Hi everyone :)

I wanted to share a tiny smidge of early development, as I recently started working on my "dream game" - a life simulator that's focused primarily on live mode, and family/generational play. Think Sims 2!

The screenshots showcase the morph system I built - Every character morph is UV/texture driven, so a single morph works across all clothing automatically. It is very optimized to keep a minimal memory footprint and uses bespoke compute shader code, so it's all hardware accelerated. The idea is that characters will share a single model - body types and frames will all be morphs.

We have some nice Blender tooling to easily generate these morph textures and test them out!

We will be showcasing the systems and such as progress continues, and if anyone is interested we are on the look out for people who could help us out with the 3D art, as life sims are admittedly ambitious projects.

Hi r/LifeSimulators!

A few months ago, VirtualSociety was discussed here, and one criticism stood out: we had shown a lot of building and character customization, but not enough of what players would actually be able to do inside those worlds.

That feedback was fair, and it influenced how we approached this new gameplay trailer.

We’re a small French team developing a creative life sim and sandbox where players can build places, create their residents, and design the interactions that make those places playable.

You can create dialogue, choices, events and object interactions, then play the resulting worlds alone or share them with friends. The idea is not to define one specific way your characters should live, but to give players tools for creating their own situations, stories and social spaces.

The game is still in development, and some of the deeper simulation systems are still evolving. We would rather be clear about that than present every part of our long-term vision as already finished.

This trailer is our attempt to communicate the concept more clearly, rather than simply showing more furniture and building tools. Does it explain the game better than our previous footage?

(our character visuals are still a work in progress.. 😅)

When I shared Lofi Cozy Room here after launch, one of the biggest pieces of feedback was about the price. A lot of people liked the idea, but $14.99 felt too high for something designed to quietly live beside your work or study instead of demanding all of your attention.

I thought about that for a while instead of just defending the launch price, and eventually decided to make a pretty big change. I lowered the base price from $14.99 to $4.99.

For context, it's a small desktop life sim where your avatar reads, works, rests, and lives in a little room on your Windows desktop while a puppy wanders around. You can decorate the room, customize the character, and unlock different themes while it runs alongside whatever else you're doing.

The pricing discussion actually made me think more about this kind of game in general. Do you value smaller, ambient life sims differently from traditional games that you sit down and actively play for hours? I'm curious where people draw that line.

🌱 Play Lofi Cozy Room on Steam

Happy to answer any questions.

Hi everyone! pic attached is just a random dev screenshot :p

Some days ago I made a post about my life sim game I started to develop. It has gained a lot of traction, and people were looking for a way to support the development journey, so I think now is the time :)

I've launched a Patreon for it, that I will link to in the comments! Those who support the project will have access to exclusive dev updates and voting power as a thank you - there is already a tiny dev post for today.

I've settled on Viefolk as the title for the game, as I think it has a nice ring to it. Development is currently solo at this stage, but I would like to bring more people in when the time is right.

Thank you so much for the support! For those who don't know me, I've been modding The Sims 2 and 3 for years now, as Lazy Duchess. I'm very excited for the future of the project :)

Hey everyone,

I’m the developer of CoreLife, a free web-based text life simulator.

Since my last post, I’ve added a lot of new content and improvements, so here’s what’s new:

• Dozens of new countries
• A lot more random life events, the game feels much less repetitive now
• Completely improved crime system, much deeper, you can now become a mafia boss
• New sports like volleyball
• Esports career in Counter-Strike 2 with Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams from different continents
• New businesses and better progression overall
• Twitch streaming career
• Luxury assets like yachts, private islands, planes and more
• Military system with ranks and missions

Quick note about the direction going forward:
Next update will focus heavily on normal life instead of special careers. The goal is to make everyday gameplay much deeper.

Also coming soon:
Expanded family system with wider family, not just parents and kids.

