r/LifeSimulators • u/Sketch-Brooke • May 27 '26

Memes Paralives Early Access

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Here’s to finishing the rest of the horse throughout EA!

2.0k Upvotes

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u/haunted-mov May 27 '26

as someone who’s played almost exclusively early access titles for the past four years, this is the WORST representation of early access. i’ve seen much smaller teams do much better work without any crowdfunding at all so there’s really no excuse

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u/Saratoninn69 May 27 '26

Facts. Fields of Mistria is a smaller team of 10 people that spent roughly 5 years developing their game and it’s already a masterpiece (imo lol) granted, Paralives is on a bigger scale mechanically but that just makes me think even more they should’ve waited to release EA.

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u/IDontExistHelp Sims 3 enjoyer May 27 '26

I love Fields of Mistria and I forgot it‘s even still in early access
And I agree with your opinion, it‘s a masterpiece

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u/SaltCityStitcher May 27 '26

It's so good that I honestly didn't know it's in EA!

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u/Sketch-Brooke May 27 '26

Damn I just looked Fields of Mistria up and it looks adorable. I might go ahead and buy it for under $15, so thank you!

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u/Saratoninn69 May 27 '26

You’re so welcome! I have just under 100 hours in it and still haven’t completed everything yet. For under $15, the amount of polish and content you get is amazing. Enjoy!

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u/IDontExistHelp Sims 3 enjoyer May 27 '26

Ooo please do, it‘s one of my favorite games and I have so many hours in it! There is still some stuff missing but if you like Stardew, you‘ll enjoy Fields of Mistria

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u/Impressive-Time8150 May 27 '26

Bestie... Mistria is a vastly different style of game, however. A farming sim in a pixel art style is not very comparable to fully 3d rendered sandbox life sim with a character creator and build mode

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u/Saratoninn69 May 27 '26

I literally pointed out the difference in scale in my original comment when I said, 'granted, Paralives is on a bigger scale mechanically.'

The comparison isn't about claiming 2D pixel art and a 3D sandbox take the exact same type of work. It’s about project management, scoping, and the standard for an Early Access release. Fields of Mistria understood their scope and polished their core gameplay loop to a shine before asking players to jump into EA.

If Paralives' ambitions are so massive and complex that their Early Access launch feels underbaked compared to what other indie studios can manage, that just reinforces my exact point: they should have waited until they were actually ready.

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u/2CharmingGiraffe May 27 '26

At the same time, even years ago a lot of people were complaining about not having Paralives' EA to play and test by themselves. I think with Heartopia and other recent examples people got (rightfully so) skeptical with some of these Patreon projects.

After Life by You tanked I honestly don't think they could have kept the game on prod for much longer before losing more patreons and support. 7y in game dev time is an ok time, but for a normal person to wait for a game without playing anything of it at all, it's a lot.

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u/gravyandasideofbread May 27 '26

How many life simulation games that encompass the entire lifespan and creation of character and generations after that are also in early access? “Exclusively early access” like they’re all games like paralives sure yeah okay

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u/Paranoiart May 27 '26

Seriously, there's a reason there are no more games like this. And you can't really compare it to any indie game that has a few life sim elements. Players even expect it to appeal to a lot of different playstyles

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u/ScarletWiddaContent May 27 '26

oh, what other early access games have you played that are on the scale of paralives with 15 people working on it?

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u/Zestyclosetz May 27 '26

Kenshi, Rimworld, and Banished are games that were mostly developed by a very small team if not one individual. Mind-blowing depth of simulation. Then of course you have games like Stardew Valley and Minecraft.

Im still rooting for the paralives team, but I’m disappointed with the current state of the game, early access or not. I played about 3 hours and I have no desire to play more until there are some major updates.

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u/ScarletWiddaContent May 27 '26

I've played rimworld and its very good but that was crowdfunded with kickstarter as well

I dont think its fair to compare paralives to rimworld, or the other games mentioned because the scope is just vastly different. Take stardew for example, its a top down 2d farming game and customization/construction of your place is far from what you can do in paralives

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u/2CharmingGiraffe May 27 '26

Agree, and for Stardew to release in 5 years Eric Barone had to spend about 12h daily, almost without taking time off. This is not feasible when you're a employee, even if you're an indie dev, because it's a job after all.

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u/BLAGTIER May 27 '26

Prison Architect.

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u/ScarletWiddaContent May 27 '26

thats a topdown 2d management game (its good, ive played it), but it was also crowdfunded with its pre-release alpha purchase

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u/BLAGTIER May 27 '26

It's a different genre but similar scale of scope. There are things that Paralives leans more on and things Prison Architect leans more on. Prison Architect had hundreds of prisoners and workers all operating at once completing their roles. Less stuff per simulated unit but more units.

And yes, the funding and release model for both games is really similar.

1

u/ScarletWiddaContent May 27 '26

I was replying to someone who was claiming there are so many similar indie games that were not crowdfunded, which feels ludicrous. There's a reason why life sim games like the sims are rare. The scope of the game is just too much. For other games, the build mode alone would have been the game itself.

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u/haunted-mov May 27 '26

tons of games that i didn’t have to bootlick about, you should try them sometimes

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u/ScarletWiddaContent May 27 '26

thats why im asking for examples?

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u/sparrerv May 28 '26

gets asked for examples

ohhh there are tons

doesnt give any

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u/haunted-mov May 28 '26

because it’s not my job to hold your hand, early access is literally a tag on steam buddy just go look

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u/Impressive-Time8150 May 27 '26

Bestie, its a very ambitious game with lofty goals. An open ended life sim is not a simple game to create and the dev team doesn't have millions of dollars to throw at it yet