A life simulation built on real data
Live one life, somewhere in the world.
You are born. Where, to whom, and into what kind of household follows the world as it really is: births, incomes, schooling, illness and life expectancy for 193 countries. From there it is your life, one year at a time.
Runs in your browser on a desktop or laptop. Free; we ask for an email address to let you in.
How it works
Born by the numbers, lived by you.
A birth like the world's
One baby in six is born in India; very few are born in Iceland. Your country, city, family and income are drawn the way the world draws them.
One year at a time
School, work, marriage, illness, disasters and windfalls arrive as they would for someone in your place. You decide what to do about them.
Choices that cost something
Money decisions show your cash and what it will be after each choice. Pay for school or keep the money for food? Help your family or save for later?
Measured against the world
When your life ends, see how it compared: how long you lived, what you learned, what you left, and how your country shaped it all.
How to play
Your first life in five steps.
See where you begin
Before each life, a short screen compares your birth country with the world. Read it, then press Begin this life.
Live a year
Press Live another year, or Space, to grow one year older. What happened to you and your family appears in the feed.
Answer decisions
Some years ask what you will do. Each option carries a short note on what it is likely to lead to, and the year carries on once you answer.
Act between years
Use the pages on the left: Education, Work, Money, Health, Relationships, Leisure, Move and Family. A dot marks a page worth a look.
Ask the game
Rest the pointer on any number or button to see what it means. Knowledge explains the terms in your story, and Menu → How to play has this guide.
Every life leaves a record
See what your life added up to.
At the end you get a closing card for the person you were: their years, their schooling and work, the family and friends around them, and what they left behind, set beside what was expected for someone born where they were.
- Life expectancy, infant mortality and literacy for the place you were born
- A timeline of the moments that mattered
- Look back over the whole life, or start a new one somewhere else
Money, health, family, work
The everyday business of staying alive.
Run a household budget in your country's own currency, or let the game manage it. Look after your health, choose how to spend your free time, raise children, care for parents, change jobs, start a business, or move to another country.
- Cash and monthly balance always in view
- Hover anything for what it means and what moved it
- A built-in knowledge base on your country and the topics behind the game
“I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.”Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
Your next life starts in one click.
The demo is free and runs in your browser. Sign up with your email inside the game, and we'll tell you when the full game is ready.
Play the free demo →