Ordinary Life
A life simulator with real odds
Most life games make you the hero. This one makes you a person.
You're born somewhere in the United States, in a real county, to a family you didn't choose. Where you start sets the odds. Then you live one year at a time: school, work, money, the people around you, the choices that seem small and come back later.
Coming soon to iPhone, Android and the web.
Every chance comes from real data
- Pay for every job from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Rents from HUD, prices and pay by county from the Census and BEA
- Odds of dying each year from the CDC's life tables
- Business survival, hiring, sentencing, crime and benefits from the agencies that measure them
Where no data exists, the game says so. Nothing is made up to make a point.
Who you know matters
A cousin who vouches for you is worth more than a good test score. People remember what you did for them, and what you didn't.
Choices come back
The $20 you returned at 8 is an apprenticeship at 18. The package you held at 13 is a record at 25.
Lessons, not game overs
When a life ends, you see what shaped it, with the sources. Then you pass one thing on and start the next life knowing a little more. Or keep going as one of your kids.
"You learned to make a sleeve of saltines last two days. A skill nobody puts on a resume."
Rated for older teens and adults: it shows drugs, drinking, crime and violence as they are, never glamorized. No account; your life is saved on your device.