Paralives delayed into 2026 as designer explains that life sims are "really 3 games in one"

Playtests reveal some "impactful bugs" and a shortage of town activities

Woe unto people who like making smaller, prettier versions of themselves kiss: the Paralives developers are delaying their homey life sim following playtests, to fix some bugs and fill out the game's town with activities. Paralives had been due in early access this December, but will now launch on May 25th 2026.

In a statement on Patreon, primary developer and game designer Alex Massé observed that making a life sim is tough. "I started this project wanting it to be a fresh and indie take on the doll-house life simulation genre, which had not been tackled by many game developers," he wrote. "I attribute this partly to the fact that a project like Paralives is a colossal task."

"Life sims are really 3 games in one: an advanced and flexible build mode, a greatly customizable character creator and a complex life simulation mode," he went on. "Over the last 6 years of development, starting with 2-3 developers for the first years, to growing to an average team size of only 10 people, we had to alternate long stretches of development between those 3 parts of the game.

"We are so proud of what we have built," Massé continued, "but now, we just need a bit more time to polish the simulation part of the game. This would ensure Paralives offers a great first experience when it launches, making players come back for every exciting free update and expansion that we will put out afterwards."

The devs have updated their roadmap with planned improvements and fixes rolling into next May. They'll also host an uninterrupted 45 minute livestream of the game on November 25th, talking viewers through the current version's deficiencies.

The traditional life sim genre continues to be dominated by The Sims, but in the long, DLC-heavy gap between The Sims 4 and whatever The Sims 5 turns out to be - EA don't seem entirely sure themselves - there have been several new contenders. The vampirically photogenic InZoi left our early access reviewer Jay Castello unimpressed. Paradox's Life By You seemed promising but ultimately died a death, taking developers Tectonic down with it, though the Crusader Kings 3 publishers have told us that they're up for trying again.

Delays notwithstanding, I still have a good feeling about Paralives. It seems tranquil in a way that might offset any complaints about scanty simulation elements. Alice Bee (RPS in peace) painted a glowing picture of the project back in 2020.