Narrative life simulator · pixel art

UMARE

Born somewhere. Live the rest.

You don’t choose where you’re born. The globe stops somewhere on Earth: a country, a family, a name. What comes next is yours to live, scene by scene, from childhood to the final look back.

UMARE is pronounced “oo-MAH-ray”. In Japanese, 生まれ (umare) means “birth”.

Coming soon to iPhone

Not available yet, and no date has been announced. A question, or want to hear about the launch? Write to support@umare.app

41countries to be born in≈ 82% of the world’s population

1,132possible life scenes

36awards to unlock

16keepsake objects

The idea

A birth lottery

Every game starts with a draw: a country, a city or a village, a family, a name, a standard of living. The globe stops somewhere on Earth, and that’s where you were born.

Weighted by population. The more people live in a country, the likelier it is to be drawn. The game covers 41 countries, about 82% of humanity: it does not represent the whole world.
Fictional stories. Characters and events are invented. The settings (income, life expectancy, schooling, urbanization…) are inspired by public World Bank data.
No judgment. The game simplifies reality. It does not claim to predict or judge any life, person or country.

One country, one tile: its size follows its population (2025). The real draw also picks a city, a family and a name.

How it works

From birth to the final look back

A whole life, in four steps.

Birth
The globe spins, then stops on your birthplace: a country, a city or a village, a family, a name, a standard of living.
Childhood, then the rest
From early childhood on, life unfolds in short scenes: about forty per life, all the way to old age. Each scene leaves you two or three choices.
Decisions
Every choice weighs on your health, happiness, energy, skills, money and relationships. There is no single right answer, only consequences, and sometimes a memory that stays.
Look back
At the end, a summary retraces your life: its countries, jobs, encounters and memories. You can turn it into a card to share, then start again, somewhere else.

Feelings

A life makes you laugh, makes you angry, tightens your throat.

From the most tender to the most dramatic, every scene has its tone. Here are lines from the game, as they appear on screen.

Tender

You walk, you talk, you take a wrong turn twice. When you arrive, you linger at the door a beat too long, then trade numbers the way you’d trade a secret.

Joyful

You plead for an hour, with a drawing and a budget in loose change. There’s a sigh, then “one-week trial.” The week lasts fourteen years.

Comic

You name her Josette. She eats the curtain, the mail and a pair of glasses, then watches TV with you. The neighbors say nothing: they await what comes next with sincere interest.

Absurd

You fill in the boxes, reread, finally understand the rules of the game. The adult looks at you with pride and a little dread: “You fill these out better than I do.” From that day on, you’re the family’s forms officer.

Infuriating

You wait four hours, read a whole book, do a newspaper puzzle. At the window, a clerk stamps the paper and says, “There.” You leave with the form, the feeling of having crossed a desert, and three pages of notes for a novel.

Tense

You hear nothing until evening. When the door opens, your kid has the face of someone who’s understood everything and doesn’t want to talk about it. You eat.

Dramatic

You carry the boxes of photos upstairs, one at a time, on your knees on the steps. The water takes the couch, the table, half the ground floor. The memories are safe. You’ll remember it better than the rest.

Sad

You drink your coffee from it every morning, holding it by the chipped handle. After a week you no longer think about the cup: you think about the person. It’s gentler, and harder. You keep going.

Bittersweet

You draw thirty posters. An old man calls: the dog ran off when his wife died. He cries when he sees him. The dog licks your hand before leaving.

Excerpts from game scenes, in English. The same decision can end in laughter or in disaster.

Scenes

Real scenes from the game

Three examples, as they appear in the app: no text was written for this website.

Pixel art illustration: a waterfront at night, facing a city with lit windows.

Tender

Last Tram

The last tram pulled out right under your nose. On the platform, someone else watches it go with the same look of reproach. It’s chilly, you’re alone, and it’s a forty-minute walk.

Your eyes meet for a second, like two people recognizing a shared misfortune.

Walk home togetherOne street, one conversation, one risk
Share a cabPricey, but you talk
Walk home aloneYour bubble, your thoughts

What happens · Walk home togetherYou walk, you talk, you take a wrong turn twice. When you arrive, you linger at the door a beat too long, then trade numbers the way you’d trade a secret.

Pixel art illustration: a bright office with counters and big windows onto the city.

Absurd

Form A-38

You go with an adult to the government office counter. They send you to window 4, which sends you to office 12, which says you first need form A-38, available at window 4.

The line moves one yard an hour. A sign reads: “Thank you for your patience.” It looks sincere.

Wait, once againPatience is a skill you build
Smile at the clerkA kind sentence, direct eye contact
Fill out the formBoxes, ink, a signature to copy

What happens · Fill out the formYou fill in the boxes, reread, finally understand the rules of the game. The adult looks at you with pride and a little dread: “You fill these out better than I do.” From that day on, you’re the family’s forms officer.

Pixel art illustration: a kitchen at dusk, four silhouettes around a table.

Sad

The Cup at the Back of the Cupboard

In the cupboard, at the very back, the cup of someone who’s gone. Chipped at the handle, with the faded drawing of a horse. You put it away one day without thinking. It stayed.

Some objects wait for the right moment. This one may be it, or the next.

Use it every morningA habit, a presence
Give it to someoneFind it a second home
Put it backNot yet

What happens · Use it every morningYou drink your coffee from it every morning, holding it by the chipped handle. After a week you no longer think about the cup: you think about the person. It’s gentler, and harder. You keep going.

Game text, in English. Each choice can lead to several outcomes: the one shown here is only one of the possible ones.

