A new direction, and version 0.2.0
Underlives has changed direction. It is no longer a sandbox where anything happens without weight. It is a game for adults about real lives: work, money, love, family, bad decisions, and what comes after them.
How we got here
Underlives started in August as LifePlay Revival: an attempt to bring an old life simulator back to life, rebuilt from scratch in Unreal Engine 5. Bodies, rooms, a whole city to walk around, mods loaded as plain files that anyone can write.
Along the way, the project outgrew the game it came from. Porting old rules faithfully was holding it back, and the life we wanted to show was not the one the original told. On October 8 we released 0.1.0 under a new name, Underlives, and started designing every system ourselves: our own rules, our own values, our own writing. Every story scene has since been rewritten, and every official mod rebuilt under the new name.
Two months, more than 640 changes, and today the second release.
Adult, and realistic
The city is meant to feel lived in. People have a personality from birth, their own history, a job, debts, people they love and people they hurt. They act on their own, whether you are watching or not. When something goes wrong, it does not reset: it leaves traces, in a relationship, in a bank account, in a record.
The darker side of life is part of it, and we treat it as real life rather than as shock value: the mundane detail, the aftermath, the people around it. Life has no rules, but it has consequences.
What is in 0.2.0
- Actions are organised. The left rail is now Here, Phone, People, Careers and Quests. Each list is grouped by what the actions are for, with what you cannot do yet under "Not now" and the reason why. Jobs you do not hold no longer show up.
- Careers (sex work, crime, modeling, and the ones mods add) have their own entry, wherever you are.
- Rooms and furniture are textured again in the released game, and clothes follow your character's body shape.
- A new optional pack, Extended wardrobe, with hundreds more outfits.
- Every official mod is renamed and republished on the hub.
Install or update through the launcher: it only downloads what changed.
Expect bugs
This is an early version, and it will show: things that break, a scene that misbehaves, a menu in the wrong state, a long load now and then. Your save may not survive every update while the game is this young. When something goes wrong, tell us on Discord, ideally with what you were doing: every report helps.
Only the beginning
This is the first step of a long road. Next come more of the city's lives, more consequences that follow you, and more tools for modders, who can already add actions, careers, groups and whole systems as plain data.
Thank you for being here this early. Tell us what you think on Discord.