Life By You: What We Know About The Former Sims Boss' New Game

For years, "The Sims" dominated the life-sim genre as the most comprehensive sim game available. Part of its long-lasting legacy is the amount of creativity fans can exercise in the game, from making narratives with their Sim families to building elaborate architectural marvels – even celeb fans like Keke Palmer enjoy the dollhouse aspect of the game. While farming sim games like "Stardew Valley" and "Story of Seasons" scratch a similar social itch, nothing quite compares to "The Sims." Now, it seems that several games – like Alex Massé's "Paralives – are looking to provide some much needed competition. In fact, one competing life sim creator even has experience with the flagship franchise itself.

Rod Humble formerly worked for EA Games as the Head of the Sims Label, meaning that he was in charge of overseeing the general direction of "The Sims" franchise. Humble even appeared as an NPC in "The Sims 2," showing up at Sims' doorsteps to gift a preview of "The Sims 3." After work at EA, Humble moved to another life sim company, Linden Lab, producer of "Second Life." With all that life-sim experience under his belt, the next move for Humble seems obvious: it's time to make his own game. Here's what we know so far about "Life By You."

As of now, life-sim fans know next to nothing about "Life By You," including when it will arrive. On March 20, Paradox Tectonic livestream a special announcement event to reveal more details about the game and give fans a better picture of what to expect.

For now, all the world has to go on is a short teaser trailer that showed brief glimpses of the in-game world. It only offered a few different views of what the game might be like, showing characters moving about a home, driving a car, and going to a peaceful beach. The trailer also shared glances of a build mode, specifically highlighting the details one could customize on a home. While driving isn't something players could do in "The Sims" per se, much of the trailer's gameplay looks similar to Humble's previous works, and it's still unclear how "Life By You" will set itself apart from the more famous series.

Prospective players might not know much about "Life By You" yet, but it's possible to make some educated guesses about what the game may feature. Paradox Games, which Humble is working with for this project, is known for its strategy and sim games, like "Cities: Skylines." As one of the best city building games available, "Cities: Skylines" offers in-depth control of a town, from its buildings down to its water supply. It's possible that "Life By You" will lean into Paradox's strengths, including more detail in the architectural aspects of the game, like house building and character creation.

Life-sim fans are withholding judgment until Paradox releases more information about "Life By You." Some gamers argued that regardless of what it includes, "Life By You" is a positive step for the genre. "The Sims" has had little to no competition for years, baffling many gamers who would gladly play any number of similar games.

Whoh, addicted CS skylines and love Sims 4 so I am stoked for this. I wouldnt judge the graphics just yet bc it looks like theyre using the CS graphics which made for a city builder so it doesn't use interior building textures... so I assume they're still working on them in dev

— Theresa Serrano (@TheresaSerrano1) March 7, 2023

Others said that the trailer looked more like a proof of concept instead of a final product. The graphics seemed to be placeholders for the real deal, which could be added in as the game continues development. For the most part, life-sim gamers seem happy that "The Sims" is finally getting the competition it deserves.