Professor simulator

You start by describing your professor in one text box. Name your academic field, your rank, and a real city so the game places you on that map. You can also edit the other people in your cast, such as your department chair or a Teaching Assistant.

Good prompts give your character a clear starting problem. You can write, "Dr. Elena Rostova, 34, an Assistant Professor of biology in Boston, USA, checking a flawed dataset." Or try, "Arthur Pendelton, 58, a history professor on sabbatical in Bologna, Italy, reading old letters in an archive." Another option is, "Kenji Sato, 41, a shy researcher in Kyoto, Japan, assigned to teach a 300-seat introductory lecture."

LifeSim has no career ladder, promotions, or skill bars. You do not play mini-games to grade exams or run laboratory equipment. Instead, you write your starting title, such as Lecturer or Principal Investigator, right in the prompt.

You grow your career through your daily to-do list, your life goals, and the people you know. In the real world, professors face a publish or perish culture and spend nights writing grants or grading essays. You can set a goal to finish a syllabus or prepare a paper for peer review. Then you meet colleagues at a café to debate pedagogy or discuss department committees.

Dr. Haruki Tanaka, 39, starts his life as a philosophy professor at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. His main life goal is to finish a book manuscript before his sabbatical ends. On Monday, he adds "write chapter two" and "hold office hours" to his daily to-do list.

He uses place search to find the Philosopher's Path, a real canal-side walk named after professor Nishida Kitaro. He plans an outing and invites two graduate students to walk there and discuss their seminar papers. Later that week, a colleague texts him about a faculty birthday drinks happening at a local bar. Haruki goes, and his conversations with the department chair change his relationships and his daily plans.

Other games focus on lab management, tactical combat, or puzzles. If you want to buy lab equipment, apply for projects, and manage budgets, play Professor Simulator: Desktop Lab on PC. If you want to build weekly lesson plans and lead students in turn-based battles, play Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III also lets you mentor combat students at a military branch campus. Professor Layton and the Curious Village puts you in the shoes of an archaeology professor solving brainteasers. LifeSim has no battles, budgets, or puzzle mini-games, but it lets you talk freely with students in real cities.