"The Sims" has been a juggernaut of the PC gaming world since its release in 2000. There are other games based on life management sims, but they have not been able to overtake EA's dominating life simulation series. The upcoming life simulation game "Paralives," produced by Alex Masse, will be the first major competitor to "The Sims."

Paralives is an upcoming indie life simulation funded solely by Patreon donations. It is a management simulation in which players design their homes, create characters, and manage their lives within a simulated city. While clearly heavily inspired by "The Sims" games, Masse describes "Paralives" as focusing on building and designing "dollhouse" homes for parafolk to live in. the Steam page includes advanced building tools, open world living quarters, and fully customizable furniture and characters.

As someone who loves to spend hours building and decorating houses in The Sims, this is a dream come true. judging by the number of donors to Patreon, it is clear that people are eager for another Sims game, It has already attracted 7,000 supporters. Its momentum shows no sign of abating: I checked in on the project last week, and since then the project has gone from $10,000 to over $16,000.

Patreon tiers range from $3 to $50, and patrons get access to the Paralives Discord channel, participation in community polls, HD wallpaper downloads, and access to screenshots in progress (for higher tiers).

It is quite incredible that Paralives is doing so well, considering it is still in the early stages of development. The latest news from the project is the character reveal trailer; Massé has shared many GIFs, screenshots, and descriptions of the game's sophisticated interior design tools, but this is the first time we get to see what Parafolk actually looks like This is the first time we've been able to see what parafolk actually look like.

It will be interesting to see if Paralive can challenge Sims for the title. It definitely looks promising and there is obviously a lot of interest, but it will be quite a while before we know for sure.