Paralives: Green energy, realistic living costs, and child support confirmed for the base game.

Bills and taxes will add strategy and realism, and it’s completely customisable

It’s a fact of life: you’re born, you grow up, and I hate to break it to you, kid, but you pay bills. Why include that in a game? Well, Paralives is a life simulation game, of course, and the developers want to add a touch of challenge and realism. How you decide to live in Paralives will have a direct impact on your Parafolks’ cost of living.

How do bills work? In Paralives, you will receive your bills every 7 days. Bills are broken down into various categories: lot taxes, electricity and water. Many items you buy for your house in Paralives, such as showers and electrical devices, will consume resources, such as water and electricity. Want the fanciest toilet? A huge TV in every room? Well, this all comes at a price, so you must be strategic and consider your household income when furnishing your home. But what if you don’t pay your bills? There will of course be consequences; until you settle your debt, access to utilities for your home will be disconnected.

What about lot taxes? By default, this will be calculated at a certain percentage of your home’s overall value. In addition, it was confirmed that bills will be customisable through the in-game modding tools, so the player will have total control. Want to create a utopia without bills dragging you down? Or perhaps you want to create your very own cost-of-living crisis? Well, Paralives has you covered!

It is also worth noting that the devs are planning to explore in-game scenarios where paying more taxes may result in the town having the funds to organise festivals and other community activities, but this has not been added to the game yet.

Para-living off the grid: Reduce bills and live green by investing in renewable energy

Paralives will include various ways to reduce your bills and your carbon footprint. Certain items such as wind turbines and solar panels will generate surplus energy that you will be able to sell to the city for extra income, resulting in lower energy bills!

The developers have also mentioned they are exploring ways to produce surplus water, though they have expressed that this feature is not yet in the game.

Taking the eco-living concept even further, the dev team have expressed that they wish to add “off the grid” lots that do not require the use of energy to function, which suggests we may see many more off-grid solutions added to Paralives in the future, such as hand-washing the laundry and hanging it out to dry.

Paralives welfare: Child support for families, and possible unemployment support

As seen in the following image, we see the interface for bills can also include welfare payments. In this example, a child allowance payment of 100 Paradimes is granted for each child in the household, which is intended to help with the costs of caring for children in Paralives.

Another idea we are testing is receiving a small amount of money per child who currently lives in your household. This could help players who like to raise big families and need a bit of extra money to buy furniture and various items for the kids.

Alex – Paralives Patreon

Further to child allowance payments, the developers have expressed that they are considering unemployment benefits, meaning that if your Parafolks fall into unemployment, there will be help available from the Para-government.

It is clear to see from these early stages of development that Paralives is striving for a more grounded approach to the life simulation experience and will include a lot of gameplay depth. It is very refreshing to see a healthy dose of realism come to the life sim genre.

Natural disasters, such as storms, could cause power outages

It was confirmed a while back that weather will be included in the base game. While weather is not in the game just yet, the devs have recently teased that they plan for weather to impact gameplay. For example, storms may cause power outages. Did you bring candles?

Paralives, the indie life simulation game inspired by The Sims, has been in development since 2019. No release date has been announced yet, although the game is expected to be released in Early Access some time in the future. We post regular news and updates about the ongoing development of Paralives, so be sure to check back soon!