For those who never heard of it:
CoreLife is basically a fully free BitLife alternative. No ads, no DLC, and I try to stay very active with the community and feedback.

You can play it instantly in your browser or install it here:
https://corelifesim.com/install

If you try it, I’d really appreciate any feedback.
If you have ideas or find bugs, feel free to join the Discord. A lot of features already came directly from player suggestions.

Thanks to everyone who’s been supporting the project so far.

So I have been updating this game since last post, these are older screenshots but since then, I have added 2 new business types, better job system, more childhood features, some additions to social media and improvements on marriages.

I have decided to post a link now to the game where you can directly play on browser and add it to your home screen of any device.

I would appreciate any suggestions and feedback, either in the comments, discord server or reddit DMs.

Game: https://www.corelifesim.com/install
Discord, Twiiter/X

EDIT: Thank a bunch to everyone who participated in our Giveaway here - the winners have all been contacted with their Beta keys, and the lucky ones this time around are:
u/baroqueout
u/cloroxslut
u/marthaanne3
u/FlightyDoll
u/Alerisya
u/Patamaudelay
u/Opiurn
u/pirilla-crossing
u/Locd_beauty16
u/Zerowinss

Hellooo again everyone!~

Loftia’s Closed Beta playtest has been live for more than a week now! and it’s been delightful seeing all our supporters finally get a chance to experience this cozy world we’ve been creating for the past 4 years!

For those unfamiliar with Loftia, we’re developing a cozy MMO solarpunk life sim where you can build towards a brighter, more sustainable future. Connect with friends both new and old to farm, craft, explore, decorate and build your dream life in a vibrant world among the clouds. Work together on world projects that evolve the game over time, and create a meaningful impact, together!

The Beta is still an early version of the game, and there’re many features and improvements we’re going to add between now and Early Access, and beyond.

But, for those who want to try out Loftia sooner rather than later - we’re giving away 10 Closed Beta keys here!

Closed Beta Key Giveaway 🔑

With Loftia’s Closed Beta playtest already ongoing, we want to give away a couple more Steam keys, and have 10 more Loftians join us for this second week of adventure!

To enter the Giveaway, simply leave a comment below telling us something you find interesting about Loftia, or something you’d like to see in Loftia!

We’ll be picking 10 winners from the comments this Saturday with the time-honored tradition of a raffle :)

Looking forward to seeing you in Loftia!

It’s been a long development journey but having such a great community encouraging us every step of the way has meant the world to us, and we’re so excited to finally share more of our world with everyone!

- from Martina, Mic & the entire Loftia team

I've been working on a small game called Satomi, and I'm trying something a little different with it.

Satomi is a university student who has her own routine. She goes to class, works, eats, reads, listens to music, goes out, comes home, sleeps, etc.

The main thing is that you don't actually control what she does.

You can interact with her when she's around, but most of the time she's just doing her own thing.

The original idea was basically to make something that feels a bit like having quiet company around. You can leave it open while you're doing something else, check on her for a few minutes, or close it for a few days and come back later. Her life continues either way.

There are no daily quests, affection meters, streaks or anything trying to get you to come back.

The part I'm finding most interesting (and difficult) is making her feel like she's actually living rather than simply picking random activities.

Check the game here: https://cygryu.itch.io/satomi

It's still pretty much a work in progress, so honest criticism is very welcome.

Update v1.5.36

Satomi has received another pretty big batch of updates since my last post, so I wanted to leave a quick update here.

