how that would work with Paralives though, because it is a small team, not just one person.

They basically would need to sell a lot of copies and make millions so that they can sustain it, if they only plan on selling the base game and nothing else. I'm all for not copying big corporations' business models, I don't like how things have been going in gaming, but I can't help but have to temper idealism with the material reality. They have a team to pay and things like the office. One compromise would be aesthetic DLC, that doesn't change anything in game, and keep all gameplay stuff free.

I guess maybe it will be a case of wait and see with the sales figures. Maybe they have a model in mind, just haven't said it yet. I have no idea.

EDIT: They have a public patreon post about stuff above. https://www.patreon.com/posts/paralives-2025-7-98031014 You can also browse the other posts relating to each gameplay mechanics to see more details about how they work.

But with finance they said they don't want to charge more money with DLC and plan to sustain themselves with the sales of the game.

"The reason for this decision is that, as players ourselves, we believe that purchasing a game should come with the guarantee of a fleshed out experience. We aim to make Paralives our labor of love for years to come, continuously coming up with exciting new stuff to experience in the game. As a small team without any shareholders to please, we believe the money we make from selling the game alone will be enough to support us and the development of free updates in the long run."

As a video advertised as a "Live Mode" demo (quickly renamed as "Gameplay" later on, as no one has to know this project is directly inspired by some The Sims!) my initial expectation was that it would be more of an one-shot, candid screen recording of a save file. As it turned out, they were quite selective in terms of what can be seen, which is generally alright for a game in progress-- it's a tad disappointing still that it emphasizes the control panel elements much more than character behavior. The guitar is the only object that the active characters use throughout the whole thing, both outside and at Alisa's home. Interactions among characters should have a bigger array of animations as much as there are interactions to choose from. The instant start of interactions as players command characters to do something kind of suggests it can get a bit problematic when playing with many characters at once, but it all depends on how far the interaction queue can go. Carl dancing to Alisa's composition is very lovely.

Stardew Valley, Terraria, Minecraft (during and after its indie days). Not unheard of for indies to go this route, especially for single devs or smaller teams. Still a bit of a risky thing to decide before the game releases. They must have a lot of confidence in the game's longevity.

Anyway, it's so nice to nice that all this stuff is all out in the open now. It's been months so I wouldn't be able to recall all my of initial thoughts when we first saw them on patreon (I know I left a comment or two but I definitely am not about to go searching for them) They're all public now so I'll link em

Relationship Labels:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/84324027
Back when I was much more involved in the brainstorming of paralives with other peeps, this is an idea that cropped up and it's cool to see how they came up with this concept. You aren't just friends or lovers with people, every relationship has multiple different faucets. Great for storytelling. Also would be fun to switch households and learn this para you like a lot maybe secretly hates your guts. I remember someone bring up a relationship where they hate each other's guts but still kiss every other Friday (I can't remember if the devs confirmed that could happen but I imagine it could) I always liked how in Sims 2 relationships were more of a two way street and this is a great modernization of that concept imo.

Togetherness
https://www.patreon.com/posts/89675922
Obviously they're still filling in animations here and there, but I remember being amazed by how easy it was to create group interactions. No more clicking a character one by one to make them enter a specific room or sit at a table together or whatever. I feel like it could still be improved... the method to select them all I mean. Well, you can still just click on them to select the ones you want instead of dragging your mouse so you've got options. Pretty sure I read once that the Paras you select outside your household won't necessarily agree to being "together" with you. Can't just select the whole town and demand they do push ups or dance with you.

Regarding the white circle in case anyone is concerned, from the dev in the comments, "Thank you! The white circle is a placeholder marker and will be reworked or changed for something else"

I don't mind the white circle but I wonder what else they have in mind for that.

Togetherness Cards(though the video mostly showed them in group interactions, they are in single interactions too)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/91353823
I'm generally pleased with the direction they decided to go here. Instead of having to click over and over again to keep a conversation going between paras, you can have an ongoing interaction and influence it every now and then optionally. Just feels a little more natural too. Would two strangers with absolutely no chemistry really become besties after one interaction in a typical Sims fashion? Nope, and that's kinda fun. By going with something like this, if an attraction system is put into place (which I can't remember exists yet or not), then two paras who ACTUALLY have something in common or are attracted to each other maybe can naturally become besties in a shorter amount of time and skip some steps in between.

I remember some people wondering if the card choosing could be autonomous (as in, you don't even have to click it, the game could choose for you) so went to check. Here were some dev comments on the matter,

"Choosing cards is the way to advance relationships, and having Paras select one automatically could have big impacts on your game without you understanding why, it's certainly something we could think about tho "

So maybe won't be something available for release, but maybe in the future. I like to play it risky with high autonomy myself so I hope it's a thing.

Jobs:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/92227432
A while back when someone posted that youtube video of a guy saying Paralives is pretty much just the Sims with a different coat of paint and don't have enough mechanics to differentiate itself from the Sims. This is the part that made me scratch my head the most. I mean, other than they different take on social interactions and personality, even the careers system is not something I've seen in The Sims. Not even the active careers are like this. I was even more confused when he claimed he was a patron member and saw everything and still had this opinion.

