One Hour One Life

Release Date: February 27, 2018

Action, sandbox, 2D, survival, online, indie games, MMO, crafting, multiplayer, internet

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One Hour One Life is an indie sandbox survival game developed by Jason Rohrer. Gameplay focuses on taking care of your family and helping to expand your civilization. Take control of your character and live your whole life in just an hour.

Game mechanics
Game modes
Technical aspects

One Hour One Life is a multiplayer survival sim game. It was developed by indie artist Jason Rohrer, who is also responsible for its release. The game appeared on his own website back in February 2018, and hit the Steam platform on November 8, 2018. Since its release, the title was systematically improved until September 22, 2021, when the author decided to take an extended break.

Game mechanics

The main concept of One Hour One Life is to expand civilization and take care of offspring. The player takes on the role of one of the characters, whose entire life lasts literally one hour. He starts the game as a newborn, and his mother becomes another, randomly selected player. His survival in the initial phase of the game depends on him.

The player can join the server alone or with friends. Then, however, the player who controls the mother has to feed not only one child, but two, three or even four. Taking care of one baby is not easy, so it's quite a challenge to keep the whole bunch alive. The greater the number, the greater the risk that one of the players will not survive the first minutes of the game. After playing a full hour (or dying earlier), the player still has the opportunity to return to the game by playing as another character.

In addition to expanding the family tree, the players' goal is also to complete a larger project, which is to rebuild the civilization. At the very beginning, the game world presents an almost infinite wilderness. The first character who starts the game in this still uninhabited area is Eve, who together with her offspring lays the foundations for the future civilization. The first generation deals with the development of the most primitive and basic tools, also creates the first dishes and perhaps establishes small farms. Subsequent members of the server create permanent buildings, try to domesticate animals, deal with metalworking or develop a transportation network.

It's worth remembering that not everything lasts forever, and a civilization that is currently basking in luxury can easily collapse. Players must keep in mind that key resources are depleted over time, so the essence is good management, planning and organization.

Game modes

In this title the gameplay is conducted in multiplayer mode. The fates of the characters controlled by the players intertwine, and cooperation is the key to the stable development of civilization.

Technical aspects

One Hour One Life is a solo project, developed from scratch by a single author. Jason Rohrer prepared the graphics himself, drawing them using traditional techniques (pens and markers on paper). He also developed the entire game engine from scratch, as well as composed the music and all sound effects. At the time of its release, the game included more than 1300 fully interactive, buildable objects.in luxury at any given moment can easily collapse.

Videos and Screens

[3:19] One Hour One Life trailer #1