Netherlands life simulator

People in the Netherlands value work-life balance, and four-day work weeks are common. Residents schedule social meetups weeks in advance in their calendars and eat dinner around 6:00 PM. You can live in a canal house in Amsterdam, a port district in Rotterdam, or a quiet village.

Children start primary school, called basisschool, at age four and attend for eight years. At age twelve, students enter one of three secondary tracks: VMBO, HAVO, or VWO. Further and higher education split into MBO vocational colleges, HBO applied science universities, and WO research universities.

Major industries include maritime logistics, high-tech electronics, greenhouse horticulture, chemical processing, and water management engineering. Full-time employees work 36 to 40 hours a week, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Four-day part-time schedules are very common for both men and women.

In LifeSim, you write your school track or job into the character description box. There is no salary, promotion system, or job mini-game. Your job shapes your daily goals and how the people around you talk to you.

Each city in the western urban ring, called the Randstad, gives you a different setting. Amsterdam has 17th-century canal rings and international offices. Rotterdam has high-rise buildings and the huge shipping terminals of the seaport. The Hague sits by the North Sea beach at Scheveningen and hosts international courts.

Outside those three, Utrecht has two-tier canals with waterside cellars turned into outdoor cafes. Eindhoven turns former electronics factories like Strijp-S into neighborhoods for engineers and designers. In the far south, Maastricht has cobblestone squares, Roman history, and long dinners.

Bram, 19, starts a new life in Groningen, a compact northern university city. He writes into his prompt that he just won a room in a shared studentenhuis. He sets a life goal to make close friends at a local rowing club.

On Tuesday, Bram searches the 3D map for a market square and walks there. He talks to a classmate in his own words about making stamppot for dinner. On Friday afternoon, a housemate texts him an invite to a borrel at a cafe.

They plan an outing, walk to the cafe together, and talk as a group. Each day ends with a recap of its moments. Bram's housemates write the night into their journals and remember what he said next week.

A few older and modern action games use Dutch locations. A2 Racer is an arcade racing game where you drive fast on highways between Amsterdam and Maastricht. AmsterDoom is a lighthearted first-person shooter where you defend Dam Square and the Rijksmuseum from aliens.

For historical action, Cross of the Dutchman tells the story of 16th-century Friesland rebel Pier Gerlofs Donia. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II have shooter levels in Eindhoven and Amsterdam. Those games focus on driving or combat, which LifeSim does not have. LifeSim gives you the real 3D map of the whole country for everyday social life.

You do not have to pick a big city. The 3D map includes every small town and rural village in the Netherlands. You can type a village in Friesland, a northern province with its own Frisian language.

Life in Friesland centers on dairy farming, connected lakes, sailing, and winter ice-skating traditions. In South Holland, you can live in a horticulture town known for greenhouses and the flower trade. Write the town name in your prompt, or search for it by hand to start there.