Life By Youis a highly anticipated life simulation game that’s been dubbed as a worthy rival toThe Simswith its immersive open-world features. However, theParadox Interactiveand Paradox Tectonic title is also experiencing a number of delays, with the latest being just weeks before its scheduled early access release date.
In a statement, Paradox Interactive Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja announced thatLife By Youwas being delayed for a third timebecause the game needed more development time. He said that they aren’t announcing a new release date just yet as they don’t want to commit to a date that they won’t be able to meet, so expectant gamers will have to wait for future updates onLife By You’s progress. The delays are understandably concerning for many, but this might still be a good sign for the game.
Life By You’s Immersive Features May Need Time to Perfect
Thehighlight ofLife By Youis that it can simulate every secondof characters' lives, which will allow players to control every character’s actions and decisions for a truly immersive experience. Even if players aren’t paying attention to certain NPCs, they will still take the initiative to accomplish milestones, like getting married.Life By Youdevelopers from Paradox Tectonic also removed loading screens to give players an open-world experience, and let characters live in almost real time up to 75+ in-game years. This is an ambitious feat for Paradox Tectonic and publisher Paradox Interactive, which is known for immersive simulation titles likeCities: Skylines.
A life simulation game of this size and caliber will certainly need a lot of time to refine, especially withLife By You’s comprehensive featuresfor character dialogue and relationships. So, it’s understandable that the developer would want the game to work properly, even if it’s just for early access release. It might also help ifLife By Youopened playtesting, just like whatProject Renedoes, to gather constructive feedback from players on what developers should tweak and change before the full release. Calling for a delay is definitely better than putting out an unfinished or potentially unplayable product, which is a mistake that many developers have committed in the past.
Life By You’s Graphics and Character Design Might Get an Overhaul
WhenLife By Youfirst shared screenshots and gameplay clips, many people were quick to point out that the graphics and character models looked subpar, especially compared toThe Sims 4and otherupcoming life sims likeParalives. Although many were excited to see how it differs from theSimsfranchise, they weren’t fans of Paradox Interactive’s design choices. This is important because one ofLife By You’s biggest draws is its Creator Tools, which lets players edit characters, conversations, and objects, which would need good graphics to make the details truly stand out.
While it isn’t confirmed that Paradox Interactive would make major adjustments to the character and world design, people’s initial impressions might have an impact on the game’s current development. These possible adjustments could affect how the game would run, like how new character builds would affect how they move inLife By You’s worldand how adjusting the world design would affect some of its open-world features. If the developer does decide to change or improve onLife By You’s graphics, it would mean that the work might take months or years to finish, and would push back the early access release even further.
Delays are unfortunate in the gaming world, and there have been many instances wherein games don’t see the light of day after multiple delays or when they get stuck in development hell. Hopefully, Paradox Interactivemanages to push throughLife By You’s challenges and uses the time to develop a great life sim that changes the way gamers see the genre.
