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Hey, Gary here. Lifeline was the first game I put up on Paige Games, and it's still one of my favourites to come back to. It's a game about a whole life, start to finish, told one year at a time.
I created Lifeline because I loved life sims, but felt most of the market was thin on content. So I took everything I wished those games were and put it into my own game.
What kind of game it is
Lifeline is a text-based life simulator built phone-first, so it feels right at home on your phone, but it plays just as well on a computer. There's no download: open the page and you're living. It can also be installed to your home screen like an app, because it's built as a web app that works offline once loaded.
The idea is simple: you're born, you age a year, things happen, and you decide how to respond. School, jobs, love, money, fame, health, family. Every run turns into a different story, and the hook that makes Lifeline its own thing is ownership. You don't just get a job, you can end up owning businesses, studios and even sports teams.
Features
- Character creation. Set up who you are before your life begins.
- Two save slots. Keep two lives going at once and switch between them.
- Careers, school and scholarships. School carries over into what you can do later, and there are scholarships to earn. There are even streamer careers if you want to chase an online following.
- Business ownership. Start and run businesses, own studios, and build up a sports team.
- Money that matters. A market ticks along each turn, your net worth is tracked over time, and yes, you can go bankrupt.
- Health, relationships and legacy. The people in your life change as you do, your health catches up with you, and when a life ends, a legacy system carries part of it forward.
- Event cards. Every turn can throw a surprise at you, and how you answer shapes the next chapter.
- Quick actions and Autopilot. Quick actions keep common choices fast, and the optional Autopilot Pack can carry you through the slower years.
- Readable, clean design. Text boxes keep strong contrast in every style setting, money values show a clear sign and colour (gains and losses never look alike), and big numbers are shortened so they stay easy to read.
- Optional extras. The game is free.
How it plays
Each turn, you pick how far to jump in time and press the button to age forward. Behind the scenes a lot happens in order: you get older, the market moves, your life events play out, your businesses and teams earn (or lose), offers come in, an event card may pop up, and the game checks on your health. Then it's your move again.
Early on, it's school, friends and figuring out what you're good at. Later it's careers, relationships, buying property or starting a company. If you hit it big, you'll be juggling a studio, a team and a fortune. If you don't, that's a story too. Some of my favourite runs were the messy ones.
Because every life is seeded, two runs never go quite the same way, and the choices you make really do change where you end up.
Story and setting
Lifeline doesn't hand you a hero's story. You write it. It's set in an everyday modern world, and the drama comes from ordinary life: the job offer you weren't expecting, the friend who needs help, the gamble on a new business, the team that finally wins. The goal isn't to "win." It's to look back at the end and see a life worth reading about.
I built Lifeline to be the life sim I always wanted to play: one where small choices add up, with enough in it to keep every life feeling new, and one that respected your time on a phone. It keeps getting updates, so if you've played before, come see what's new. And if you've got ideas, I really want to hear them.