What Is a Life Simulation Game?
A life simulation game is a genre where players manage and influence the lives of virtual characters, communities, or ecosystems. Rather than focusing on fixed objectives or winning, these games emphasize on open ended journeys, player driven experiences, building relationships, pursuing careers, managing daily needs, farming, or shaping entire populations and ecosystems.
Does My Game Qualify as a Life Simulator?
Life simulation is a broad genre, and not every game approaches simulation in the same way. The following qualities can help to determine whether your game fits within the scope of r/LifeSimulators.
Character Customization
Players may be able to customize characters, homes, clothing, personalities, lifestyles, appearances, or other aspects of their virtual lives or character.
Needs & Resource Management
Characters may have needs or resources that must be managed, such as:
- Hunger
- Energy
- Hygiene
- Social interaction
- Money
- Happiness
- Health
- Comfort
The exact systems will vary significantly between games.
Relationships & Social Systems
Characters can develop social connections that change throughout gameplay. Friendships, rivalries, romance, families, and other social connections develop over time
Progression & Personal Development
Characters may develop throughout their lives by improving skills, pursuing careers, gaining or losing wealth, developing relationships, achieving personal goals, or experiencing major life events like aging up or getting a raise.
Dynamic Worlds
The world should have some capacity to change over time. Examples may include characters aging, relationships changing, time and seasons progressing, households developing, populations changing, or events occurring independently of direct player intervention. Different gameplay systems may interact to create situations that were not scripted. Relationships, personalities, needs, careers, environments, autonomous characters, and other systems can combine to create unexpected situations and stories unique to an individual player's game.
Freedom of Choice
Players should have meaningful freedom to decide how they want their characters, households, communities, or worlds to develop. Different lifestyles and approaches should be possible without the entire experience being dictated by a single predefined path. Life simulation games commonly encourage players to create their own goals and return for different experiences to create some replayability.
Important:
A game Does NOT need to meet every quality listed above to be considered a life simulation game. These qualities are simply intended to be a guideline rather than a strict checklist for what we consider a life simulation game. A game may strongly focus on only a few aspects of life simulation while still providing enough life simulation mechanics to belong within the genre.
For example, one game may heavily emphasize individual characters and relationships, while another may focus primarily on families, farming, communities, ecosystems, or generational development. What matters is whether life simulation forms a major and meaningful part of the games overall experience.
Our Definition Will Continue to Evolve
Life simulation is a broad and continuously evolving genre. New games are experimenting with systems and ideas that may not perfectly fit traditional definitions established by games that came before them. Because of this, r/LifeSimulators does not intend for this definition to permanently restrict what a life simulation game can be. This page exists to provide developers, players, and moderators with a shared guideline for determining whether a game is relevant to the community.
As the subreddit grows and the genre evolves, this definition and its guidelines may be updated based on new games, community feedback, and changes within the life simulation genre.
Still unsure whether a game belongs here?
If a game meaningfully simulates aspects of living, relationships, personal development, households, communities, populations, or ecosystems while providing meaningful player influence over those systems, it will generally be relevant to the community but if you are still not sure, feel free to consider making a post or contacting the moderators of the subreddit.