Summary

Life By Youis an upcoming life simulator by Paradox Interactive, similar to EA and Maxis’Simsfranchise but with an ambitious approach to customization, city-building mechanics, and storytelling. Launching as a PC early access title on June 26, 2025,Life By Youcomes with a host of featuresdesigned to allow players to customize every part of the game’s world if they choose to, including the people in it, the stories that are told, and the layout and design of the world itself.

Life By Youis an open-world title, but due to its hyperfocus on customization and originality, it will presumably be different from any open-world video game to date. UnlikeThe Sims, which generally allows players to control the lives of their main character’s family,Life By Yougives players an unprecedented level of freedom by allowing them to control any character in the world at any time, taking on their most distinctive characteristics — like their memories, jobs, and hobbies — as a result. This meansLife By You’s open-world will be massive, so players can expect a sizable list of features to accompany it.

Paradox Interactive

Life By You’s Open-World Features Explained

There Are No Loading Screens in Life By You’s Open-World

One of the most standout features ofLife By Youis that there are no loading screens. While manyopen-world gamesstrive to feature worlds without loading screens, it’s not always easy to do, especially if those open-worlds are filled with buildings players can enter. Following the profound statement, “Life doesn’t have loading screens,” Paradox has confirmed that players will be able to travel anywhere inLife By You(including indoors) without encountering any loading screens.

Life By You’s Open-World Is Fully Customizable

As its title suggests,Life By Youis fully customizable in almost every way, and this includes its open-world. InLife By You’s open-world, players can build homes to live in, shops to visit, and full towns for their characters to travel between.Life By You’s open-world will have a variety of things in its world by default, but Paradox has confirmed that everything is editable.

Players Can Travel Anywhere They Can See in Life By You’s Open-World

One of the main selling points ofThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim’s open-worldwas that if players could see it, they could travel to it. As it turns out, Paradox has taken that feature and run with it inLife By You, as players will be able to travel anywhere they can see in the game’s open-world. There will also be plenty of methods of transportation inLife By You, like driving, biking, skateboarding, motorbiking, jogging, and walking. To move, players can either click on a location to make their character move automatically, or they can use “Direct Control” mode to manually take over.

Life By You’s Open-World Will Have Plenty of Things for Players to Do

An open-world game wouldn’t be a true open-world experience without plenty of things for players to do. As such,Life By You’s open-world includes various collectibles for players to discover — like seashells, archaeological finds, etc. — as well as side quests for them to complete. Players can also write their own quests if they wish, which inevitably results in an endless amount of content.

When it comes toLife By You’s open-world, it’s difficult to nail down specific features, as almost the entire game is customizable if players choose to approach it that way. However, with no loading screens, plenty of activities, and the ability to travel almost anywhere, it takes thetraditional open-world modeland ups the ante for a bigger, more flexible experience better suited for its premise than those of other open-world games.