GrindLife

About the Game

CAN YOU MAKE IT IN NEW YORK?

You show up with $2,500 in checking, an entry-level job and a room in a shared walk-up. Your first paycheck loses federal, state and city tax, then Social Security and Medicare take their share. Then the rent is due.

Make $60K a year and $3,821 a month is what you get to spend. A room in Astoria runs $1,404. The subway is $3 a ride. You'll take it a lot.

GrindLife is a multiplayer life sim on the streets of New York, built from the city's map data, with the pay, the tax and the rent pulled from public sources that you can check inside the game. If a month goes badly, it goes badly for the same reasons it would for anyone who lives here, whether that's a slow week of tips or a missed card payment that drags your credit score down. You won't do it alone. Other players are on the same blocks, live, and you can bump into them on the sidewalk, at a bar or at somebody's house party on a Friday night.

WORK YOUR WAY UP

Pick from over 35 careers, from barista and yellow cab driver to nurse, paralegal, FDNY firefighter, union plumber, MTA bus operator and software engineer. Each one pays the New York median for that job, from federal wage data, and each one has a ladder you climb the slow way.

Nine of them play as their own shift. Behind a coffee bar you pull shots and hand off orders while the line backs up. Somebody gives up on their croissant and walks out. Next order. A paralegal can study for the LSAT and go to law school. But you don't have to be there for every one. Shifts that start while you're offline get worked for you at average results, so a busy week at your real life day job won't sink you in-game.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

• Rent by neighborhood, with the landlord's 40x income rule and a credit check.

• Roommates, bills, groceries, renter's insurance and a phone plan.

• Three credit scores, a credit card, and what a missed payment does to them.

• Student loans if you go back to school.

• An Invest app that replays real stock market years from 1928 on, crashes included.

• A mortgage once you can afford a place.

• Fall far enough behind and you sleep on a friend's couch or end up in a Shelter!

THE CITY

Five neighborhoods are built and walkable: Kips Bay in Manhattan, Astoria in Queens, Mott Haven in the Bronx, Bushwick in Brooklyn and St. George on Staten Island. The subway and the ferry link them- a Manhattan job and a cheaper room in the Bronx means a commute. Every player shares one clock, day and night. The weather follows Central Park's monthly averages, snow days too.

OTHER PEOPLE

• Real players carry a green dot.

• Chat with whoever's nearby, message friends, post on the Stoop.

• Date other players, or the characters who text you back.

• Throw a house party, a game night, a club night or an open mic.

• Sunday run club on the East River, pickup basketball, sneaker drops with a line.

• Talk out loud at game tables and on open mic stages.

OFF THE CLOCK

When you're not working there are clubs with a cover charge and a dance floor, diners, pubs, cafés and a cinema that shows classic films. 15 games on your phone, chess and pool and spades and dominoes, plus a daily crossword. Get a dog. Decorate your place and take your stuff when you move.

HOW TIME WORKS

The city runs fast. An hour passes in about six real minutes and a month of your career takes three real days, so ten minutes on your lunch break counts, and so does a whole evening with friends. Rent, shifts and paydays keep coming whether you are logged in or not. Your life saves as you go, on any computer you sign in on.

KEY FEATURES

• 5 New York neighborhoods built from the city's map data.

• 35+ careers at New York median pay, 9 with playable shifts.

• Federal, NY State and NYC tax on every paycheck.

• Rents by neighborhood, roommates, credit scores, student loans.

• Other players on the same streets, live.

• House parties, club nights, open mics, run club, pickup basketball.

• Dating, pets, your own apartment, a mortgage when you're ready.

• 15 phone games plus a daily crossword.

FOR ADULTS

GrindLife is for players 18 and over. People chat freely, and there's dating, drinking and nightlife.

FROM THE MAKERS OF ESCAPE THE GRIND

GrindLife takes the idea at the heart of Escape the Grind, that every paycheck, bill and price in the game should match the real thing- and then builds a full life sim around it. You still feel every dollar, but now there's a city to walk through, a job to clock in for, people to meet, parties to attend, and a home to make your own. Everything you'd expect in real life.