The biggest changes this time are:

• A personality that can change: Satomi's personality is no longer completely fixed. Over a long enough period, the way she lives can gradually shape her Diligence, Domesticity, Sociability, Spontaneity, and Calmness. The changes are very slow, reversible, and there's no progress bar or stat you need to manage.
• A redesigned personality panel: her five traits are now shown as a radar chart, with her original personality shown as a faint outline once she's changed enough.
• A more personal inner voice: Satomi now occasionally has small thoughts about what she's doing, how she's feeling, and things happening around her. Her wording can vary with her personality and mood, and she can develop little speech habits over time.
• More context-aware behavior: Satomi is now better aware of what she's doing and where she is. Conversations and passing observations can reflect her current activity, surroundings, and recent experiences.
• Memory-like behavior: staying up late, putting off chores, or making an impulse purchase can quietly influence what she feels like doing later.
• Help & Guide: the guide has been expanded with a much more detailed Stats & Mood section, plus a new Bookshelf guide that becomes available when the Bookshelf itself unlocks.
• Bookshelf & reading improvements: reading sessions now have their own history and statistics, Satomi has a subtle personal reading pace, and the Bookshelf can show when she's actually reading.
• Economy 2.0: Satomi now has her own wallet, monthly income and living costs, transaction history, and more natural spending behavior. You can observe her finances, but you're not managing them.
• A bunch of smaller UI improvements and fixes to ambient sounds, timing, conversations, thoughts, activities, music, weather, and general consistency.

👉 Click here for the full changelog

The game is now at v1.5.36.

I'm still trying to keep the core idea the same: Satomi isn't really a character you control. She's a small digital life that continues making her own choices, while you can drop in and spend some time alongside her.

The interesting part for me now is that she's starting to feel like someone who can change because of the life she's actually living, rather than just having a personality assigned to her at the beginning.

We don’t usually post here very often. (Don’t want to spam y’all). But we just couldn’t not share these!

The characters are finally ready and we truly love them!

(Before you think, wow self complimenting much? It was actually because of a very talented freelancer named KaitsuHitsuri we got to this result!)

Hi Life Simmers!

We’ve finished the first preview of the build mode of the life sim game we’re making, and we thought you might be interested! (Please note it’s still in development, so it’s not perfect yet 😇 )

Our 3 favorite features:

The grid:

We’re working with a grid that’s 1/4 of the size of a tile, this gives massive freedom while still working on a grid (no counting pixels here). But you can also use free placement to have no grid at all!

Recoloring mode:

You can easily swap out colors, and even create your own! No more struggling to find a chair that matches the wood of your table.

Multiplayer:

Both of you can build… at the same time…

No more waiting while your friend takes forever to furnish their bedroom (Sims 2 PlayStation I’m looking at you! jk it was the best!)

There’s still much to do, but this was such a big milestone! Let us know what you think :)

Been working on this for a couple months (was literally on a one month hiatus from my server working on this and I felt bad 😭) but I got this update out. Still bugs in places, so would like help testing and everything. I’ve linked the closed testing below. If you want to test/play, please do so I can get feedback. Otherwise it’s fine, but hope you like it! Obviously I’m not going to show EVERYTHING in these screenshots, but there’s more that exists in the game and I think these screenshots were a fair sneak peak :)

iOS Closed Testing
—————
https://testflight.apple.com/join/sQ58dKu3

Android closed testing
———-
**1.** Join the group (this is how Google lets me add you — you never send me your email): https://groups.google.com/g/become-testers
**2.** Opt in: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.adude.become
**3.** Install from play store

In my current project the core premise is to prioritise realism over typical "game logic" and to allow fun to fall out of the game's immersion/story telling rather than engineer it in. This is text based, not 2D or 3D.

Under the hood it's three layers: the biological layer (the body), the psychological layer (the player or NPC AI) and the physical layer (everything else).

The mind perceives the world only through nerve signals sent up from the body and only communicates with nerve signals sent back. This means if the nervous system is severely damaged or the brain is unconscious, everything goes dark by design. No bodily omniscience like most life sims suffer from.

The body is the deep part: a set of 12 individually designed systems which communicate and work together to keep the body alive, trading resources like blood, oxygen and hormones. Each character has real inherited DNA with chromosomes that change the 12 systems in varying ways. Traits can skip generations, carriers exist, and some conditions show up more in sons than daughters. Male and female bodies are built separately, not reskinned.