I like that you have somewhat of a choice in what you want to do with your job. Like me right now irl. I'm very comfortable where I am. I'm not trying to climb a corporate ladder or get a promotion. Sure, I'd like a raise every now and then but I like my current job. With a system like this, you don't HAVE to chase the corporate ladder. You can just have your job and slowly build up perks within it.

Also the fact that there's not really "career tracks". You don't start your job at the local hospital as a bed pan cleaner and someday become a top surgeon. You have to actually apply for different positions and sometimes they're not even associated with the same business/company. I really like that little touch of realism. The road to the top isn't a straight line, but a maze with some dead ends along the way.

They said there wouldn't be active jobs at the time of early access release, so I wonder how it's going to work. I mean, we saw Anisa getting a job in the video but not much else. Maybe she disappears when she gets to the building ala Sims 3 career rugs. I would have no problem with something like that since I'm quite used to it. It's not a complete rabbit hole and still allows you to fill out the town with custom buildings and decor. Maybe the more basic jobs like being a Barista aren't necessarily "active", but Anisa will stand there for 8 hours a day taking coffee orders at the register like an NPC/role sim.

Needs/Wants
https://www.patreon.com/posts/82906702
This is the part I really wanted to see peoples opinions on. It's quite different from LBY, Sims, and Inzoi. There are no needs meters, just a general statement of what the Para is feeling. I'm like 50/50 on it. I actually like the idea, but I wonder how I will feel playing it? It's like forcing you to be less micromanagy and just enjoy playing the game rather than watching your needs meter like a spreadsheet simulator. But what if there's something going on in the world or the para is sick? I would want to know exactly what I need to fix before it gets too bad and all their needs are suddenly red.... but then again, it's kinda a fun challenge to guess how they're actually feeling without the meters?? I dunno. Still hoping fears or something makes a comeback but not sure how it would work here. Maybe if you do the exact opposite of what the "want" stays. Like "I don't want to talk to this para". You make them talk to that Para and they get upset? Dunno.

Anyway, I really love all the concepts they've developed and implemented. They seem to have fun tinkering around with it but I guess the general audience can't truly know how it plays until we get a chance to do it ourselves. I didn't expect them to announce early access even though I speculated maybe they could. So looking forward to next year~

I just watched it and I couldn't be more impressed. I really like the overall vibe, the way the paras feel natural, no exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. It's looks less realistic without feeling cartoonish.
The only thing I found concerning is the pop-ups in the middle of the screen. But that might get adjusted.

Even with the look of the paras, so many people were concerned about the sims in sims3 and it still sold like crazy. I do think, if gameplay is good, having to mod some skins and hair isn't going to be an issue for most players if they like the rest of it.

It looks like they're well on their way!

I watched the presentation video and a couple of commentaries. The build and buy modes have been more or less finished for a while so I was most interested in gameplay. It is clearly still in the early phase but enough is in place to get the first impression. Like the graphics it leans toward the cozy side; some basic actions - like eating, going to the toilet or sleeping - are curiously absent ATM and so is any hint of the life cycle. The first three will be added sooner or later but the last one is just as essential to any Sims-like game and is far more complicated, especially if we will be able to play more than one person/family. (Nothing about this either.) - On the other hand, there are enough new ideas to distinguish Paralives from EA products, and animations go well with the basic style, simple but not simplistic. - The "language" clearly needs more work and I don't like the big pop-ups either, but those are minor complaints.

DLCs: I guess we are all too used to the EA model. Indie games can survive quite well without them. I am playing some, mostly city builders, and all of them are doing fine. I'll name just one, developed by a Slovak team, Workers & Resources, which has been in early access since March 2019 and has had quite a few big and important upgrades since. It seems that Paralives will take more or less the same route; we already know they will be slow but I believe they will be reliable.

So, after watching the new Paralives gameplay overview video, I still wanted to geek out in Life By You, changing scripts, customize surroundings etc. But then I would like to take my characters to hang out in that Paralives video I really like the vibe portrayed in that video! Their paraspeak is cute and I'm beginning to warm up to their graphical style.

Those two teams can learn from each other imo.

I agree and play games that have no paid DLC or very minor ones (small amount of purely cosmetic items). It's just that my first instinct was to wonder if that was wise before they knew how much they would sell.

I've been trying to make some mental calculations because honestly I've never thought about it too much. Things I wondered were like how much would they need to keep their current salaries, or more if they have that goal, plus some to put towards the next game, potentially. It's honestly not much at all. I don't know if they have a specific goal, but let's keep it modest. Triple what they're currently making, and assuming that the game costs about £30 (it's around the price range of larger indie games). They would only need 180,000 copies sold to sustain it for 5 years. Double that if the game goes on for 10 years. Even with higher amounts, it's still very much possible, I honestly didn't see it this way before.

