Paralives, the new Sims competitor developed by an indie team from Canada, launched in early access on Monday and was an instant hit. It sold 250,000 copies in 8 hours, and it’s currently sitting at an 89 percent positive rating on Steam. And like any good life sim rival, it’s full of very funny bugs.
I’ve played a few hours of Paralives, and it’s a really promising alternative to The Sims. Especially since the dev team guaranteed that there won’t be any paid DLC, just free updates. Pets, weather, and horses are headed to Paralives during its early access period despite being features that players have had to pay more than the cost of an entire copy of Paralives to get in The Sims 4. (Other widely-requested features that never made their way into TS4, like cars, boats, and bikes, are headed to Paralives for free, too).
But of course, in any early-access life-sim like this, there are bound to be issues. I’ve come across a few, like my character, AKA my Para, teleporting after sitting down and getting stuck walking in place for hours at a time. Apparently, I’m missing out on even better glitches., including mysteriously growing stairs:
the house when I finished it yesterday vs today when I opened the game 😭 pic.twitter.com/VrqSyAeWlV
— Wistof (@wistofu) May 26, 2026
Other bugs are just downright terrifying. Mirrors are apparently revealing what Paras look like without skin:
And there’s this naked dude, who just showed up in someone’s bed:
Babies are apparently not exempt from these early-access woes:
I saved the best for last, though. Here’s my absolute favorite:
The Paralives devs told day-one players to expect a bit of early-access jank and also promised that fixes and quality-of-life upgrades are coming between June and September. I imagine there are some players out there who are frustrated with the game’s buggy state at launch, but I’m honestly just thrilled to have a Sims competitor with good bones that isn’t corrupted with genAI like InZOI.
I have to admit that I also find glitches like these pretty charming, at least as long as they get taken care of during the game’s early-access phase. They’re like endearing little throwbacks to when The Sims 3 patch notes used to say bizarre stuff like “kleptomaniac Sims can no longer steal subway stations from lots.”