My Little Life is a desktop companion that lets players watch their little human characters live their lives at the bottom of a computer screen. In My Little Life, players can expand and decorate the homes for their character who fulfills their needs, works on their career, interacts with other characters, and engages in recreational activities like socializing. My Little Life also lets players watch the lives of more than one character, something which might sound similar to games like The Sims. However, My Little Life's premise is rather different, not just as a game that effectively plays itself while players are free to do other things, but also with its different possible careers. Where careers in The Sims 4 are all about going to work, My Little Life takes a rather different stance with its range of work-from-home careers.
In a recent interview with The Best War Games, My Little Life's Solo Developer Stevis (Stevie) Andrea talked about its different career options as a game that seeks to create a relaxing and non-intrusive experience. Andrea also explained how players can have multiple characters and spoke about other NPCs.
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My Little Life's Work-From-Home Career Approach
Andrea first explained why he chose work-from-home careers for My Little Life versus most typical 9–5 jobs in games. Andrea explained these careers are crucial so that the characters are always on-screen, something that's not always the case in games like The Sims where careers and time work differently.
"I haven't found a need to fast-forward time yet, simply because I don't like it in The Sims when you have two characters and one goes off to work, and they literally just disappear for hours while you're focused on the other character. I don't have that in this game. All the careers that I've chosen so far are all work-from-home."
Andrea added that work-from-home careers also help to juggle the needs of My Little Life's characters, who mainly look after themselves and do their own thing. This is somewhat different from most life simulation games where players run the show most of the time. Andrea also explained more about how career progression and time works in practice:
"The better food items you have, or the better bathtub you have, the less time they’ll need to focus on their needs and the more time they will be able to work on their career. That doesn't work if they leave the house, and because they don’t have to leave the house it means they also don’t need to fast-forward time."
My Little Life's Career Options And Secondary Characters
Focusing on My Little Life's careers, Andrea said this can be "any career that you can imagine working from home and doing." This could also mean roles such as artists, writers, streamers, or scientists, to name a handful. Additionally, the more the character works on their career, the better their stats, the more promotions they can get, and the more money there is to buy things for the house.
Andrea talked about how players can recruit other characters in addition to their initial character once they "place the right combination of items." Characters can also leave their cozy homes to interact with others. Indeed, players can create secondary characters and set up separate zones for them to live together as players choose.
There are also various NPCs for characters to interact with, such as the mailman, neighbors, and "fun interactions with other characters as well." On top of that, there are various display options including a camera mode that follows whichever character the player wants, providing even more ways to watch these little characters progress. Altogether, in today's busy working lifestyles where gaming time is often limited, My Little Life looks like a fun and relaxing idle game for players to interact with for as much or as little time as they like.
My Little Life is currently in development.