The short version
Five independent switches, not one gender toggle
The train ticket in the bottom right holds gender (Female, Male, Non-Binary) and, behind the three-dot Advanced Personality button beside it, four settings that are independent of both gender and body: pronouns, pregnancy capability, breastfeeding, and what makes this Para jealous. Lifestage sits on the same panel and is the one thing in the whole Paramaker you can never revisit.
Gender
Three buttons, and none of them lock anything
The Paramaker offers three default genders. What matters is what they do not do: the gender you pick has no effect on the body frame, does not filter the clothing catalogue, and does not decide pronouns.
- Female
- Male
- Non-Binary
This is a structural choice, not a cosmetic one. Because there is a single gender-neutral body mesh underneath every Para, the studio never had to build separate catalogues — which is also why every garment in the game fits every Para.
Advanced Personality
The four settings behind the three-dot button
Click the three dots next to the NB button and this panel opens. It is easy to miss entirely, and it is where the most interesting design decisions in the Paramaker live.
| Setting | Options | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Pronouns |
| Sets how the game refers to the Para in text. Independent of the gender button and of the body you sculpted. |
| Pregnancy |
| Decides who can carry. Patch 0.1.6 wired this straight into gameplay: Try for Baby only appears when one Para can get pregnant and the other can get others pregnant, and couples who do not qualify get a want to adopt instead. |
| Breastfeeding |
| A separate switch from pregnancy, so a Para who cannot carry a baby can still feed one. |
| In relationships, get jealous by |
| The setting with the longest reach. It defines what this Para treats as a betrayal, and Never get jealous is what lets an open or polyamorous household run without constant fallout. |
The jealousy setting is a real mechanic
This is the one that separates Paralives from its competition, and it is worth understanding before you build a household around it. Jealousy is not a personality flavour — it is the threshold the game uses to decide whether a Para reacts badly to what their partner just did.
- The strictest option triggers on any physical contact between a partner and someone else, which makes for a genuinely difficult household to run.
- The middle option — kissing or intimacy — is the closest thing to a conventional life-sim default.
- Never get jealous is what makes open and polyamorous households playable without constant fallout. It is set per Para, so one partner can be relaxed while the other is not, and that asymmetry is itself a story.
Names, including the parts other sims skip
Every Para gets a first and last name, both randomisable with the dice. The three-dot button beside Last Name opens display toggles that go further than most character creators bother with.
- Nickname
- First Name
- Middle Name
- Last Name
- Last Name First
Last Name First exists specifically so naming conventions outside the anglophone default read correctly, and the middle name and nickname fields are there for players who write out full family trees. Nicknames had a bug where they were lost on saving a household to the library; patch 0.1.5 fixed it.
Voices
Voice sits under the name and gender options and offers four presets, filtered by lifestage. All voice acting in Paralives is performed in Parli, the game's invented language, so the names describe timbre rather than any spoken language.
Mellow
Performed by: Véronic Rodrigue
Rough
Performed by: Gilbert Lachance
Silky
Performed by: Angie Russo
Smooth
Performed by: Andrei Castañon
The names are deliberately not gendered and are not tied to personality traits — any voice goes with any Para. Pitch sliders and more voice options are promised during Early Access. Voice is not a genetic trait and does not pass to children.
Lifestage is the one setting with no way back
Eight lifestages are selectable at creation. Once a Para exists, this is locked: reopening the Paramaker will not offer it, the mirror route excludes it explicitly, and the only way to move it is the SETAGE console command. Left alone, it advances on its own as the Para ages.
- Baby
- Toddler
- Child
- Preteen
- Teenager
- Young Adult
- Adult
- Elder
Worth planning around: Babies and Toddlers have no visible sliders, so their inherited features only become apparent as they grow. If you are building a family for looks, build the adults first.
Identity questions
- Can you choose pronouns in Paralives?
- Yes. He/Him, She/Her and They/Them are set in the Advanced Personality panel, independently of the Para's gender button and of their body. Click the three dots beside the NB gender option to find it.
- Can any Para get pregnant in Paralives?
- It is a setting, not a consequence of gender or body. Each Para is set to can get pregnant, can get others pregnant, or neither. Patch 0.1.6 tied this directly to gameplay: Try for Baby only appears when one partner can get pregnant and the other can get others pregnant, and couples outside that get a want to adopt instead.
- Does Paralives support polyamory?
- The jealousy setting is what makes it workable. Set a Para to Never get jealous and they will not react badly to a partner's other relationships. It is per Para, so a household can mix strict and relaxed partners.
- How many voices are there in Paralives?
- Four confirmed presets — Mellow, Rough, Silky and Smooth — filtered by lifestage. Pitch sliders and additional voices are planned during Early Access.
- Can you change a Para's lifestage after creating them?
- Not through the interface. Reopening the Paramaker never offers it and the 0.1.5 mirror route excludes it by name. The SETAGE console command is the only route, and our command index flags it as high risk.
- Can you give a Para a middle name or nickname?
- Yes. Both are behind the three-dot button next to Last Name, along with a toggle that displays the last name first.
Keep reading
Where these settings pay off
The Paramaker, tab by tab
The whole creator: screen layout, clothing and the three tabs.
How to have a baby
Where the pregnancy setting actually gates what your Paras can do.
Marriage and proposals
Relationship labels, which are the one thing the editor will not rewrite later.
Paras and lifestages
All eight stages in detail, and the townsfolk who already live in Melino.
Body, face and height
The tab these settings are deliberately independent of.
Paralives vs The Sims
Character creation is where the two games diverge hardest.
Identity options, voices and lifestage rules checked against 0.1.7c on 27 July 2026.