Our Life: Beginnings & Always
The Next Our Life Game 🍂
the GameA nostalgic visual novel where you design your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story.
Our Life: Beginnings & Always is a feel-good simulation, as well as a “feel-better” one, where painful emotions such as sadness, anger, stress, and worry can all be expressed, then met with reassurance, understanding, and support.
It’s a wholesome experience that faces large steppingstones of life, while having a focus on familiar everyday moments. With notable amounts of customization for even tiny details, you can enjoy pleasures as simple as having a preferred type of drink and a neighbor who cares enough to remember what it is.
- 4 different periods of life to experience: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and fully grown
- Name, appearance, personality, and pronoun (he, she, or they) customization for your character
- Change your character’s details however you like as you grow, including transitioning to new pronouns
- Shape your personality, feelings, and preferences, then see them reflected in the story as characters remember who you are
- 1 love interest, Cove Holden, whose personality, interests, and appearance will develop in a custom way over the years based on his experiences with you
- Decide for yourself how quickly or slowly the relationship with Cove develops by setting a unique dynamic; from love at first sight to last minute confessions to always being friends and more
- A welcoming, sentimental story that can easily be enjoyed over and over using new main character qualities or different connection types with Cove
- Font style and size customization. Hit the “A” key to open a screen that has text appearance options
- 397,000 words, 16-24 hours of content in total
Jamie Last (changeable name) has spent the last couple weeks on a summertime high. At eight-years-old, nothing is better than what feels like endless days of school-less adventures, especially when you live walking distance from the beach. While coming home under a scorching sunset one fine evening, Jamie is approached by a stranger. The man is looking for a kid who can do him a favor, and he’s even offering to pay for it. He wants Jamie to please be friends with his only child. The person is Mr. Holden, Jamie’s new neighbor, as well as the father of the odd, and oddly named boy, Cove. Whether Jamie wants to play along or not, Cove isn’t going anywhere. He’s present in Jamie’s life for far longer than they ever would’ve guessed.
And then the long days of vacation finally come to an end. Summer may not be able to last forever, but Jamie can take comfort in knowing it will come back again someday…
Game Discussion
Steam User 67
This game fundamentally changed my life.
in all my years of playing dating simulators, i have never once found a game that made me feel so supported, loved, and cherished like this game. Its honestly incredible how someone could write a fictional character who feels so human. Cove utterly stole my heart the moment I saw him, and as I played for the first time, seeing him grow and learn things about himself was inspiring to me, as a younger player.
When I first played the game, I didn't have many friends, and sought comfort in the fictional, and I'll be honest, I still do. But this game, no joke, saved me. in my darkest moments, in my lowest of mental health lows, when I was on the edge of giving up everything, I could look back at this game and say I felt like Cove, Liz, Derek, Baxter, all of them, were my friends, my loved ones, fictional characters that had transcended the realm of a story and had become something more to me.
Now, I am older, have much more experience with both life and dating simulators, and have never found a game to top this one on my charts. its still, by and large and far, my number 1. if you are going to pick up a Dating sim, go with this one. it will blow any and all expectations out of the water and really show you the boundaries of a story and how well written and complex characters can truly be.
on another note, I love the amount of rep in the game. Having two moms, a panromantic demi-sexual autistic lead, multiple trans and gay characters, and free options for skin tones, hair textures, and pronouns, its all so amazing to see in a game, especially one this personal and down to earth.
I have been giving GB Patch studios my money for going on 2 years now, I have bought plushies, DLC's, and more. if you are going to give an indie, diverse, incredible company your support and funding, let it be this one.
all in all, please, with all my heart, i beg you to play this game. start to finish, front to back. maybe it will save your life like it did for me.
Edit: UM THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH??? I honestly didnt think my little sob story in the reviews would be seen but thank you all so so so SOOO much for the community awards!! Peace and love to all of yall, hope you have the best of days <3
Steam User 39
Best game ever for sad girls who have no friends. This game comforted me when I was sad and friendless in 2021, and it's still comforting now in 2025 as I am still friendless, only momentarily though :)
Steam User 37
I've never really played visual novels before in my life (excluding the one exception of DD:LC when that was popular). I don't have a point of reference to other VNs, nor did I ever have a particular interest in them up until I tried this game on a whim.
