LifeTown Online 🏙️

An original browser-based multiplayer life simulation — create a character, move into Maple Court, get a job, furnish your home, befriend the townsfolk and other players, and live an ongoing simulated life. No installation, no plugins: it runs in a modern desktop or mobile browser.

All characters, world design, UI, code, audio and visuals are original to this project. No copyrighted assets, names, logos or UI from any existing game are used.

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Quick start

npm install       # three, ws, vite
npm run build     # bundles the client into client/dist
npm start         # serves game + WebSocket on http://127.0.0.1:7788

Open http://127.0.0.1:7788 in two browser windows to play multiplayer.

Environment overrides: GAME_PORT (default 7788). Player saves are JSON files in saves/.

Controls

Action	Desktop	Mobile
Move	WASD / arrows	virtual joystick (bottom-left)
Run	hold Shift	joystick edge / 🏃 button
Interact	E or 👋 Act	✋ button
Dance emote	F or 💃	—
Orbit camera	left-drag	drag on scene
Zoom	wheel	pinch area
Chat focus	Enter	tap chat box

Walk up to glowing POI rings (café, gym, pond, stage…) or furniture at home and press E.

What's in the MVP

• Character creator — live 3D preview; body type, height, skin tones, hair styles & colours, eyes, brows, nose, mouth, outfits, shoes, accessories, voice, age and up to 3 personality traits.
• One living district — Maple Court — main street with café, City Hall, gym, home-goods store and arcade. Every venue is enterable: walk to a street-facing door and press E to step into a shared furnished interior with activity spots (order coffee, hit the gym mats, browse the shop catalogue, play the arcade); apartment doors lead straight into your home. store, apartments, arcade façade, central plaza with fountain & stage, park with pond, food truck, bus stop, benches, lamps and trees.
• Needs & mood — hunger, energy, hygiene, fun, social, comfort decay over time; weighted mood engine with 13 moods + transient moodlets drive facial expressions and HUD.
• NPCs with routines — 10 original townsfolk walk POI-to-POI on daily schedules, chatter ambiently and react to your interactions.
• Jobs & economy — 12 careers × 5 ranks with pay, XP and promotions; shifts worked at real workplaces; TownCoins earned/spent across shops, homes, food and gifts.
• Housing & build mode — studio apartment instanced per player (5 more tiers purchasable), drag-to-place furniture on a snap grid with rotate/duplicate/sell tools, 58-item catalogue whose items boost needs recovery, cooking speed and productivity.
• Friendship & romance — contextual interaction wheels (Friendly/Romantic/Funny/Negative) gated by two independent relationship meters with tier labels and partner status.
• Multiplayer — server-authoritative sessions/rosters/economy/relationships over one WebSocket; 12 Hz snapshots with client-side interpolation; zone instances for town and every home; invitations to visit; global + local chat with speech bubbles.
• Day/night & weather — full day cycle (24 min/day) with dawn/dusk skies, sun/moon lighting, window glow and street lamps; sunny/cloudy/rain/storm/fog with rain particles, puddles that soak in, fog banks and lightning flashes.
• Mini-games — fishing (timing bar) and cooking (memory) feeding back into needs & fun.
• Phone — Messages, Contacts (relationship bars), Map, Careers, Bank (transaction log), LifeFeed social posts with in-game screenshots, Calendar of recurring town events, Home (teleport, property market, invites).
• Progression — player levels gate catalog/homes; 8 achievements incl. First Home, Social Butterfly, Millionaire, Interior Designer.
• Save/load — profiles autosave server-side (money, job, house, layout, inventory, relationships, achievements, needs); clients resume via token.
• Audio — fully procedural WebAudio: location-based music (home/town/night), rain beds, footsteps, door/cash/UI blips, achievement jingles.

Architecture

lifetown/
├─ shared/data.mjs        # single source of truth: jobs, catalog, NPCs, interactions…
├─ server/
│  ├─ index.mjs           # Node http static server + ws upgrade (/ws)
│  ├─ game.mjs            # GameServer: sessions, zones, snapshots, NPCs, clock/weather,
│  │                      #   economy, relationships, achievements, persistence
│  └─ persist.mjs         # atomic JSON profile storage
├─ client/
│  ├─ index.html          # shell: title, creator, HUD, phone, build bar, modals
│  └─ src/
│     ├─ gfx/engine.ts    # renderer, ACES tone-mapping, day/night lighting rig
│     ├─ gfx/avatar.ts    # modular stylized characters + procedural animation set
│     ├─ gfx/town.ts      # procedural district geometry
│     ├─ gfx/interior.ts  # instanced home shells + grid scaffolding
│     ├─ gfx/furniture.ts # 58 procedural furniture builders
│     ├─ gfx/weatherfx.ts # rain particles, puddles, lightning hooks
│     ├─ controller.ts    # input, collision, camera rig, network transform sync
│     ├─ world.ts         # actor manager, interpolation, bubbles/name-tags
│     ├─ systems.ts       # needs simulation + mood derivation
│     ├─ audio.ts         # WebAudio sequencer & SFX synth
│     └─ ui/*             # HUD, chat, phone apps, dialogs/minigames, build UI, creator
└─ scripts/
   ├─ e2e.mjs             # 20-check two-client protocol test
   └─ shot.mjs            # headless-browser walkthrough of every screen

Performance notes: static geometry is modest-draw-call by construction, shadows come from a single tight sun cascade, remote players interpolate between 12 Hz snapshots, and interiors are separate zone scenes so only one district is ever loaded.

Verification

node scripts/e2e.mjs    # exercises auth, movement sync, chat, social gates, jobs,
                        # cooldowns, shopping, housing, zones, invites, persistence
node scripts/shot.mjs   # drives the real client headless through all major screens

Roadmap beyond MVP

Beach zone & swimming, nightclub with DJ events, vehicles (bicycle → sports car), weddings & festivals, group activities, Postgres/Redis backing stores, WebRTC voice, seasonal events, pets, and expanded careers with skill mini-courses at the university.