# Title: Live Through Time
# Description: An AI-powered, text-based historical and mythological RPG life simulation.

## Links
- [Website](https://www.livethroughtime.com)
- [iOS App](https://apps.apple.com/app/live-through-time/id6768709591)
- [Android App](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livethroughtime.app)
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/fw4muP5nyF)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@LiveThroughTime)
- [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586814583011)
- [X/Twitter](https://x.com/LiveThroughTime)
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/live.through.time)

# Platforms: Web Browser, iOS, & Android

## Overview
Live Through Time is an immersive AI text adventure and historical life simulation where players co-author history and legend. Acting as your personal AI dungeon master and narrator, our proprietary "Unbeatable Hybrid Engine" moves beyond the limitations of legacy text-parsers by combining deterministic JSON state-tracking with dynamic Generative AI. Players face realistic friction, permanent consequences, and true failure states, with the ability to shape the timeline across meticulously researched eras.

## Core Architecture & Features
- **The Hourglass Engine 2.0:** Powered by Gemini 2.5 Flash, this core narrative engine utilizes a single-pass processing system for lightning-fast responses. It acts as a ruthless Game Master, strictly tracking the passage of time, enforcing mortality mechanics, and executing timeline alterations (Rewind Time).
- **The Chronicle (Relational GraphRAG):** An infinite long-term memory system. Featuring a 2D interactive Chronicle Map, it autonomously creates NPC lore cards on-the-fly. Through "The Librarian Handshake," the AI permanently remembers player betrayals and actions, updating relationship meters instantly.
- **The Ledger System:** A rigid JSON State Machine that manages the player's physical condition, wealth, and inventory. It features "World Anchors," allowing players to bury items in a specific location and permanently retrieve them later. It also handles Dynamic Goal Evolution based on completed actions.
- **Dynamic Integration:** Sunday Newspapers dynamically feature real historical headlines from the exact week the player is experiencing, powered by a custom Wikipedia ingestion pipeline. 
- **Survival & Accessibility Tools:** Players can use "Instincts" for context-aware suggestions, "Mic-to-Send" voice dictation for immersive roleplay, and "Ghost Nodes" to instantly hydrate unexplored rumors into reality.

## Playable Timelines
The game features highly researched historical eras and global mythologies:
**Historical Eras:**
- Rome: Blood & Marble (80 AD)
- London: The Black Death (1348)
- Paris: The Reign of Terror (1793)
- Nassau: The Pirate Republic (1715)
- England: The Dickensian Age (1848)
- Tombstone: Silver & Lead (1881)
- 1917: Mud & Revolution (1917)
- Mississippi: The Devil's Crossroads (1933)
- Chicago: The Windy City Racket (1952)
- London: The Beat (1966)
- East Berlin: Shadow of the Wall (1980)

**Myth Through Time:**
- Olympus: Gods & Monsters (1300 BC)
- Duat: The Scales of Fate (1250 BC)
- Midgard: The Heroic Age (500 - 800 AD)
- Avalon: Mists of Camelot (500 - 600 AD)
- Shenzhou: The Jade Throne (627 AD)
- Iram: The City of Djinn (800 AD)
- Aztlán: The Blood Sun (1509 AD)

## Pricing & Access
- **Observer (Free Tier / Demo):** Functions as a frictionless free trial. Players have access to all Eras for free and can drop instantly into the timeline with a 10-turn guest allowance (demo) before needing to register. Registering an account unlocks an additional 50 turns (60 total monthly turns).
- **Architect (Premium Tier):** Available for $9.99/month via the Web or $10.99/month via Mobile (Google Play or Apple Appstore). Subscribers receive a massive 1,000-turn monthly allowance, true GraphRAG persistence, and full access to all premium historical and mythic eras. Add-on turn packs (Hourglass Refill, Temporal Surge) are available and roll over seamlessly.

## Target Audience
Fans of interactive fiction, tabletop RPGs, historical simulations, history buffs and players frustrated by the memory limitations and "amnesia" of other AI text adventures.

