Our Life: Beginnings & Always
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
A nostalgic visual novel where you design your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a feel-good simulation, as well as a “feel-better” one, where painful emotions such as sadness, anger, stress, and worry can all be expressed, then met with reassurance, understanding, and support.
It’s a wholesome experience that faces large steppingstones of life, while having a focus on familiar everyday moments. With notable amounts of customization for even tiny details, you can enjoy pleasures as simple as having a preferred type of drink and a neighbor who cares enough to remember what it is.
| Price: | Free-to-Play, with optional paid DLCs |
| DLCs: | The first batch of DLCs are $3.99USD each with three available, a fourth DLC that is $2.99USD released in 2022 |
| Rating: | 16+, for swearing, crude humor, and suggestive content during adult-aged portions of the game |
- 4 different periods of life to experience: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and fully grown
- Name, appearance, personality, and pronoun (he, she, or they) customization for your character
- Change your character's details however you like as you grow, including transitioning to new pronouns
- Shape your personality, feelings, and preferences, then see them reflected in the story as characters remember who you are
- 1 love interest, Cove Holden, whose personality, interests, and appearance will develop in a custom way over the years based on his experiences with you
- Decide for yourself how quickly or slowly the relationship with Cove develops by setting a unique dynamic; from love at first sight to last minute confessions to always being friends and more
- A welcoming, sentimental story that can easily be enjoyed over and over using new main character qualities or different connection types with Cove
- Font style and size customization. Hit the "A" key to open a screen that has text appearance options
- 397,000 words, 16-24 hours of content in total
Plus, an optional feature of having a preset name for the main character that the love interest says out loud through voice lines. Download the free DLC to add that to your game build!
The main story of Our Life from beginning to end will always be free, but if you'd like to support our group and get new scenes you can purchase optional DLCs!
And if you want even more Our Life content, you can consider joining our Patreon! There's sneak peeks for future game expansions, extra update posts, bonus art, a private backer-only Discord, and so on.
Jamie Last (changeable name) has spent the last couple weeks on a summertime high. At eight-years-old, nothing is better than what feels like endless days of school-less adventures, especially when you live walking distance from the beach. While coming home under a scorching sunset one fine evening, Jamie is approached by a stranger. The man is looking for a kid who can do him a favor, and he’s even offering to pay for it. He wants Jamie to please be friends with his only child. The person is Mr. Holden, Jamie’s new neighbor, as well as the father of the odd, and oddly named boy, Cove. Whether Jamie wants to play along or not, Cove isn’t going anywhere. He's present in Jamie's life for far longer than they ever would've guessed.
And then the long days of vacation finally come to an end. Summer may not be able to last forever, but Jamie can take comfort in knowing it will come back again someday…
Download
Development log
- Our Life: Limited Time Cove Pin Set!10 days ago
- Cove Step 1 Plushie Now Available for Limited Time!Nov 24, 2023
- Our Life: Beginnings & Always - The Last Major UpdateJun 23, 2023
- Our Life: 2023 GoalsJan 01, 2023
- Our Life 1.6.1Oct 06, 2022
- Our Life Version 1.5.4May 22, 2022
- Cove Plushie Now Available (Limited Time Only)!Apr 29, 2022
- Cove Plushie Coming Soon! + GiveawayApr 22, 2022
Comments
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Hello, I just finished the game! From the bottom of my heart I want you to know that I congratulate you very much and I am proud of everything you have achieved. The game is an invaluable piece of art, its story, its characters, its art, the voices, the inclusive themes about the variety of pronouns, gender identity and sexual orientation, etc... everything generated many mixed emotions in me and I felt part of it, it made me reflect a lot on my own state and my life. I realized that it would be wonderful if the people around me and the person I establish a relationship with were like them, so liberal, understanding, honest, loving. The game reflected everything I lack but it was also a caress to the soul and made me really very happy.
I am sad because I do not have dollars to donate or pay for your games because you deserve it! Even so, thank you for letting me enjoy the base game, it brightened my sad days and I no longer feel so alone, it even gave me hope and encouragement to keep going.
