''The Good Life'' is a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed by Japanese studio White Owls Inc. and published by

Playism Playism (stylized as PLAYISM) is an independent video game publisher operated by Active Gaming Media. Playism started as a digital distribution platform for PC games, launched in May 2011. History Playism was launched in May 2011 as a digital ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

, and released on 15 October 2021.

Gameplay

The game involves playing the role of Naomi Hayward, a journalist from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

who, after accumulating a debt of £30,000,000, has been sent to investigate a small village in the north of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

called Rainy Woods believed to have a secret, in which the population is able to transform into cats and dogs. Naomi also eventually learns this ability too. The player must take photographs of various things in the game and upload them on the Internet in order to make money, and is also given many side quests to complete, in addition to the game's main quest.

Development

The game was developed by Japanese studio White Owls, and the project was led by

Hidetaka Suehiro , known as SWERY or Swery65, is a Japanese video game director and writer. He was one of the founding members of the game development studio Access Games which is based in Osaka. His roles in the company included director, designer, and writer. ...

, the director of ''

Deadly Premonition ''Deadly Premonition'' is an open world survival horror video game developed by Access Games. Set in the fictional, rural American town of Greenvale, Washington, the story follows FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan as he investigates the mur ...

'', and

Yukio Futatsugi is a Japanese video game developer. His work includes leading the teams which created Sega Saturn games ''Panzer Dragoon'', ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'', and ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'', and Xbox title ''Phantom Dust''. He is the co-founder of video ...

, the creator of the ''

Panzer Dragoon ''Panzer Dragoon'' is a series of video games by Sega. The first three games were developed in the 1990s by Sega's Team Andromeda for the Sega Saturn. The fourth, ''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' (2002), was developed by Sega's Smilebit team for the Xbox ...

'' series. The studio launched a failed crowdfunding campaign on

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, though a subsequent crowdfunding campaign via

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was successful. While the game was originally set to be published by

The Irregular Corporation Mediatonic Limited is a British video game developer based in London. The company was founded in September 2005 by Brunel University students Dave Bailey and Paul Croft, releasing their first game, ''Snowman Salvage'' in December that year. Ini ...

announced that it had taken over publishing duties in June 2021. While the game was initially set to be released in 2019, it was delayed several times. The game was released for

, and

on October 15, 2021.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average reviews" upon release according to

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Good Life, The Windows games Xbox One games 2021 video games PlayStation 4 games Nintendo Switch games Photography games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Video games about cats Video games about dogs Video games about shapeshifting Video games developed in Japan Video games set in England Kickstarter-funded video games Playism games