Life by You release date, news, and everything we know so far
Life by You is a new open-world life simulation game that's already shaping up to be a true rival to The Sims 4. With a variety of customization options and a host of creator tools, developer Paradox Tectonic is striving to deliver the "most moddable and open" life simulation game that will see you create your own families, shape your own stories, and design a world of your own.
First announced back in March during the Paradox Announcement showcase – which also confirmed the upcoming release of Cities: Skylines 2 – Life by You is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated new games for 2023, with an Early Access launch set to arrive later this year. So while we wait for that, here's all the latest Life by You news that you need to know so far.
Life by You release date and platforms
Life by You is currently set to release in Early Access on PC via the Steam and Epic Games storefronts on September 12, 2023. A console release has not yet been announced, but additional platforms "may" be added in the future. As one of the upcoming PC games releasing on Steam, Paradox also confirmed the upcoming life sim hasn't been optimized or tested for the Steam Deck, with no word on whether there are plans to at a later date as of right now.
Life by You trailer
The first Life by You announcement trailer (which you can watch above) that dropped during the showcase gave us our first proper look at the open-world setting and how we can control anyone at any time. It also shows off some of the interactions controllable humans can have along with insight into customization, character creation, and much more. A lot of the features do share similarities with The Sims; the more open feel and use of vehicles to get around (hello skateboards!) brings to mind The Sims 3.
Life by You pre-order
Life by You is currently available to pre-order in Early Access on the Epic Games Store for a lower introductory price of $39.99 / £34.99. Pre-ordering will bag you the limited-time Life Begins Pack, which includes a Jumpstart Fashion Pack with jumpsuits for your characters, a Vintage Scooter vehicle, and the Walls to Floor Decor Pack which adds additional paintings and rugs to decorate with.
Life by You Early Access
As detailed on Life by You's FAQ page, developer Paradox Tectonic expects the life sim to be in Early Access for "at least 12 months" in order to build on and add to the game with players. While the timeframe is subject to change as development progresses, the Early Access period will be used to gather feedback from players "to determine the ideas and content" that will be included in the full launch. The first 100,000 Early Access players will be able to provide feedback on Life By You's private Discord server, where they'll also get to see behind-the-scenes looks "and more".
While a lot of additions will be based on feedback from the community, there's already a wishlist of features the team are currently working on, including further developing and improving children characters in the world, who haven't been fully implemented as of yet. Those who buy the game in early access will not need to repurchase Life by You when it launches in full, but as substantial changes are expected to occur during the Early Access period, saves may be impacted as the team work on changing features and adding fixes. Should anything impact saves, Paradox offers assurance that this will be communicated to players.
"Life is a huge topic, and life simulation is only limited by your imagination," the Paradox Tectonic devs write, "so we know that there's a lot we can add with your input. This is a huge game, we can't wait to keep working on it with you!".
Life by You stories and conversations
Interestingly, Life by You will let you have "real-language conversations" in the world, with a Conversation Editor that will let you craft your own conversations in-game. The screenshot shows a graph of a dialogue tree, with different phrases. Intriguingly, Paradox's official site for the game states that conversations are generated "based on your human's unique situation", which has us wondering how this works in practice.
There will also be different quests and a quest editor in the world that will unlock new experiences, with goals to complete. It sounds as though you'll be able to bring to life a story of your own, and not unlike the sims, you can climb up the career ladder, fall in love, and build up your family. It was also revealed that you'll be able to create custom jobs and careers for your characters in the world.
Life by You customization
What makes the prospect of Life by You so exciting as a true Sims competitor is the amount of customization it looks set to offer. For starters, the new life sim will let you make your own human with its character creator, which has a wealth of features that will let you shape them as you wish. Alongside setting their age and life stage, you also can choose their gender (which includes a non-binary option) and body shape. As well as creating the look of your character, you can also pick personality and character traits, and select a background to help shape their story.
Outside of your controllable humans, you'll also be able to build and customize homes and businesses for them. In fact, you can rearrange the entire town in Town Creator, with an extensive library of existing lots that can be placed down and other creation tools for items, shops, and more to play around with – it looks set to be an open-world that's there for you to craft and mold.
As we've seen in screenshots and the initial trailer, the builder and character creation tools also feature color wheels to customize clothing and decor, which was a beloved feature in Sims games of old.
Life by You Creator Tools
As Paradox is designing Life by You to be the "most moddable" simulation, you'll be able to make your own in-game content through mods. With a variety of creator tools, such as an Object Editor Tool, Paradox is set to reveal more about this aspect of the game on its official YouTube channel in the future.
Life by You open-world
As an open-world simulation, Life by You is said to have no loading screens as you venture about town. From the trailer it looks pretty sizable, with green fields and beaches. Excitingly, there are also different modes of transport options – bikes, cars, buses, and skateboards have been shown off so far.
Life by You system requirements
As a PC release, Paradox listed both the minimum and recommended specs to run Life by Run on your setup, which you can find below:
Minimum Specs
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB / AMD Radeon R9 380 4GB
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- Optimized for 30 FPS
Recommended Specs
- OS: Windows 10/11
- Processor: Intel Core i5-10400F / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- Optimized for 30 FPS
If you're looking for something to keep you busy in the lead up to launch, you can check out our pick of games like the Sims.
No comments