"That Life" is a rural survival RPG that tasks players with navigating the challenges of life in a countryside setting, blending resource management, survival mechanics, and character progression. Game Overview
Core Concept: The game centers on a protagonist—such as a wealthy individual forced to live a humble life—who must learn "humility and survival" in an unfamiliar rural environment.
Primary Goal: Players must survive by "making ends meet," which involves scraping together money for basic needs like train fare or food. Key Gameplay Mechanics
Survival Systems: Players must actively manage vital stats, including:
Hunger and Thirst: Consuming food and water is essential for staying alive.
Resource Scavenging: Gathering discarded items or fishing to sell for profit. Rural Activities:
Hunting: Players can hunt wild animals (boar, deer, wolves, bears) using purchased firearms, though they must manage limited ammunition and watch out for aggressive creatures.
Farming & Production: Players can manage land, clear ground, till soil, and produce resources like firewood.
Water Management: Utilizing natural sources like rivers and springs for potable water or brewing. Character Progression:
Leveling: Engaging in daily activities allows the character to level up and improve skills.
Skill Management: New versions of similar titles include skills for herbalism and manual labor (e.g., splitting logs without a sawmill). Release Information Platform: Primarily available for PC (Windows).
Release Date: The title Country Life Survival RPG ~making ends meet~ was released on May 7, 2016.
If you'd like to explore this genre further, I can provide more details on: Specific crafting recipes for essential tools or fertilizer Locations of rare resources like saw blades or glass
Similar modern titles that feature rural survival, such as Japanese Rural Life Adventure or Farmer's Dynasty 2 Country Life by u065430 - Itch.io
Title: The Soil Remembers Your Name
Tagline: Forget dragons. Fear the frost.
In That Life: The Rural Survival RPG, there is no Chosen One. No ancient evil rising from a volcano. Your greatest enemy isn't a dark lord—it’s a cracked tractor engine in late October, with fifty acres of hay still on the ground.
You are not a hero. You are a caretaker. A farmer. A hermit. A survivor on the ragged edge of a forgotten county where the map simply reads “Nowhere, population: you.”
The World Is Beautiful. It Is Also Trying to Kill You.
The rolling hills catch golden sunrise. The creek sings over smooth stones. But that same creek will flood your cellar in spring. Those hills hide a vein of clay that clogs your plow. The beautiful doe at the treeline? She’s leading her herd straight into your winter vegetable patch. that life the rural survival rpg
That Life strips away the power fantasy. Your character has stats, but not for magic or swordplay. You track:
Every Season Is a Dungeon.
Crafting With Consequences.
You find a broken fence post. You have a roll of rusty wire. Do you fix the pig enclosure? Or build a trap for the coyote that killed your best laying hen?
Crafting isn’t about “recipes.” It’s about desperation. Your first “tool” is a sharpened shovel. Your first “weapon” is a glare and a shotgun shell you found in a ditch. Every item has a story of failure behind it. The leaky bucket you patched three times. The chainsaw that only starts if you swear at it in the right tone.
The Social Survival Layer.
The town of Larkspur isn’t a quest hub. It’s a fragile web. Old Mabel at the diner won’t give you a quest. She’ll give you a piece of pie. But only if you helped her nephew fix his truck last winter. Relationships are earned in That Life. They are tracked not by a “liked” meter, but by a Ledger of Debts. You remember who helped you when your well went dry. And they remember who you left stranded in the mud.
Death Is Not Glorious.
You don’t die fighting a bear. You die slowly. The game doesn’t fade to black. It shows you the frost creeping across the windowpane as you run out of wood. It shows you the last potato shriveling in the root cellar. It shows you the letter you never wrote to your sister.
Then, you wake up. Not at a bonfire. Not at a shrine.
You wake up in a hospital bed in Larkspur, three months later, with a medical bill you can’t pay and a field gone to ruin.
That Life: The Rural Survival RPG isn’t about escaping the world. It’s about staying in it. About learning the name of every stone, every weed, every weather pattern that wants you gone. It’s about looking at a broken-down pickup truck at 5 AM in the freezing rain and whispering, “Alright. One more try.”
Because this life? It’s the only one you get.
Coming to PC and console. Bring your own calluses.
In Rust or Minecraft, your cooked meat lasts forever in a chest. In That Life, you must learn canning, pickling, and smoking within the first week, or your hard-won harvest will turn into slime. The "Rot Timer" is dynamic based on the temperature. Leave a chicken on the counter in July? It spoils in four in-game hours.
Because That Life: The Rural Survival RPG lacks a linear quest line, the stories are your own. I remember the "Summer of the Bore Water," where my well dried up during a drought. I had to drink from a stream, got Giardia, and spent three days vomiting inside my shack while trying to sew a torn pair of jeans.
