The Manual › Getting Started

What is Live Through Time?

An AI-narrated historical life simulation where there is no winning condition: your goal is to live.

Live Through Time is a text-based life simulation set in real history and in the great mythologies. You inhabit one person in one place and time, and an AI narrator, the Hourglass Engine, plays the rest of the world around you.

Your goal is not just to survive, but to live. Unlike most games there is no winning condition. You are here to experience history from the inside.

The basics

  • No scripts. Every word is written live by the narrator in response to what you do.
  • Consequences. The world reacts to you. Insult a guard in Rome and expect a fight.
  • Co-authorship. You drive the plot; the narrator drives the world.
  • A world that keeps moving. Time passes, letters travel, newspapers print and other people pursue their own plans. See The World Moves On.

Where to go next

  1. Pick a time and place: Choosing an Era.
  2. Learn the controls: The Five Tools of Living.
  3. Understand your allowance: Turns & Access Tiers.

See also

Last updated 2026-10-08