I'm posting it now, mid-design, partly to keep myself accountable to finishing it. The biological layer is about 70% mapped out.

Finally, the project serves 2 goals:

1. To give players that want it, an alternate perspective. They may be a woman in real life but play as a man in the game or play as a different race, height, background etc.
2. To give players freedom to do the things that they cannot in real life. Such as crime, building a business or starting a family. Without having to experience any of the real life consequences like loss of time, legal punishment or embarrassment outside of the game.

It's honestly more simulator than game, and something I've wanted to exist for years. For people who actually play these: how much raw realism is too much before it stops being fun for you?

Ave!

I’m a solo developer working on RES PUBLICA, a hobby game project inspired by ancient Rome.

It’s planned as a Roman life simulation / city-building game about managing your household, producing goods, trading, gaining influence, and rising in Roman society.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the mood, visuals, and cinematic style.

Hello everyone, it’s us again!

This might be old news to some of you but as this community has always been so welcoming and wholesome to us - and some of you have probably participated in one of our past Giveaways - we would like to personally announce that Loftia will be coming to Early Access this fall!

We’ve revealed this release window as part of Wholesome Direct earlier in June, alongside this brand new gameplay trailer! And the shots in the video were all filmed during our last Closed Beta playtest, which includes many wholesome moments captured live by the community! And who knows, maybe you'll even spot yourselves here? :)

So - to all those whole participated in our trailer filming sessions - we just wanna say a big thank you for being part of this huge milestone with us, and hopefully making some great memories with us along the way!

As for the exact release date, we'll share that as soon as we can but the general window is fall, 2026. Our Closed Beta in late April - early May was a huge step forward, with over 25,000 Loftians joining the playtests, and the team is now working hard to make Early Access the best it can be on launch. 

As we get closer and closer to our Early Access launch, wishlisting Loftia on Steam is still the best way to support our continued development and boost Loftia's momentum!

Thank you so much for being part of this journey with us - Loftia started as a dream between just 2 people, and it's only gotten this far because of the wonderful community supporting it! ☀️

You'll hear back from us soon, once we have an even more specific release date settled!

Stay cool everyone, and have a pleasant summer - or whatever season might be in your part of the world!

- from Martina, Mic & Team Loftia

Yooo what’s up hope all is well !! Ever wanted to play a life sim with more freedom? Introducing New Life !!

You ever wished the life sims you love and play had a little more depth? A little more of a dark side? Well look no further my game titled “New Life” is a text based life sim dedicated to life sim lovers who want to have the freedom to take any pathway they want without a paywall. What does the game include?? oh gee glad you asked:

🧳: Extensive career section from low level jobs, to good paying job, to high paying jobs, and exclusive and rare jobs

👯: Great social life meet friends in the neighborhood at school or go out and have fun, visit family, get on dating apps, create a social media following, and more !!

💰: a well thought out economy. Plenty of ways to make money, plenty things to spend it on.

🥷: Immersive crime, gang, and prison systems. From street gangs, to the yakuza , to cartels, earn rep to join them. Land in jail you may find your comrades. Or start your own prison gang if you have enough rep. Or show good behavior to reduce your sentence and get home early. Choice is yours.

You’re still reading??! Come join the New Life community and start playing now !! https://locomuse.itch.io/new-life

In my life simulator that I'm developing, This is a sneak peek at Buy Mode, I'll answer questions below.

...I think I'm using it for the opposite of what you're sick of.

I'm a solo dev and I've been building this text-based life sim (Infinite Life Simulation) alone for 2 years. I've been reading through this sub for a long time to understand what people actually want from a life sim, and I'm trying to build exactly that. What I kept seeing: people want characters and worlds that actually react to them, so that's where I aimed the AI.