Thank you very much for existing, creator! 🥹❤️
I played this a few months ago, but it´s truly a gem, the most precious thing ever! Wish I could play it again for the first time <3
Absolute gem of a comfort game, 160 hours played on steam
Guys i have problem. Some help? Plz
Hello! I'm so sorry, but this is a known issue we have with the Android version right now. We are looking into a fix, but haven't quite figured it out yet. We appreciate your patience!
it wac already on my game list for a looong time, and omg.......WHY DIND'T I PLAYED THIS MASTERPIECE BEFOREEEE?????????????
the longest and most well developed game i've played, i got a little too attached to Cove....
i definitely going to save up to get the DLCs bc this game was pratically therapy
This game is amazing! It was one of the first visual novels I played on PC and one that I still use as a base for comparison to this day. The richness in detail in the game makes it so immersive, and the characters are so well developed they feel like real people! The writing makes the interactions feel so natural and even when a choice feels kinda like a "bad choice" the plot continues to be so sweet. It took everything in me to not be friends with Cove in order to get all the achievements on steam :(
It's just impossible not to fall in love with this game, the true definition of a cozy game <3 I've played it countless times now, switching between Cove's route and the DLC's, and it's still as magical as the first time.
THIS GAME WAS SO GOOD, I THINK I PLAYED IT ALMOST 3 TIMES BECAUSE I WANTED TO ACTUALLY TRY NEW OPTIONS WITHOUT THE SAVING AND GOING BACK
This VN has been my by far favorite VN ever. I always go back and replay it and I've even bought all the DLCs just because its that good. I've played it so many times I've lost count and its even made me want to make my own VN.
It's so well coded to be so flexible unlike any other VN I've played, and there has been MANY.
If anyone knows how to code or where I could find instructions on how to code things like the "picking a memory" section, the picking which epilogue to play, and the whole Mc creation screen kind of thing, PLEASE PLEASE point me in the direction. I would absolutely love being able to incorporate those ideas into my projects.🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I'm so glad you found the game both enjoyable and inspiring! I'm not sure if this will help with your specific programming question, but our lead programmer has a website with useful information specifically about Ren'py, so hopefully this can help you:
https://feniksdev.com/
Thank you again for playing, and good luck with your own efforts!
Thanks so much! I'll check it out!
is there any way to transfer the dlc's I bought on steam to itchio?
Yes! The DLCs are rpa files which can be found in your Steam directory. You should be able to find them if you right click on Our Life in Steam, click on Properties > Installed Files > Browse > and then the directory should open up. In there, click on the "Game" folder, and look for the files with the .rpa ending. Move those into the "Game" folder of your itch.io version, and that should work. If you need more help, just let me know!
does it also work if I play the itcho version on Mac instead of windows since the steam version only includes the windows one.
I can't actually check with certainty, as I don't have a Mac, but I believe the DLC files should work on Mac as well as Windows.
I've got a mac (intel, not apple silicon, if it helps) and it works for me
Its soooo cute! QvQ but like Cove's dad still looks sooo young after years.
Ma and Mom look like they're in their 40's or 50's but Cove parents look like they never aged .>.
Didn't Terri want to change his name from "Terry" to "Terri" at like the begining of step 4 (or maybe end of step 3). But in the game we're still calling him Terry instead of Terri o.O?
Wow Derek changed soo much?? O.O!!
btw this is super long- like I've been playing for like 16 hours already. and I think I'm almost at the end... for one ending?
lol i don't think this should be happening here cause this route is when mc and Cove confessed their love and was already together in stage 2 .>.
annd yet.. mc is confessing their love to Cove and it's like mc and Cove has never been together~
this game is actually so freaking good?!?!? i thought it was gonna be short but it was really long + it was so full of story even without the dlc!! i enjoyed the fact that everyone was so well written, and the scripts were also amazing!! this vn is genuinely one of the best if not the best i've played so far, and it made me so happy while playing :(( gosh i love it sm
What do i need to download so that there's like voices???😭
Do you mean the voiced name pack? Here's a link directly to the page!
https://gbpatch.itch.io/our-life-voiced-name
Scroll down and you should see a download link for your operating system, as well as instructions on how to add the files. Hopefully that helps, and if you have any more questions, just ask. Hope you enjoy the game, and thank you for playing!