Another player online shared the tale of the "Lonely Goat." They couldn't afford a herd, so they bought a single, sick goat named Gerald. Gerald became their companion. When the power went out, Gerald’s body heat kept the protagonist alive. When the wolf came in Week 4, the player fought it with a shovel and lost. The emotional devastation of that pixelated goat haunts the community forums to this day.
The game uses a real climate model. A late frost in spring can literally destroy your entire year’s crop. You learn to read cloud formations and wind direction. A red sky at morning might shepherd’s warning—you have three hours to bring livestock inside before a hailstorm kills them.
To understand where "That Life" stands, compare it to contemporaries: "That Life" is a rural survival RPG that
Setting: A decaying or traditional rural landscape where the player is isolated from urban modernities.
Core Theme: Survival through self-sufficiency and community reintegration (from "uprooted luxury" to "lowly survival"). 2. Core Gameplay Mechanics
Survival Vitals: Players must manage hunger, thirst, and stamina. Unlike "cozy" sims, failing these has tangible consequences, such as leveling down or health loss.
Scavenging & Economy: In the absence of a steady salary, players must:
Sell discarded items or scavenged resources (fish, wild plants).
Engage in "making ends meet" by taking odd jobs for suspicious or eccentric townsfolk.
Self-Sufficiency: Fixing up an old, dilapidated house, cultivating seasonal crops, and crafting tools from natural resources. 3. RPG Progression
Character Stats: Levels are gained by successfully surviving days and performing manual labor (farming, fishing, repairing).
Lifepaths: A "Lifepath" system—similar to Cyberpunk RED—determines the player's history (e.g., a wealthy individual forced into poverty), creating rivals or allies based on your former life. 4. The "Rural Horror" Element
While many rural RPGs are cozy, a "survival" focused version often includes:
Hostile Environments: Navigating "green and unpleasant lands" where scarcity leads to desperate combat using improvised weapons like cricket bats or pitchforks.
Folk Horror Themes: Interaction with local cults, "eavesdropping on the dead," or befriending mythical river spirits that may not always be friendly. 5. Technical Implementation (Reference)
Engine: Commonly built in Unity for mobile/PC flexibility or RPG Maker MZ for top-down retro aesthetics.
Visual Style: High-quality pixel art or low-poly 3D to maintain a "fast-paced and fun" feel even with survival stakes. 6. Market Positioning
Audience: Players who enjoy the "quiet, peaceful exploration" of The Long Dark but crave the social and farming depth of Stardew Valley. Platforms: Highly portable for Android/iOS or PC (Steam).
Unity survival game development tips and tutorials - Facebook
While there isn't a widely recognized title explicitly named "That Life" in the rural survival RPG genre, your description strongly aligns with a specific niche of "cozy" yet challenging simulators. Below are the most likely candidates and a summary of what makes this genre's gameplay "solid." Likely Game Matches
The Good Life: A "debt-repayment" RPG set in a rural English town where the protagonist, Naomi, must take photos to pay off her massive debt. It blends rural exploration with unique mechanics, such as the ability to transform into a dog or cat to hunt or track scents.
Farm Folks: An upcoming open-world farming life sim focused on building a farm from scratch in a detailed world. Title: The Soil Remembers Your Name Tagline: Forget
The Long Dark: If your focus is more on the "survival" aspect in a rural/wilderness setting, this title is considered a benchmark for realistic wilderness survival and solitude.
Stardew Valley: The gold standard for rural life RPGs, emphasizing relationship building and farm expansion over saving the world. Key "Solid" Gameplay Pillars
A successful rural survival RPG typically leans on these mechanics to create an immersive "life" experience:
Mundane Progression: Instead of epic quests, the focus is on improving daily life, such as upgrading a house, increasing social status, and building meaningful relationships with local NPCs.
Survival Hardship: High-quality titles often include "harsh" rural realities—managing food freshness, overcoming hypothermia, or navigating dangerous local wildlife.
Environmental Storytelling: Using detailed level design and music to make a physically small rural area feel like a vast, lived-in universe.
Moral and Economic Dilemmas: Meaningful choices, such as deciding whether to spend money on family needs or community projects, which can lead to different story outcomes.
Are you thinking of a specific developer or a platform (like a Steam early access title or a mobile game)?
That Life: The Rural Survival RPG Guide
Welcome to That Life: The Rural Survival RPG, a game where you'll navigate the challenges of rural survival, managing resources, crafting items, and building relationships. This comprehensive guide will help you get started and thrive in the game.
Game Overview
In That Life, you'll play as a character who has just moved to a rural area, seeking a simpler life. However, you'll soon discover that survival in the countryside is not easy. You'll need to manage resources, craft essential items, build relationships with the locals, and balance your physical and mental health.
Getting Started
Resource Management
Crafting
Relationships and Social Interactions
Health and Wellness
Tips and Tricks
Advanced Tips
Common Challenges and Solutions
Conclusion