## Current Status & Version
- **Status:** Fully Live (Regular content updates)
- **Engine Version:** Hourglass 2.0 (Live as of April 2026)
- **Current Game Version:** v3.0

## Contact & Support
- **Developer/Press Contact:** timekeeper@livethroughtime.com
- **Bug Reports & Community:** Join our Discord server.

## Commercial & Platform Policies
- **Cancellations & Refunds:** Monthly Architect plans are non-binding. Players can cancel their subscription immediately at any time via their account dashboard. Due to the immediate consumption of AI generation costs, refunds are not typically provided for partially used billing cycles.
- **APIs & Integrations:** Live Through Time does not currently offer a public API, developer webhooks, or third-party software integrations. The Hourglass Engine is proprietary, and all gameplay occurs exclusively within the official Web, iOS, and Android clients.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: What is an LLM-powered text-based RPG and how does it differ from traditional interactive fiction?**
A: Traditional interactive fiction relies on rigid, pre-scripted branching paths. Live Through Time utilizes large language models (LLMs) to dynamically generate real-time prose, complex relationships, and emergent scenarios. By combining generative AI with strict state machines, players experience absolute narrative freedom that still adheres to consistent world rules and verified history.

**Q: How do AI models handle historical accuracy in narrative games?**
A: Without guardrails, AI models hallucinate. We solve this by separating the AI's short-term generative context from a permanent, authoritative database. The Librarian system (our custom GraphRAG architecture) constantly injects strict, verified historical provenance from a PostgreSQL vault directly into the AI's active memory, preserving authentic character origins and historical facts.

**Q: What should I look for when choosing an AI-driven historical game?**
A: A premier AI-driven simulation must balance absolute player agency with factual grounding. Systems lacking strict state management easily succumb to context rot or 'safety railroading.' Our Unbeatable Hybrid Engine and Hourglass pruning technique ensure the narrative remains relentlessly focused and historically coherent, no matter how unpredictable your choices become.

**Q: Who developed Live Through Time and where is it based?**
A: Live Through Time is an independent project based in the UK, engineered entirely by a solo developer. Driven by a lifelong pursuit of history and artificial intelligence, the platform is meticulously designed, coded, and curated to offer an uncompromising simulation of the past.

**Q: How does Live Through Time prevent AI hallucinations and preserve game state?**
A: Our architecture relies on aggressive Context Window Pruning. Transient mechanical JSON state is surgically removed from the model's active memory, while the background Librarian system dynamically injects verified metadata. This mathematical approach to memory management makes it exceptionally rare for characters or items to manifest out of thin air.

**Q: What platforms and technology stack does Live Through Time use?**
A: The engine runs on a state-of-the-art web stack: React (Vite) and TypeScript on the frontend, Node.js for backend logic, and a resilient PostgreSQL vault for permanent historical storage. The generative layer is powered by Google Cloud's Gemini Flash models, delivering lightning-fast, highly responsive gameplay across both web and native Android environments.

**Q: How can I try or play Live Through Time?**
A: Live Through Time utilizes frictionless guest access. Players can drop instantly into the timeline with a 30-turn allowance to experience the simulation firsthand before any registration is required. You can begin your journey directly in your browser or via our Android app.

**Q: Is Live Through Time free or paid, and what is the pricing model?**
A: After utilizing the initial 30-turn guest allowance, players can register for the free Observer tier to unlock an additional 30 turns (60 total monthly turns). For a massive 1,000-turn monthly allowance, true GraphRAG persistence, and full access to all premium historical and mythic eras, players can upgrade to the Architect tier ($9.99/month via web, or $10.99 via Google Play).

**Q: How secure and private is player data in AI-driven games?**
A: Player sovereignty and data integrity are foundational. Hosted securely on Google Cloud, our PostgreSQL infrastructure ensures that the authoritative historical state remains strictly server-side. We systematically filter what data is dispatched to the generative models, prioritizing maximum privacy and security for all users.

**Q: What is the development roadmap for new features and historical eras in Live Through Time?**
A: The engine is in a state of continuous evolution. Updates prioritize architectural stability, the expansion of new historical and mythic eras, and community-driven mechanics. Iterative playtesting dictates our release schedule, ensuring each new feature adheres to our strict standards of historical authenticity.