When is the Life by You release date? If you’re a fan of The Sims, Second Life, and all things simulation, then Rod Humble’s latest crack at the life sim genre should be music to your ears.
Unveiled during the Paradox Interactive 2023 showcase, Life by You feature all the best life game hallmarks, including a variety of locations to explore, character interactions, and a wealth home-building and design tools to play with. Here’s everything you need to know about the Life by You release date, along with the latest trailers, news, and gameplay for what could potentially be one of the best PC games for life sim lovers.
Life by You early access release date
The Life by You release date is now Tuesday, June 4, 2024 following a three-month delay. An early access Discord server has been announced, with limited sign-ups lasting just a week, so presumably this has something to do with gaining access to the game.
Sign-up invites for the Early Access Discord are being emailed out to members of the Life By You mailing list starting on April 15, 2024, so make sure you’re signed up to receive emails if you want the chance to be involved.
According to Paradox Tectonic general manager Rod Humble, the early access delay was is to give the team more time to address community feedback concerning bugs, performance stability, and character art ahead of the early access launch.
Life by You was originally slated for release on September 12, 2023, but subsequent delays have caused it to miss that window. The first Life by You delay pushed the release into March 2024 to “improve the game’s visuals and UI”, while the second delay was announced by Rod Humble on February 2, 2024, who lifted the lid on exactly what the team would be working on during this time.
Paradox has confirmed that Life by You will remain in early access for a minimum of 12 months, though this length of time is also subject to change depending on player feedback. Life by You is currently available to preorder on the Epic Games Store, though it’s also available on Steam to wishlist or purchase following the release date.
Life By You preorder bonus
Life by You has several preorder bonus packs: the Life Begins Pack, which includes the Jumpstart Fashion and Walls to Floors Decor packs, as well as the Vintage Scooter vehicle. Rod Humble has also confirmed an additional Nightclub Vibe Pack to thank early adopters for their patience following the delayed early access launch, which includes furniture.
The first 100,000 players to preorder Life by You will also receive an invite to a private Life by You Discord server.
Life By You trailers
The Life by You teaser trailer debuted as part of Paradox Interactive’s show, announcing the follow-up event dedicated specifically to the simulation game. This short clip blends in-game footage with some UI elements. Even though the trailer is short and sweet, there’s plenty to uncover.
The trailer opens by panning over a lush green environment where two figures can be seen hiking and doing yoga. This is your first glimpse at the world Life by You is set in. Throughout the teaser, a series of realistic locations are explored from a top-down perspective, including a town center with a shop and bus stop, as well as residential suburbs and a beach, complete with watersports equipment and lazing punters. From the trees swaying in the wind to the waves coming to shore, Humble and co have grounded Life by You in an environment that imitates the real world.
Further in, multiple vehicles can be seen motoring along, most notably a pink car that races through the town center. Here, a bus and multiple motorcycles are also visible, indicating that players may get a choice of vehicles to use in Life by You, at least when they’re moving between locations.
Another quick cut takes us to a home full of character interactions to pick apart. In the top left corner of the home, an adult character can be seen watering plants while a kid walks past the stairs. Most notably here, we can see two characters hugging with love heart motifs surrounding them, suggesting that Life by You may feature in-game relationship mechanics similar to The Sims.
Later in the trailer, we also see a figure washing (or maybe fixing)a kitchen appliance that looks like a microwave, suggesting that homes will be full of interactable tools for your simulated characters to tinker with. The most interesting section of the trailer shows us what looks to be part of Life by You’s UI. We see the outside of a family home getting some speedy renovations, with a budget visible in the top right corner.
Along the side screen, there are a large number of building icons, including a ‘floor plan’ node and symbols that indicate stairs, chairs, doors, windows, fences, roofs, and more. It looks like players will be able to click on the many features of a house to modify them and move between its floors to decorate and change it.
The Life by You announcement trailer launched as part of the announcement event and showcased an expansive open world in which different characters live out their lives. From regular household chores like cooking and doing laundry to romancing each other and stumbling upon treasure on the beach, the world really does seem to be your oyster.
The trailer also featured some of the various shops that your characters can both visit and run themselves. There are sneak previews of various creator tools, including the Human Creator, Lot Creator, Town Creator, and more. Perhaps one of the biggest changes from its Sims counterpart is the ability to take direct control of your characters, allowing you to get up close and personal instead of directing them from a top-down perspective.
Life by You gameplay
On the surface, Life by You bears a strong resemblance to The Sims. It’s no wonder, considering the CEO of Paradox Tectonic is none other than Rod Humble, the previous executive producer and head of The Sims. Humble played a significant part in the production of The Sims 2 and 3, leaving in 2011 to be the CEO of Second Life, the avatar-focused free MMO. In 2019, Paradox Interactive announced that Humble would be taking on the role of head of Paradox’s Berkeley studio to work on a project we now know as Life by You.
Humble spoke to PCGamesN about his future projects back in 2020, saying, “We’re trying to make a very vast experience in which, hopefully, people will find and create beauty.” After the announcement trailer, it’s easy to see what Humble was pointing to when he gave that answer.
Life by You meets the classic life simulator criteria: create a human and watch them live out the life you shape for them. Perhaps you’d like them to settle down and start a family, or doggedly climb the corporate ladder? Whatever their path in life, they’ll undoubtedly need to interact with other people to make their dreams a reality. Conversations are more important than ever in Life by You, since they’re shaped by your chosen human’s personality and background – and their outcome will likely have some bearing on how the events of their lives play out.
The Life by You trailers are full of hints about what we might expect from your humans as they develop. They include snapshots of characters partaking in yoga and hiking, suggesting a wide variety of skills and personality traits are on offer in the Human Creator. The teaser trailer includes a character tinkering with a kitchen appliance, so we can safely assume that environments and items within households will benefit from your chosen skills.
Speaking of homes, your humans will also need a place to live. Life by You comes furnished with a suite of design tools, though this doesn’t stop at interior decor. If you’re looking for a macro approach to housing development, you can rearrange and even demolish towns at your leisure. We’ve also spotted a range of locations available to players in the teaser trailer. What’s more, a car, bus, and motorbike shop point to the possibility of a more open-world take on the life sim genre. Life by You has already taken a monumental step ahead of The Sims with the promise of driveable vehicles, and no loading screens to interrupt your traversal of the sandbox game.
Life By You mod support
Paradox Tectonic has also confirmed dedicated mod support for Life by You, and promising a range of in-game creator tools and editors that allow players to create their own content and reshape the base game to their liking. Given that Sims 4 mods have successfully fostered an ongoing community almost a decade after its release, it stands to reason that Life by You will benefit from tapping the creative well of its own budding community.
The official Life By You Twitter account confirmed that more details on mod support will be coming to Paradox’s website in the coming months. The devs want to create guidelines for both experienced and first-time modders to ensure everyone can get involved.
Can’t wait for the Life By You release date? Our guide to the best games like The Sims has some alternatives you can try, or perhaps a relaxing game is more up your street. Before diving into the new Sim game, we’d advise checking out Life by You system requirements. Doing so should help prevent any performance hiccups while designing homes for your digital humans. We’ve also got all the latest details on The Sims 5 release date, also known as Project Rene.