Amazing game, and I absolutely had a blast playing the base content. Honestly speaking, even without the DLC content, this is a very full and enjoyable game with a lot of story to go through! GBPatch always has incredible base content and their writing + long gameplay has always been my favorite, since I enjoy slowburn as well as how down to earth the storytelling here is. :-)
I bought two DLC's early this month, but I ended up not having time to play because of college work, and now I'm curious about the refund policy so I can buy this again later when I have time. (I'm a STEM major, and I severely underestimated how difficult my second semester would be, LOL.)
I wouldn't mind keeping the DLC's to play later this year when my work is over, but what's the refund policy? I couldn't find it anywhere.
Thanks in advance.
Thank you so much for your kind words! We're glad you enjoyed the game, and we totally understand that life can be a bit crazy at times. We don't actually handle refunds directly on itch.io, but you should be able to contact their support page and get a refund:
https://itch.io/support
We really appreciate you playing the game, and best of luck with your semester!
This is really the best visual novel I've ever played. I always played the yandere ones but I noticed this pearl and wanted to give it a try and WOW. It was so fun to play and I personally think it's a well-done game, graphic is amazing and the characters are well written and there're so many choises you can make!
I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCHH might purchase the dlc for Derek route soon! <3
lovely
I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!!! Made me cry by the end, this definitely came first in my leaderboard!!
This game is the perfect romance visual novel
Tried downloading it on my phone, when it was done i opened it and like, pressed "new file" but it kicked me out😭 it's been doing this for like a long time now... I've played our life on both my laptop and other devices but for some reason it just kicks me out on my phone?? 😭😭 Is the problem my phone or.. I need help asap
Sorry about that! Is it an Android phone?
Mhm! The model is a Honor X6a! :D
OK, thank you. Recently we've been having a few people struggling with the Android version of the game, and are still trying to work out what might be happening. I have a potential fixes, but they might not work:
You can try clearing space on your phone, in case there isn't enough storage; you can try turning in game animations off from the settings menu; you can see if there's a security feature or virus scanner blocking the game from running.
Again, other people have had issues as well that were not fixed by the above solutions, so I apologize if none of those work. We are still looking into the matter to see if there's a more reliable solution!
honestly? best indie game I have ever played.
oii, vi que provavelmente nao irao traduzir o jogo para portugues, mas eu to em duvida em relaçao ao motivo, se for por falta de pessoas pra fazer a traduçao eu ficaria muito contente em me voluntaria para poder traduzir!!
hi! im new here, i downloaded it but how do i actuallly find the game to play it?
did you download it in PC, Mac, or Android?
¿Alguien sabe si tiene versión en español :C?
Hello! I hope I translated this correctly, but unfortunately, there is no Spanish version of the game, and probably never will be. We're sorry about that, but we're very grateful you have such interest in our game.
Ou, no problem. It really looks like a good game so I'll try to translate it a few at a time, thanks for replying ヽ（❛֊￩✿.
Tem em português? 😭🥺
Rp
Hello! I translated this as best I could, and unfortunately, the game does not have a Portuguese version, and probably never will. We are sorry about that, but we really appreciate your interest in our game.
AAAAAAAAAAARGHHH HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!! I really really want to play this game!! I already played Our life: now and forever and i absolutely loved it...it's perfect, i can't wait for the full game (that's what made me want to play this one actually) so i installed the game since i heard it was complete and the first buuuuut i'm on android and no matter what i do IT. DOESN'T. LET. ME. PLAY! I can get in the options sometimes to turn off the animations with the music and voices BUT whenever i click in "tutorial" or "new game" or even "continue" it A.L.W.A.Y.S turns white and then black and goes to the home screen, i already tried to clean the cache, uninstall and reinstall, close and reopen a muuuuultiple of times, i have enough storage space: 25gb to be full it would need to be like 30gb or something like that, i even updated my phone's software!!...i'm absolutely hopeless, please someone be my hero, pretty please? :(
(Also sorry for the text and bad english, it's not my first language and i'm really in dispair at this point lol ;^; )
woah we're in the same situation i thought i was the only one
So sorry about that! The only other thing I can think of at the moment is that there might be some kind of security feature on your device that's blocking it. But if that doesn't work, we'll have to look into something else.