Relationships and memories

Relationships that age with you

Parents, siblings, friends, a partner, children: they live, drift apart, come closer, pass away. Look after the people who matter.

Important moments are written into your timeline

New memoryThe KeysThe day you turned a key in a lock that was yours.

New memoryThe scholarshipThe day you chose school.

New memoryThe CupYou drank your coffee from the chipped cup with the faded horse. Every morning.

Objects that pass from hand to hand

16 keepsake objects drawn in pixel art: a watch, a notebook, a ring, a recipe, a bike, a guitar… They get handed down, sold or lost.

Screenshot of the Relationships screen: the character’s parents, siblings, grandparents and friends.

Screenshot of the Memories screen: the life timeline, from childhood to youth.

Screenshot of the Awards screen: pixel art medals, some unlocked, others greyed out.

Atlas of lives

Every life leaves a dot on the globe

The Atlas keeps the birthplace of every finished life on the real globe, counts your years lived and finds your farthest-apart births. 36 awards are there to unlock, for example:

First breathComplete your first life.
In another’s shoesLive one life as a woman and one as a man.
Five horizonsBe born in 5 different countries.
Back to the rootsLive abroad, then end your life in your birth country.
First cryHave a child during a life.
Great ageReach the age of 90.

Three languages

In English, French and Japanese

The game exists in three languages. The Japanese text is rewritten from the intent of each scene, not translated word for word.

Français

Formulaire A-38

Tu accompagnes un adulte au guichet de l’administration. On vous renvoie au guichet 4, qui vous renvoie au bureau 12, lequel précise qu’il faut d’abord le formulaire A-38, disponible au guichet 4.

English

Form A-38

You go with an adult to the government office counter. They send you to window 4, which sends you to office 12, which says you first need form A-38, available at window 4.

日本語

書類A-38

大人の付き添いで、役所の窓口へ。4番窓口に行くと12番の部署に回され、12番では、まず書類A-38が必要だと言われる。A-38は、4番窓口にある。

The same scene (“Form A-38”), opened in each language.

Offers

Free to play. Further, if you like.

The base game is free: whole lives, from birth to the final look back. To go further, there are three optional offers: an expansion you buy once, or the Club as a subscription.

One-time purchase

“Destinies” expansion

Three paths to live, which you buy once and keep.

The Entrepreneur. Build something with your own hands.
The Artist. Create, even when it doesn’t pay.
The Family Dynasty. Pass things on, generation after generation.

229 scenes in the pack.

Coming later. Not available to buy yet.

Access while subscribed

UMARE Club, monthly

A one-month subscription that renews automatically. The whole catalog of available expansions, as long as you’re subscribed.

Available when the app launches.

Access while subscribed

UMARE Club, yearly

A one-year subscription that renews automatically. The same benefits as the monthly Club, at the yearly rate.

Available when the app launches.

UMARE Club includes

The whole catalog of available expansions, while the subscription is active
New content released while you’re subscribed
No ads
The unlimited album: all your finished lives, and the share-card themes

UMARE is not out yet: these offers can’t be bought yet. No content schedule is promised.

See the offers in detail

Privacy

Offline, no account required

UMARE plays without a connection and without an account. Here’s what that means for your data, in practice.

On your device

Your lives are saved on your phone. You can play offline.

Optional account

An account (Apple, Google or email) is optional: it saves your lives in the cloud and lets you restore them on another device. The game works without it. You can delete your account in the app (Settings, Account).

No tracking tools from us

No usage analytics in the app, no cookies on this website, no requests to third-party services: the fonts and images come from the site itself.

Ads, with your consent

The free version may show an ad (Google AdMob) after the summary, never during a game and never after your first life. Where the law requires it, it asks for your consent first.

The details are in the privacy policy; the Data page explains where the game’s numbers come from.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

When is UMARE out, and on what?

UMARE is coming to iPhone first. It isn’t available yet and no date has been announced: this page will be updated on launch day. Nothing has been announced for other platforms.

Is it free?

The base game is free: whole lives, from birth to the final look back. A full-screen ad may appear after the summary, never during a game and never after your first life. To go further, there are two optional offers: the “Destinies” expansion (one-time purchase) and UMARE Club (monthly or yearly subscription). See the Offers page.

Do I need an account or a connection?

No. UMARE plays without a connection and without an account. An account (Apple, Google or email) is optional: it saves your lives in the cloud and lets you restore them on another device. You can delete it in the app: Settings, Account.

Are the stories real?

No. Characters and events are invented. The settings (income, life expectancy, schooling, urbanization…) are based on public World Bank data; the game simplifies them and does not claim to predict or judge any life, person or country. See the Data page.

Why only 41 countries?

The game covers 41 countries, together home to about 82% of the world’s population (World Bank, 2025). The birth draw is weighted by population, then by representative places: it does not represent all of humanity. More countries may be added.

What age is it for?

The game deals soberly with themes of life: illness, grief, end of life. It is not intended for children under 13.

What happens to my games and my data?

Your games are saved on your device; without an account, they never leave it. If you create an account, your lives can be saved in the cloud so they can be restored. Everything is detailed in the privacy policy.

What does “UMARE” mean?

UMARE is pronounced “oo-MAH-ray”. In Japanese, 生まれ (umare) means “birth”, or “where you were born”: the one place nobody chooses, and where everything begins.

A life is waiting for you, somewhere.

UMARE is coming to iPhone first. Journalists and creators: everything you need to talk about it is in the press kit.

Coming soon to iPhone Press kit