If you only take away one thing from this review, let it be this: it is a CRIME that this game is free. I would happily pay whatever price it theoretically could've had, knowing how much of a genuinely life-changing experience it would end up being.
I am not a person prone to binge games, not really. But I totally did with this one. The incredible and beautifully diverse character customisation, along with the ability to actually play YOURSELF with how many choices you can make that are actually meaningful to the development of your characters and your relationships, are only one of the many things that really made this game shine for me. The adorable art, charming and relaxing music, and idyllic setting tugged at my heartstrings for a childhood that I didn't really have.
And last, but far from least, the writing.
When I say that I genuinely had a shock realizing that no, these characters are not real and no, I wasn't ACTUALLY living this story out in my actual life, I mean it wholeheartedly. The characters are so painfully human, so charming and lovable in all of their different ways, that it's hard not to fall in love with them. Especially Cove, arguably the star of the show alongside yourself. I well and truly fell in love with him; his fears and insecurities, his quirks, and his incredible growth throughout the story. He somehow managed to capture my heart the literal moment he appeared on screen, and I don't think I'll be the same person I was before playing this game. Cove was not only a charming, adorable and wonderful character to interact with and fall for - he was also a mirror, one that allowed me to see myself in ways that I hadn't previously allowed. The whole story served as a mirror, really. A gentle mirror that let me experience joy, grief and longing such as I'd rarely felt so intensely.
Coming out of finishing the game with the added on wedding DLC (which I highly recommend) leaves me incredibly bittersweet. It gave me so much joy that my face hurts from smiling, and yet I think I'll be mourning the fact that it's over for the next little while. I already have the temptation to start another play-through and go through the journey all over again, just to see how differently my character and Cove can come to love each other.
For someone like me, a sometimes very emotionally repressed person, this game was like therapy. My heart and soul sing with joy, and the wounds of my past feel soothed as if wrapped in a gentle touch. Our Life: Beginnings & Always has convinced me that maybe, just maybe... it's worth trying to love, again. It's worth letting people in, making new friends, finding new people to share joy with. That despite the fact that good times inevitably must end, and life may not always be happy...
... there will always be new beginnings.
Steam User 30
I love this game so much that it's not even funny, I genuinely wish that my parents were this loving and understanding. I feel like this game gives me so much comfort, it's so sweet and it takes you slowly through the storyline. It's almost healing in some sort of way.
The contrast between the people in this game and the ones you encounter in real life is nonetheless harsh and cruel. Coming from a person with a difficult childhood, playing this game is definitely something else.
Besides this contrast, I just love Cove ( the main love interest ), he's sweet and every little thing feels so genuine. I also like the other love interests, yet they don't even come close to Cove.
I recommend this game from the bottom of my soul, cause me personally I feel seen and understood, and playing this game after a long tiring day will definitely boost your mood.
I feel like this game can be a huge safe place for a lot of people with a not so happy past, so therefore it's just really great, even though I can't put in words how validated and happy I feel while playing this.
Steam User 21
This game has made me cry several times throughout my 90+ hours. Absolutely my favourite dating sim and one of my favourite visual novels ever. I highly recommend if you enjoy visual novels and dating sims or if you're interested in trying them, this game is perfect for an introduction to them.
Steam User 25
Played this game for the first time some years ago. It helped me explore my own identity. I didn't realize I felt so strongly about certain things until I played the game and was able to detach myself from the fake performance I was forcing myself to live. Highly recommend, especially for anyone looking to learn more about themselves.
Steam User 21
Honestly, this game is very sweet. Its the perfect level of cheesy, romantic, and adorable that makes it so easy to play for hours on end. I love seeing the different reactions and options and how they affect cut scenes or end of game dialogue. As cringe as it may seem, games like these are what keep me going some days. Sometimes, I just need to run away and live another life, beginning and always.