Paralives is the upcoming, highly anticipated indie life simulation game from Alex Massé and team and the Paralives Studio. Having been in development for the last few years and following a slight early access launch change, we are now about two weeks away from it releasing via Steam.
In 2019, we saw the first glimpses of what Paralives was planning and hoping to be. Through a series of regular updates through Patreon, Alex and the team have since shared hundreds of posts detailing their development journey from the early days right up to their early access launch.
Paralives has always been a game that many life simulation players have been eagerly anticipating. In an era when we’ve seen The Sims as the traditional leader of the genre, Paralives is one of many to offer an alternative for players to experience.
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What Exactly Is Paralives?
As per the Paralives website, the game is described as an upcoming dollhouse style life simulation game which will be launching on PC and Mac.
Have a look at the full game description below:
Paralives is an upcoming dollhouse life simulation indie game for PC and Mac. In Paralives, you are free to build homes, create characters and manage their lives inside their homes and all around an open world town. The game features innovative build tools that are easy to use but powerful for advanced builders. The simulation mode allows players to explore a city full of events, people to meet and ways to make their Parafolks evolve and live a happy life (or not, if they choose to)!
Building a dream house requires a lot of flexible tools. In Paralives, builders are not limited to a grid. Players can build walls of any length and at any angle. Your perfect house contains curved walls? Paralives has the tools for that. You want to recreate your real life home? Use the in-game measuring tape to recreate the exact dimensions! You can also fully customise object colours and textures, as well as the size of windows and furniture. Just select an object, pull the corner anchors and make that window larger or upgrade that single bed to a king bed!
Creating the best life for your Parafolks couldn’t be possible without enjoying what the town has to offer beyond the walls of their houses. That’s why Paralives lets you explore a cosy open world neighbourhood filled with shops, parks, workplaces and other interesting spots to discover and meet people.
The name Paralives is a reference to parallel lives, allowing players to live different virtual lives and build homes to stage them.
Via Paralives
Curious? Here’s the most recent trailer, which was shared for the original early access launch back in December 2025, however, remains much the same.
Key Game Features at Launch
How about that Paralives trailer? It looked good, right?
Despite the initial early access release delay, the Paralives Studio team has continued to work hard to get it ready for its upcoming alternative release date. While this is an early access launch, it’s still going to be packed full of features to explore, which include the following:
- Explore an open-world town filled with shops, parks, restaurants and museums
- Create Parafolks of all looks and styles
- Find a job and try out flexible career progression paths
- Discover unique personality traits, skills, wants, needs and emotions
- Find love and make friends, or enemies
- Multiselect Parafolks and do anything as a group
- Grow up, have children and live a long life
- Enjoy the customization and flexibility of our house-building tools
- Experiment with our in-game modding interface to edit or add content to the game
- Find community-made mods, houses and Parafolks through the Steam Workshop
Future Features for Early Access
With Paralives quickly approaching its Early Access release date of 25th May 2026, the Paralives team isn’t stopping there. Confirmed on the Steam listing page for the game, there’s still a whole host of features being planned to be added during this time. These include:
Even based on the information that we know from the Paralives website and Steam page and the information that the team has shared, there’s plenty still to come from Paralives once the game launches.
- Weather and Seasons
- Gardening and Fishing
- Cats, Dogs and Horses
- Swimming and Pools
- Boats and Houseboats
- Cars and Bikes
- Calendar System
- Family Tree
- Social Events – Parties and Weddings
- Story Progression for NPCs
- Town Editing Tools
- More Jobs and Careers
- More Personality Traits, Wants and Emotions
- and plenty more!
Pricing and Launch Platforms
At launch, Paralives will be launching on Steam for PC and Mac. Currently there is no information if a later console release is planned.
As for the game’s early access launch pricing, it is $39.99/£33.50 and will vary depending on Steam’s regional pricing for your location. This was recently covered in a short FAQ video from the team.
Game Requirements
Interested in possibly playing Paralives when it launches next month? Here are the recommended and minimum system requirements for the game.
PC Minimum System Requirements
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 @ 2.5 GHz
- Memory: 12 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 1060 or RX 6600 XT
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 8 GB available space
PC Recommended System Requirements
- OS: Windows 11
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 @ 3.0 GHz
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: RTX 2060 or RX 7600 XT
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 8 GB available space
macOS Minimum System Requirements
- OS: macOS Big Sur 11 (or newer)
- Processor: Apple M2
- Memory: 12 GB RAM
- Graphics: Apple M2
macOS Recommended System Requirements
- OS: macOS Big Sur 11 (or newer)
- Processor: Apple M3
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Apple M3
My Thoughts on Paralives
Based upon what I’ve been seeing from following the game’s development, it’s likely to be a game I will pick up around its launch. It’s certainly a game I’m interested in, having grown up primarily playing life simulation games.
I’m excited and curious to see how Paralives works from both a storytelling perspective, building it, and a general, overall gameplay experience. The art style is lovely and adds to what makes Paralives stand out, the features showcased will help my Parafolk and I share a fun and adventurous life, and the soundtracks shared on YouTube fit wonderfully with the Paralives vision.
It’s always interesting to see a new and upcoming game share and launch their approach to a genre, especially when it’s been mainly just one or two games that have been at its core for such a long time. Is it competition against The Sims? In a way, yes, if you look at the formalities, however, if you’re looking as a player, it could be either way. In fact, you could almost look at it in the same way as when inZOI launched last year. Anyway, I digress, as that’s a topic for another day.
Are you planning on playing Paralives when it releases in a couple of weeks’ time? Or is this the first time you are discovering the game? Let me know down in the comments section!
