Episode
#62. The State of the Modern Life Sim (feat. Paralives)
- Podcast
- Indieventure
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 6374
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://indieventurepodcast.podbean.com/e/62-the-state-of-the-modern-life-sim-feat-paralives/
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Summary
The gang are all back together at last after our various summer hols, and we're happy to welcome the return of Liam after his absence from our last episode. Naturally, our first order of business is to get him all caught up on what he missed during the mid-year check-in, so we begin with a quick-fire chat that takes in Mina the Hollower, El Paso Elsewhere 2, Denshattack!, Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!, The Mermaid Mask, and – not indie, but unignorable given who we're talking about – Resident Evil Veronica. Then it's onto the main topic of this episode and, unbelievably, despite being co-created and co-hosted by a lifelong obsessive Simmer, it's taken Indieventure almost three years to put together an episode dedicated to the life sim genre. However, the early access launch of Paralives a few weeks back has given Rebecca the excuse she's always needed to go off at length about her excruciatingly detailed knowledge of life sims, how they work, how they're made, and how the genre has developed and adapted to the changing gaming landscape over the past quarter-century. Many thanks to Liam, Rachel, and you, our lovely listeners for indulging this semi-interactive TED talk, and be sure to check out the Sims Community interview quoted in this episode! Naturally you can expect some illegal AAA chat here too as it's more or less impossible to discuss Paralives in context without regularly referring back to The Sims franchise as well as InZoi; but don't worry, we also circle back to perennial Indieventure favourite and underappreciated indie life sim Tiny Life while we're at it. There might even be a Stardew Valley cameo in there somewhere, too. And like a cooling dip in the pool during Britain's third consecutive heatwave, we round off with our latest hyperfi…