Public Lives
Description
Public Lives is a free, persistent, multiplayer life and city simulation that runs in a browser tab - no download, no install, no client. Desktop or mobile.
The hook is the clock. One real day is one game month. A degree takes years. A mortgage outlasts most friendships. A term of office is something you campaign for and then have to survive. Nothing is a timer you can pay to skip, because nothing is for sale.
You direct a household in the city of Solano: take a job and turn up to shifts, rent a flat and then try to buy one, start a business and hire staff, trade on the Solano Stock Exchange, go to university, fall in love, stand for election. The city keeps its own hours and publishes a newspaper about what happened while you were away.
A simulated population keeps Solano busy from day one, so it is never an empty world waiting for a crowd - human players displace townsfolk rather than waiting for them.
Roughly ten minutes a day. Asynchronous by design: no session to miss, no streak to keep, no energy bar.
18+ for adult life themes. Intimate scenes fade to black; there is no explicit content. Currently in open-application beta.
Key Features
One real day = one game month. Careers, mortgages, degrees and terms of office all take the time they ought to, and none of it can be skipped with money.
A real economy, not a stat screen. Jobs and shifts, rent and property sales, shops, businesses, contracts, firms and a working stock exchange - all player-facing and all interdependent.
Civic life with consequences. Stand for election, win office, then discover that governing Solano is harder than campaigning for it.
A city that runs without you. Solano keeps its own schedule and reports what happened in its own newspaper while you were away.
Asynchronous by design. Ten minutes a day. No session to miss, no streak, no FOMO.
No pay-to-win, ever. Free to play with cosmetics only - a garment's mechanical effect is identical whether it was bought or earned.
No download. Runs in any modern browser on desktop or mobile.