The inn moved again
You’re forty turns into the best story you’ve written all month. The innkeeper has a name, a grudge, and a daughter. Then the narrator forgets the daughter. The inn moves across the river. You spend the next ten turns fixing the world instead of living in it, and you write a story card so it doesn’t happen again.
Some nights that trade is worth it. Some nights you just want the inn to stay where you left it.
What AI Dungeon gets right
The blank page. Typing what you do, what you say, and what happens, and having it count. A world that says yes to anything: dragons, starships, a noir city that never existed. Long sessions that go somewhere you didn’t plan.
There’s a free tier. Paid plans run from $14.99 to $99.99 a month, and credits buy time on the better models.
In LifeSim, the inn stays put
The street is a real street. The café on the corner is on the corner tomorrow, and the woman who runs it is there at seven because that’s her routine, not because you wrote it down.
There’s no narrator. Nobody stands between you and the world and describes it back to you. You talk to people, and the story is whatever they do next. A plot shows up when two lives cross, and you weren’t the one who planned it.
Memory isn’t a window that slides shut. Each person keeps their own. What you said to someone a month ago is still in there, and so is what they saw you do. You never write a card.
And there’s no meter. No credits, no tiers. You download it and you live there.
Your first week in LifeSim
You pick a city. Any city, on a real map of Earth. You give your character a name and a reason to be there. Then you step out onto a real street, and there are people on it.
They’re not waiting for you. They have jobs to get to, homes to go back to, friends they see on Fridays. Say hi to one of them, in your own words, and they answer in theirs. Tell them something and they keep it. Tell their friend something and it gets around.
By the end of the week you have a place you go in the mornings, someone you’re avoiding, and someone you’re not. One player once stayed for thirteen hours straight. We checked.
LifeSim is a free game, in the browser and on iPhone. No ads and nothing to buy. Season 1 is in beta.
Stick with AI Dungeon if…
You want dragons. LifeSim is the real Earth, and a life on it. If the genre is the point, AI Dungeon is the right tool, and it runs on Android and in a browser, which LifeSim doesn’t.
If the point is a place you can come back to, with people who were there yesterday, come live here for a while.
Side by side
| AI Dungeon | LifeSim | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier. Plans from $14.99 a month. | Free |
| Where it runs | Web, iPhone, Android | Any browser |
| The world | Written as you go | The real Earth |
| Who tells the story | A narrator | The people who live there |
| Memory | A window, plus story cards | Each person keeps their own |
| Genre | Anything you can type | A life, in a real city |
Questions
Is LifeSim an AI Dungeon alternative?
If you want a world that stays put and people who keep living in it, yes. If you want fantasy with a narrator, no.
What are games like AI Dungeon?
Games like AI Dungeon let you type what you do, and an AI answers. Most are text adventures with a narrator. LifeSim is a life sim on a real 3D map of Earth. You type what you say, and the people in the city answer and remember it.
Can I still write freely?
You say whatever you want. What you can’t do is rewrite the world. The streets are real and the people have their own plans.
Is there a context limit?
Not one you manage. Memory belongs to each person.
Is it free?
Yes. No in-app purchases.
Android or web?
LifeSim runs in the browser at play.lifesim.com, on a computer or a phone. There is no Android app yet. Vote for Android on the home page.