Guided mode: seven tracks through a life that follow on from each other

An open simulation has one drawback: a new player does not know what to do first. Guided mode gets around that — it splits the game into chapters, puts one decision in each and shows what changed after the choice. Between chapters time moves on by itself and random events are switched off, so the consequence belongs to the choice, not to bad luck.

The tracks form a single line. First Job starts at the age of twenty-three and each of the following ones follows on by age and by situation. At the end of a chapter you can carry on in the same life — or pick any track on its own if a particular period is what interests you.

Six tracks for adults

First Job

The start of the line, age 23. The first paycheck and the first temptations: an emergency fund, subscriptions, a credit card, a rent increase. Eleven chapters, six months apart. The recommended entry point for anyone opening the game for the first time.

Young Family

Age 30. A new child and new expenses. A budget, unexpected events and saving for the child — the first goal that is not your own.

Your own home

Age 35, the biggest commitment in the game. The deposit, the fixed rate, what to do when income stops and what to do with a surplus. Eleven chapters.

Between two generations

Age 42. Parents are getting older, the child is off to university. You earn the most you ever will and it is still tight. Here the chapters move on a year at a time rather than six months.

When something breaks

Age 50. Income, health and a relationship are all tested at once. The track builds on what you built twenty years earlier — and shows whether it holds.

What remains

Age 59, the end of the line. Retirement is in sight and for the first time the money at stake is money the player will not spend themselves.

The children's track: Growing up

A separate track inside kids mode. Twelve chapters, one decision in each, and a year passes between them — the child starts the game at six and finishes at seventeen. The decisions grow with them: from the first piggy bank through spotting an online scam to deferred payment and compound interest.

The chapters are not written separately — they refer to situations from free play, so the content is the same and is maintained in one place. The track is a closed whole and does not continue into the adult tracks: between seventeen and twenty-three everything kids mode rests on changes.

How to start

• Open the app and go to setting up a new game.
• On the opening screen guided mode is offered first — the First Job button starts the beginning of the line.
• If you want a different track, expand the list below it and pick the period that interests you.
• Age, scenario and difficulty are set by the track itself; there is no need to adjust them by hand.

Guided mode can be left at any point and you can carry on in the open simulation with the same state. It does not work the other way round — a track starts with its own setup, so a game already in progress cannot be moved into it.