New Beginnings

Hi, I'm Joe and I'm making a life simulation game for mobile.

Prologue

I have spent years playing life simulation games - simulation games in general, and have grown an interest in the mechanisms that are at work behind the scenes. The Sims was where this interest started, however, early on I noticed a lack of games in this genre.

888

This is where I began to be interested in the development of such games and started to create my own. The first of which, was a game called "888" and was a life simulation game written in python. There wasn't much to this game and it was abandoned pretty early on. In its replacement, I started a game called "888 V2", but again, abandoned this after little progress. These games were going to be turn-based, with a turn representing a month. 12 months in a year, 74 years in an average life, hence 888. There were some more offshoots of this game, which again, were never finished.

Screenshot from 888VII

I should probably note that I'm a 20 years old computer science student, studying for my final year of an undergraduate degree. I was around 15 when I started to make this game, which is perhaps why it was never finished, and the code is, well, questionable.

Other Projects

Some time later, I became interested in a new engine called "Construct 2". I spent hours toying around, starting and then abandoning projects one by one. I spent years in this engine learning about how to develop multiple systems.

Looking through old files, I found a game called "Life Architect", which I assume is a cross between The Sims and Prison Architect. I also found another game called "Life Simulation 0.1, but like the former, it was never finished.

Paycheck

Over many years, I have been attempting newer and alternative takes on life simulation games. Each attempt brings with it new systems a technologies, which I have learned from other projects. The introduction of arrays as an alternative to variables, instancing objects and importing large datasets to populate my new artificial worlds are some examples of such techniques.

A game called "InstLife" popped up on Google Play one day, which was a life sim developed by an indie company called "InstCoffee". This seemed to be an android adaptation of an old PC game called "Real Lives 2007". It even featured the same variables, such as a music and art skill. I assume this game was based off of another game called "TextLife" a video can be found here. This game was perhaps more popular than Real Lives, despite being a clone (this game has pretty much been erased from the internet now).

Instlife led to a similar game called "Bitlife" which was originally only on Apple devices. With the new trend of these games, I was again, inspired to start development on another project. I called this game "Paycheck", as I was inspired by a game called Spent. This somewhat merged with a number of other games, such as a generically named "Life Simulator" leading to a partially made game (roughly in Jan, 2019).

Screenshots from the life simulation game tests

Life Sim 2

As I rather liked the name, I developed the ideas and game further. The original Paycheck prototype was replaced with a newer game which featured an isometric map of a town. This town would then have houses and other buildings which could be interacted with as part of the gameplay (roughly in Aug, 2019).

Image from the newer Paycheck game

Again, this game was not finished, but gave me new ideas and a newer sense of direction. Despite not completing these projects, I learnt a lot in the process.

Final Evolution

After migrating to a newer engine, I decided to give the life sim game another shot. I started in the summer of 2020 during the first lockdown. I must have thought it was the perfect time to start, given all the free time I then had.

This newer game stuck with the name Paycheck, but added another level of complexity compared to previous endeavours. For one thing, the game now had complete documentation, this was needed to understand the complex array that was being used in the background. This level of complexity quickly alienated me, and I was soon forced to compete with the madness that soon overwhelmed me. Many of the final systems were in place, though, and it gave me an understanding for my final project.

Screenshot from Paycheck 3, with mostly placeholder art

Again, this game featured a map of a town which could be interacted with. In this case, the houses could be tapped to open a menu which displayed all of the people living in that house.

Test of the art for the characters in the game

Conclusion

As the code was a mess, once I took a short break, there was no going back. I had to start again. However, this time I could take the systems that I was happy with to the new game. I also had a greater understanding of what the game should look like.