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If you aren't thrilled with what EA has done with The Sims, another alternative is coming soon. The indie passion project Paralives launches in Steam Early Access on December 8.

Paralives has all the hallmarks of the life simulation genre. You can build your character, including physical and personality traits. It lets you make friends, move up in your career, fall in love and start a family (or not!). Design is central, too. You can craft your dream home, move walls and resize that stubby love seat into a full-on couch.

The game uses "innovative build tools that are easy to use but powerful for advanced builders." When designing your living space, you aren't limited to a grid. You can build on curves and customize any object's colors and textures. There's even an in-game measuring tape for those who want to get ultra-precise.

Paralives Studio

The game is the lovechild of Canadian developer Alex Massé, who began the project in 2019. Paralives Studio has now grown to a team of 13 with the sole focus of building "an innovative and fresh life simulation game." It's raised funds exclusively through Patreon. The team's development process is out in the open. You can browse its history and roadmap online, showing the full array of planned features.

Crucially, the young studio says Paralives will never have paid DLC — only free expansions. That's one way to take a shot at The Sims without even mentioning its name. And unlike the glitzy AI-fest inZoi, Paralives emphasizes depth and flexibility over presentation. Its simple and charming art style is a foundation for feeling and connection.

You can see for yourself in the release date trailer below. Grab Paralives on Steam Early Access (PC and Mac) on December 8.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-sims-like-paralives-hits-early-access-in-december-220014257.html?src=rss

We've been getting a real kick out of the offbeat cable TV parody that is Blippo+, which arrived with Playdate's Season Two, and now it's looking like non-Playdate owners will be able to experience the strangeness too later this year. Panic, along with Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot and the artists Yacht, announced at the PC Gaming Show that Blippo+ is coming to PC and Nintendo Switch in fall 2025. And unlike the 1-bit black and white programs we've been tuning into on the Playdate, it'll all be in color.

Blippo+ features a roster of live-action programs that may or may not be alien transmissions, plus a forum called Femtofax that brings you even deeper into the unusual goings-on of the Blippians. Panic revealed with the second week of Season Two games that Blippo+ wouldn't just be a one-off release, but would instead get weekly content updates every week for the next eleven weeks. When it lands on the other platforms, Blippo+ will have "a time-hopping mechanic so viewers can travel back and forth through weeks of TV programming without losing the magic of 'non-demand' linear viewing."

Panic

It's absurd, it's nostalgic — Blippo+ was made with vintage analog broadcast equipment, according to the creators — and it's totally unpredictable. You really never know what madness it's going to serve up next, and it's great. In color, things are only going to get weirder.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playdate-season-2s-blippo-tv-simulator-is-coming-to-nintendo-switch-and-pc-in-color-this-fall-230149046.html?src=rss