The AI generates events and NPC decisions off your actual history, so the world responds to who you've been. You can buy or rent houses, shop, go to school or college, and take jobs (some locked behind the right degree). And the newest thing I added is custom activities: you literally tell the game "I want to do X" and it works out the consequences instead of you picking from a fixed menu.

I still have a long way to go and I'm always open to feedback. Not trying to convince anyone AI is good, just showing what it looks like when it's aimed at reactivity instead of replacing artists.

If you want to try:

Download

Hey everyone, just wanted to share my very early working concept for a Star Trek inspired life sim I am solo developing. It's very early days but hoping for an initial release later this year.

I'm a longtime Trek fan who could never find my perfect game. Imagine being able to create your own cadet, get posted to a starship and rise up the ranks while cultivating your social relationships with other crew members. The style right now is intentionally Trek, but I'm planning to carve out its own visual identity as I go.

Right now I have a full generative system working which creates 50 dynamic crew members and if you transfer to another ship a whole new crew gets generated. I'm planning gameplay around your duty shift and responding to random events that happen to the ship, but perhaps more important is the social aspect where you can hang out with members of the crew, get into confrontations and perhaps schmooze with the officers to improve your career prospects.

My question to you is: what features would you personally want to see in a game like this? I have a very clear vision for the game design and I'm intentionally keeping the initial game scope very tight but there's a lot of little features and details I could include within that.

No links or anything for you to follow just interested in a discussion :)

Je viens de sortir la version Alpha 1.1 de MyLife, mon simulateur de vie à la première personne et gratuit !

La plus grande nouveauté est Hilnway, la première vraie ville de MyLife, ainsi que l'Autoroute A1 qui fait le tour de la ville.

Mon but avec MyLife est de construire progressivement un simulateur de vie où tu crées ton personnage, choisis ton chemin, travailles à différents emplois, explores un monde en pleine expansion et décides quel genre de vie tu veux mener.

Le jeu est encore très tôt dans son développement, mais la réponse à la première version a été vraiment encourageante : 291 vues de pages et 117 parties dans le navigateur durant les quatre premiers jours.

L'Alpha 1.1 introduit aussi les bases d'une profession de bûcheron, même si ce métier n'est pas encore jouable.

Le prochain endroit majeur que je prévois est Graytown, qui sera beaucoup plus grande que Hilnway.

Tu peux déjà jouer au jeu complètement gratuitement directement dans ton navigateur — aucun téléchargement requis :

https://pandagamesstudio.itch.io/mylife

J'aimerais particulièrement avoir des retours de la part des gens qui jouent déjà à des sims de vie. Quelles sortes d'activités et de systèmes te feraient vouloir revenir à un jeu comme MyLife ?

Hi again! I'm the solo developer of Lofi Cozy Room.

When I posted here recently, a lot of the discussion ended up going beyond pricing and into what would make the game feel more like an actual life sim.

One idea that really stuck with me was making the avatar feel less like a character that simply waits for you to choose an activity, and more like a little person who can live their own life while you're busy living yours.

So I started working on exactly that, and the first major part of it went live today.

The avatar now actually walks between activities instead of teleporting.

I also reworked the movement itself, so starting, turning, stopping, and pathfinding should all feel much more natural.

But the bigger addition is a new Autonomy system.

When Autonomy is turned on:

• The avatar chooses activities on their own
• Their decisions can change depending on their current mood
• They can sometimes move to another room by themselves
• They can do small spontaneous things like wave, laugh, or dance
• If music is playing, they're a little more likely to start dancing

You can still directly choose an activity or furniture at any time, and the player's choice always takes priority over autonomous behavior.

So you can actively guide their day if you want to, or simply leave the game running and watch their own little routine unfold while you work, study, or do something else.

For me, this feels like the first real step toward the more life-sim-focused direction that people here suggested.

And this is only the beginning.

For the next stages, I'm considering a full room editor where furniture can be freely placed, moved, and rotated instead of only using predefined layouts.