Firstly, thankya for reading it<3 and now, well, i honestly don't know if that's right but i guess the only security feature i have is the Play Protect so i checked it but it didn't said nothing about the game and i also allowed all the app's permissions (which in this case was just the permission for memory and notifications) nothing has changed though 😔
Subject your phone to torture, maybe it'll work
I have this game (and lots of DCL) on Steam, but I just wanted to say thanks for creating such and amazing, AWESOME game!!! ^_^
why when i press the new file i be back at my home screen i downloaded this game Multiple times it still doesn't work it will get black then im back at my home screen
Sorry if you've been having any issues! Are you playing on PC, Mac, or Android?
im playing on android
OK, there's a few things that might help: You can try to clear out space on your phone, in case the game doesn't have enough storage to run. You might have a virus scanner that's blocking it, or your device might be preventing it from running as a security feature, so you can try creating exceptions for the game in those. You could also try turning off animations in the settings to see if that works. If none of that helps, let me know and we'll try something else. Hopefully we can resolve the issue!
i deleted a few apps in my phone and delete the game and download it again and at the home page i press the new file again but still didn't work and uh you mentioned that turning off animations btw any buttons i press in the home page will turn my screen back and get me to my home screen ( im not good at English sorry ) thanks for the help though!
Your English is very good, don't worry! But darn, two of the things didn't work. The only other thing it might be is a security feature or virus scanner that's blocking the game for some reason. Maybe a permission or something. I don't know what path you take on your device to access that, I'm afraid, but hopefully you can find it and see if you can allow the game to run.
I'm sorry, I translated your message to try to understand, so hopefully I can help. Are you unable to access the DLC? If so, you might have to reinstall the game completely with a fresh version and start that one.
I already solved it, thanks <3
OK! That's great. Thanks so much for playing the game, and we hope you enjoy.
Playing this game isnt enough. I need it in my veins. To say this game is amazing wouldn't do it justice- truly. Before downloading, I wasnt happy about having only one love interest. I was all, "It's a dating game. I should have more than one guy!"
Man, was I wrong. So horribly wrong.
If you're having this mindset before downloading, let me tell you this: With Cove Holden, you don't need anyone else. While you can customize his appearance and personality, I personally didn't touch anything(aside from his hair.) Having to watch someone grow and change with you while you develop is a beautiful thing, and I can't believe I missed the point of that. The Cove I had on file grew to be a sweet and caring man, and I bawled like a damn baby because I loved him so much. I found myself screaming "THATS MY BOY" multiple times when I watched him and MC grow and navigate not only their feelings towards each other, but to their family and peers. They had big (and I mean BIG) feelings and issues to work out, but that's just part of growing up and maturing, and that's just beautiful.
Now another thing I want to yap about is MC, the fact you can customize them as a person is INSANE. No, seriously. It's detailed as hell. I was pleasantly surprised because no game ever has put that much thought into an MC. You can customize their height, weight, body type, religion, dietary needs, sexuality and gender, and much MUCH more.
I'm just being a little nitpicky, but I do wish you can see more of them in CGs, but I understand with all the options you have, that can be a coding/artistic nightmare, so I can't deduct any points for that. The options are still amazing and shows representation!
I originally just got it on a whim because Spotify recommended me the "Our Life" soundtrack and the game was free. I mean, who turns down free random games?
