Life simulation games will focus on people for the simulation. Players will create characters who have lives within the game world. Players will set their attributes, temperament, looks, goals, and more, and create a house or neighborhood for them to live in, and though they will have some power over the virtual person, the game characters will also react according to personality traits that the player might not have control over. Simple tasks that you hope to achieve will sometimes become impossible when a willful character decides to do something else. That’s part of the fun of life simulation games.
Playing as a combination of a god and an architect, players will attempt to influence the virtual people to fulfill their goals while designing and redesigning the house they live in. Often, the house design is the most interactive aspect of the game, with every aspect of the visible design being handed over to the player, who must try and create a space that inspires and excites the characters within their virtual soap opera.
The goals are typically open-ended and will change during the game’s progress. A virtual character might aspire to be a painter but could then fall in love and abandon that goal in order to become a parent. They’ll probably have to turn that art studio into a nursery. Such is life.