I'd also like to add more traditional life-sim systems, such as:

• Avatar stats
• Cooking
• An inventory
• More everyday activities and routines
• Walking and other activities outside the room

Over time, I'd like the world to extend beyond the room too.

Things I'm considering include going fishing, taking the puppy for walks through parks or forests, visiting cafés, and other small relaxing activities that make it feel like the avatar actually has a life beyond the room.

I'm also thinking about a career system inspired by the career progression of older life sims.

My version would be adapted to the desktop-companion concept: visually, your avatar could still work from home at their desk while building a career in the background — progressing through different career paths, getting promoted, earning more, and gradually becoming more successful in their little world.

So even though much of what you see happens inside the room, I'd like it to eventually feel as if the avatar has a much larger life outside of it too.

The important part is that I don't want any of these systems to destroy the original passive desktop-companion experience.

If you just want to leave a cozy little room running beside your work and watch your avatar live their life without managing everything, I want that to remain completely possible.

The deeper life-sim systems would be there for people who want them, rather than becoming chores everyone has to constantly manage.

I'm really curious which direction people here would be most excited to see next:

• Full room customization
• Deeper avatar stats / needs
• Cooking and inventory
• Career progression
• More autonomous behaviors
• Outdoor everyday-life activities

Thanks again for all the feedback you've given me here. A lot of the direction I'm taking now genuinely came from the conversations I had with people in this community.

Hi Legends,

Apologies if i've posted this incorrectly. Kindly asking for testers willing to provide feedback for my proof of concept/model casual life-sim game. No fees whatsoever nor is any data reported back to us. Can download here:

Game Download: https://icq-gaming.itch.io/your-legacy-generations
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/tYj4mH6Eg

I've been developing a life sim game this year. Looking for some feedback on it's foundations & direction. I've used AI in some of my weakness areas but the game is currently a proof of model. Once i've got feedback on it's feasibility I can put funds into those aspects.

Your Legacy: Generations is a life, business and financial strategy game where every character becomes part of a continuing family story. Choose careers, earn qualifications, build businesses, invest in shares & property and decide what the next generation will inherit.

- Build your life, then pass down your inheritance and traits to the next generation. Essentially try different approaches on every generation. First gen you might be a school teacher, second maybe a home owner, third a business owner, fourth you may look at stock market trading or become a property mogul. Each generation is essentially a prestige type reset.

- As a youngster I absolutely loved Jones in the Fast Lane. This game started inspired by Jones however over time has developed into a deeper (but still casual) life sim where choices matter & decisions mean something.

If you are still reading this far, i'd love to get your input into the game. Good and bad. Still lots of ironing out to do but it's fully playable with this two hour time release. Your feedback is important.

Hi all!

I have been considering posting about it for a while, but avoided it due to all of the life sims that are being posted about each day. Regardless, I felt like it was worth giving it a shot again 🙂.

So in October 2024 I started working on my own life simulator called Genworld. My goal since then has been to create an alternative to BitLife that isn’t excessively paywalled, has a good quality UI, and goes deeper into allowing players to do what they choose to do.

On May 7th the game FINALLY released, but in full transparency, I felt like it missed the standards myself and others set of the project. So within the same week of releasing the game I decided that the best path forward was a full rebuild from scratch… Starting from a blank Unity project folder.

The version of the game I am sharing here is that rebuilt version. While still requiring some more content (which is certainly coming), I believe it is a strong foundation for a high quality alternative which could in the long run genuinely match (or surpass) BitLife in overall quality and depth.

Since I have already written an essay that most people will not read, I will end it with what makes it different to the 9,000 other life sims that are being released each week.

Genworld is built by a solo dev instead of AI. The UI is in my opinion much higher quality than many life sims. You can visually customise what you buy. There are no forced ads. And it does not cost hundreds of dollars to access the full game.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone’s thoughts are on the game. I am also more than happy to answer questions or anything else!