Feel free to make the amounts more ambitious, but even then, it seems very doable to me. There's no way of knowing how much the game will sell, can't even see the amount of people who have wishlisted it on Steam (although the devs probably can see that). So yeah, maybe they've crunched numbers, were happy with it, and decided to keep the DLC free. If anyone disagrees, I'd love to know the reasoning, maybe I missed something.

Over 120,000 have wishlisted the game on Steam. Usually devs can rely on converting a small percent of those into actual sales. So I guess even if the game flops there's still an easy 10K sales and maybe 250K profit to be made?

Remembering that they haven't invested any of their own money that we know of and that right out of the gate they were pulling in over 50K a month in Patreon donations. That amount has dropped over the years to around the 30K mark but no matter how I look at it I expect they'll make a substantial amount of money from sales and should be able to easily fund development. So yeah, seems doable to me too.

Thanks for linking the posts. I really like the possibilities the togetherness aspect provides, esp. that non actives may refuse to hang because they have their own thing going on.

Nitpicking and poundering aside, can we take a moment and appreciate the vibe the game has going for? It’s like Lofi video when you feel down and very therapistic-friendly mood has it going, where nothing feels oversimulating or hyperenergetic. Its smells like your pal that asked you if you drank enough water and go to sleep earlier.

It does have an overall comfortable vibe and some personality which so far I am not seeing in LBY. All games need that IMO to draw us in.

Looks incredible. This is the life sim I have the most faith in being a quality product. Yes, the devs are very green but they honestly have so much time to figure shit out with a fanbase pouring in money and without a publisher pushing deadlines or forcing terrible decisions. They're also true fans of the genre and it shows with how they've pretty much innovated on all of the standard gameplay mechanics, which in turn also gives the game its own flavor and identity. I'm impressed!

This has finally won me over. And the TS2-reminiscent music is a cherry on top!

I like how they did not show the boring stuff, like working in a caffe because that can be a bit repetitive. The focus was on building relationships and paras' personality. I like how the "chance cards" can surprise the player, like when Anisa was offered a job.

I have a lot of interest in the personality system, but they did not show much of it. I would like to see how vibes and social perks work in the game because those are some interesting ideas.

Also, paras could have habits which is something that sims in TS2 have. For example, one para could like eating ice cream for breakfast while the other para could like to jog particularly in the morning. That is just an idea that came to my mind. Something like an attraction system would be nice too.

"Hooray! I became an accountant! Now watch me handling bills for eight hours!"

I would admire a game that would dare to do this (and probably buy it too, though I don't think I would play it much). Let's face it - most real life jobs are not interesting enough to play; even most of those that are exciting "from inside" are not really interesting "from outside". I prefer rabbit holes, perhaps with some events that would happen outside, like in TS3.

I still don't like how Paras look but the gameplay actually seems great. I really like how skills are grouped into categories so learning one skill will give you a boost to other skills from the same category. Developing relationships also seems fun. And the animations are nice. It boggles my mind how this small indie studio can make much better animations than LBY

The one thing I'm kind of disappointed with is the personality system. I mean... at first glance it looks cool and I like how you can upgrade your Para's personality but it's disappointing that you can only choose one "Vibe" and can't make someone that is e.g. gloomy and anxious or an energetic jester I'm afraid Paras may appear to be very one-dimensional.

I'm not opposed to the concept. I really like the idea of being able to set up a schedule for eating and sleeping! It feels a lot more natural and fitting for a life sim compared to depleting need bars based on actions like a mana bar in an MMO. I actually like the gameplay loop the needs bars create in the Sims 2 though so... dunno.

But again with the huge interface--colored and shaking no less--conveying this information? I'd much rather needs be shown via the para whether that's through thought bubbles and animations like the Sims 2 uses or some other clever visual representation. I absolutely hate the nagging task list of "thoughts" queued up on screen. So solid concept that could be a really refreshing change but, like everything else, it's going to depend on the execution.

I think their appearance is quite appropriate to the scenery and the moodboard all-in-all, but it will take a bigger array of animations for them to really begin to shine and be differentiated from overstylized walking dummies. And I don't mean an opera-inspired pantomime necessarily, unless the context asks for it--just something that you won't be capable of mastering out of visual repetition within less than 5 minutes of gameplay. I think things like this kind of make the game exclaim HI! LOOK! I'M AN INDIE GAME! because it is such a recurring trope and one of those abstract user-experience oriented things that may get easily overlooked when expressing why a game rocks.

I don't think I'll be able to thoroughly enjoy their aesthetic decisions like I should, but my experience and Sim game literacy plays a big part on that. For example, the characters are very reminiscent of a mixture of the 2003 Spider-Man CGI series and WikiHow artwork for me--very fun to look at indeed, and is very fitting to the proposal as something that appears to gravitate to a cozy approach almost exclusively, but it's also very easy for me to zone out and imagine that I am in a WikiHow lifestyle section learning how to assemble my first coffee table and the humanoid, semi-realistic characters are pictured there as acting tutorial props (and they are pre-aware of that), strategically placed and posed to emulate a RL situation, yet you have a hard time immersing. Damn I don't wanna sound psycho here but that's nearly exactly the way I feel about them right now.