Now I'm buying all the dlc packs and whatever other expansion packs I can get my mitts on. The hold this game has on me is crazy. I mean, I stayed up late for 2 nights trying to speed thought
10/10 This game is on my list of visual novel recs. Kudos to the creator and everyone else who made this game possible! <3
I had to cut this review short because it was getting long but MY GOD theres so much to say. Play it. Everyone play it. Tell you parents and grandparents to play it. ❤️
Hi! I love this game so so so much, honestly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had :')
I was wondering how to access the save file on mac to export it? Is there one single file I should be looking for or a folder? Thank you in advance! ^^
I don't own a Mac, so can't really say for certain, but I think this is a path to find your save files:
~/Library/RenPy/game_directory
To access the above path:
Open up a Finder window
Press COMMAND + SHIFT + G
Paste/enter the path (~/Library/RenPy/game_directory) into the text field and hit Go
Hopefully that helps! And thanks so much for playing.
I LOVED IT, the characters, the vibes, the relationships, everything is amazing. I just wished that there was more drama like fights revolving around the main character.
plus mom remimd me of Toriel
I really like this game, I haven’t finished it yet, but I noticed that the background keeps flickering. I’m not sure if that’s just a problem on my end
Sorry about that! There should be a simple fix: while in the game, press Shift + G and change the renderer to ANGLE renderer. That usually does it. If not, then you can turn off animations in the settings menu instead. Hopefully that helps, and thanks so much for playing!
Alight ty! I'll try that.
My absolutely favorite game! A true masterpiece! Couldn't do anything with myself after playing the Patreon Beta of Our Life 2 , got so nostalgic that decided to come back to the first game. It's been a while since I've played it and since then I have updated my PC to a Mac and the Mac version is not available on Steam, where there are all the DLCs I have bought. My only option is itch.io now.
I wanted to inquire if it's possible to somehow download the game with all the bought DLCs still without repurchasing them for the second time again but on itch.io? Through the connection with the Steam account maybe?
(wouldn't be the biggest problem if it's impossible though, such a great game with such a skilled talented team deserves all the support in the world)
We can't do key swapping, but you can take the Steam DLC rpas out of the Steam Our Life game folder and add them to the Mac game folder of the Itch version. No need to buy them again! Thank you so much for playing the game, and we're glad you enjoyed it.
I saw this game and have been wanting to play it for so long, but when I download it on my android tablet, i wait for it to load and when I get to the home screen and actually be able to play it, it crashes out and I can never get past even a few seconds of the tutorial. I am not sure if it's just a android thing or if it happens with others. Im hoping to try this game out soon and amazing style designs as well!! >_< 🩷
Sorry about that! Are you getting some kind of error message when it crashes, or does it just close? Hopefully I can help you get it to work properly.
It just kicks me out of the app to my home screen, and when I open it again it does the same thing with having to reopen on the loading screen. I tried many times, anything with having to actually play the game such as ,new file, continue, or the tutorial button it crashes and just closes. It loads the preference settings and gallery but not for me to actually play the game.
Darn. There are a few things you can try that might help: You can try clearing some space on your tablet, in case it doesn't have enough space to run. You could try seeing if there's a virus scanner or security feature that thinks the game is suspicious. Or you could turn off animations in the game's options menu to see if that makes it easier to run.
I got it to somewhat work, thank you for your help!! ^_^ 🩷
OK! Glad to hear that. Hopefully it keeps running for you. Thanks so much for playing!
I DOWNLOADED THIS GAME YESTERDAY AND IVE PLAYED LIKE. 12 HOURS. I AM EXPLODING. I AM EXPLODING
since ol1 is summer and ol2 is fall...
olwinter could be in the midwest !!! northern wisconsin rep frfr.
AND HEAR ME OUT !! olspring in the dc area. the cherry blossoms. like northern virginia or capital area maryland. AURGH AURGH AURGH!!
i've played this game like. 5 times at LEAST and on my latest playthrough i have realised something.
lee's design (at least in step 2) is kind of giving masako natsume from penguindrum. i think its the hair
anyways 10/10 game i just had to tell the world my truth
那个蓝色头发的人简直是天使。。我爱他。。