Life By You aims to compete with The Sims with deeper role-play

Although loosely defined as life sims it has evolved into many different forms. Stardew Valley complemented its farming aspects with relationship-building among its townsfolk. Animal Crossing – New Horizons brought Nintendo’s charm and approachability to an island escape. Second LifeTrue to its name. The Sims 3D World allowed you to build 3D models, create avatars and interact with others. Yet for all of its loose criteria and nebulous labels, no series stands as monolithic in the category as The Sims; for 23 years, its god’s-eye-view of AI characters going about their daily lives has become all but synonymous with the genre. You Are The Life You WantParadox Tectonic’s recently released life simulation, titled, will compete. It places a greater emphasis on language, memory and role-playing between the characters you create.

That’s not to say that role-playing is new to life sims; far from it. Sims 4’s recent expansion Growing Together added a slew of likes and dislikes to characters’ emotional palettes, increasing the likelihood of dramatic encounters and emergent storylines. (Polygon’s Cass Marshall became embroiled in a feud with a baby.) But You Are The Life You Want Most people are now interested in role-playing. The entire area can be personalized. You can alter your belongings, down to the material of the furniture in your characters’ homes. Importantly, however, you can have characters speak real languages and not the Sims-created language.

Image: Paradox Tectonic/Paradox Interactive

“We’ve tried to extend the depth of the gameplay at every level,” Rod Humble, head of Paradox Tectonic and lead on You Are The Life You WantPolygon, by the Game Developers Conference. “And language in human interactions plays such an important part in all of the stories you want to tell. Wittgenstein said ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world.’ And I kind of buy into that. You need your characters to be able to express themselves directly — to each other, and to you.”

Humble said the game will feature English when it launches in early access in September, while Spanish, German, and French should be localized by the time of the game’s full launch. Paradox Tectonic hopes modders will take advantage of the opportunity to make the game more regional or add new languages.

You Are The Life You Want’s lead is no stranger to the life sim genre. Humble is the former head of Electronic Arts’ The Sims label, as well as the former CEO of Second Life developer Linden Labs. It’s hard to imagine any designer with more varied experience in this arena.

“Game designers can be whatever they want, obviously,” he said. “Some prefer to be more artful. My preference is to be an architect and game designer. You make this beautiful building, even though you can’t know what people will do in every single room in the future.”

Image: Paradox Tectonic/Paradox Interactive

You Are The Life You Want’s character creation will be limited to one “household,” which Humble said will be around 8 or 10 people. Right-clicking on any character can give you instant access to their memories, preferences, and dislikes. You can then follow their life. I’m reminded of Watch Dogs Legion’s character swapping.

Figures You Are The Life You Want will remember what Humble calls “observables.” Effectively, these responses will affect how characters, as well as their extended social, professional, and romantic circles, perceive someone over time. Humble gives the example of someone peeing in their pants or showing up late for work. A co-worker may notice their tardiness, and comment on it at a dinner party later that evening to a friend who happens to be the latecomer’s boss. Even though the boss may not have seen their employee arrive late for work, they can still change their mind. This, in turn, can affect the employee’s chances at a future promotion.

Image: Paradox Tectonic/Paradox Interactive

Between Humble’s expertise and the resources, acumen, and knowledge pool of publisher Paradox and its studios, which have routinely released quality games with years of subsequent DLC and expansions, You Are The Life You Want Paradox seems to be more likely than other competitors in recent years to attract Sims gamers. This isn’t even the first time that Paradox has entered an arena already dominated by a Maxis title: Colossal’s excellent Skylines for Cities The release was not long afterwards SimCity’s A disastrous launch for 2013.

“As a team, our emphasis is on openness,” Humble said. “If you see a barrier, we want to give you the keys to unlock that barrier.”

You Are The Life You Want On September 12, Windows PC will release an early access title.