{{Short description|2018 video game}} {{Infobox video game | title = One Hour One Life | image = One_Hour_One_Life_Logo.jpg | developer = Jason Rohrer | publisher = Jason Rohrer | platforms = Windows, macOS, Linux<ref name="ohol_website">{{cite web|url=http://onehouronelife.com/|title=One Hour One Life|website=onehouronelife.com}}</ref> | released = 27 February 2018 <br>8 November 2018 (Steam) | genre = Survival | modes = Massively multiplayer }}
'''''One Hour One Life''''' is a 2018 survival massively multiplayer online game developed and published by Jason Rohrer. Each player lives for, at most, 60 minutes in a large, persistent world, with each minute representing a year of life. They must gather and grow food, craft tools and build societies in order to survive. The game's source code and assets are placed into the public domain, and are freely available on GitHub,<ref>Rohrer, Jason (17 March 2019). [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jasonrohrer/OneLife/master/no_copyright.txt no_copyright.txt]. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref> with accounts being sold for access to the primary servers hosting the game.<ref name="wired"/> Originally available only on the website onehouronelife.com, it was later released on Steam in November 2018.
The main ideas influencing the game's design are player cooperation, sustainability and the prospect of developing a civilization. The game has had a positive reception, with critics comparing the game favorably to ''Don't Starve'' and praising its social aspects. Rohrer has stressed the continued development of the game until at least 2020. The game stopped development on 11 November 2025 so Rohrer could work on other projects.<ref>{{cite web |title=Update: Jason's Rocket Ride |url=https://onehouronelife.com/newsPage.php?postID=11037 |website=onehouronelife.com |access-date=26 November 2025}}</ref>
==Gameplay== 300px|thumb|right|Players gather in a village. To the right are two babies, who must be cared for by others. Players spawn randomly into the world either as a child, with another player as mother, or as a young adult, an ''Eve'', if the number of babies is already too high. Each minute played represents one year in the life of the player's character. For their first three years, players are unable to interact with objects and rely entirely on other players to feed them, while initially only being able to speak one letter at a time.<ref name="toucharcade_review">Thompson, Jordan (23 August 2018). [https://toucharcade.com/2018/08/23/one-hour-one-life-review/ "‘One Hour One Life’ Review – No One Gets Out Alive]". TouchArcade. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref> Each player has a food bar, whose size varies with age, that fills until full adulthood (17/18) and depletes over time when a player hits 40 years old. Players die of old age upon becoming 60 years old, but can also be killed by animals, other players, or their food bar being emptied. ''One Hour One Life'' is a permadeath game,<ref name="toucharcade_review"/> meaning that a player restarts from nothing after dying.
''One Hour One Life'' has over 3000 human-makeable objects,<ref name="ohol_website"/> which may be produced through crafting. The process of crafting involves clicking an object to pick it up, then clicking on another object in an effort to combine them. Crafting is necessary as the food sources available without it are limited.<ref name="pcgamer">Horti, Samuel (5 February 2018). [https://www.pcgamer.com/one-hour-one-life-gives-you-60-minutes-to-advance-civilization-and-raise-children/ "One Hour One Life gives you 60 minutes to advance civilization and raise children"]. PC Gamer. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref>
Players have an equal chance of spawning either as a man or as a woman, which the only difference being that women alone can birth new players when they are between the ages of 14 and 39.<ref name="pcgamer"/> playing as a male character may be easier due to a lower chance of causing another player's death.<ref name="wired"> Orphanides, K.G (4 March 2018). [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/multiplayer-survival-epic-one-hour-one-life-puts-the-future-of-society-in-womens-hands "Spawn as another player's baby in survival game One Hour One Life"]. Wired. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref>
==Development==
Rohrer has said that the idea that led to the game was a thought experiment about how long it would take for humanity to get "from arrowheads to iPhones" with "the knowledge we have today". In an interview in Destructoid, Rohrer discussed the problems with building a society in the game Rust, and how he planned to remedy those issues in ''One Hour One Life''. He argued that the occurrence of trolling and the lack of impact of death are detrimental to creating a system of justice and, by extension, building a community. In ''One Hour One Life'', the permadeath mechanic and the initial period of helplessness when a player spawns as a baby serve to force people to work together. Rohrer also commented that the themes of death and the choices made in the face of death are "constant in [his] career" and saw ''One Hour One Life'' as bringing together the ideas found in his other games into a "cohesive whole".<ref name="destructoid_live_together">Andriessen, CJ (23 January 2018). [https://www.destructoid.com/jason-rohrer-s-one-hour-one-life-asks-us-to-live-together-or-die-alone-483806.phtml "Jason Rohrer's One Hour One Life asks us to live together or die alone"]. Destructoid. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref>
An important part of the game is the idea of sustainability, which Rohrer discussed by email with Matthew Gault, writing in Vice Motherboard. Because villages run a risk of overexploiting their surroundings, successful communities require good resource management. Rohrer describes this as necessitated by the game's high difficulty, which is reinforced by repeated failure: all villages will die eventually, but the societies supporting cooperation and sustainability are able to survive longer. Over time, players have become better at continuing family lines, which Rohrer attributes to the emergence of culture, morality and taboos supporting these ideas. This is connected to Rohrer's own belief that morality does not exist as an independent concept but has evolved for practical reasons.<ref name="motherboard">Gault, Matthew (8 March 2018). [https://www.vice.com/en/article/one-hour-one-life-this-game-broke-my-heart-and-restored-my-faith-in-humanity/ "‘One Hour, One Life’: This Game Broke My Heart and Restored My Faith in Humanity"]. Vice Motherboard. Retrieved 28 January 2019.</ref>
After the game's release, Rohrer stated that the game had been in development for three years and that he had at least two more years of work left.<ref>Rohrer, Jason (9 March 2018).[https://onehouronelife.com/newsPage.php?postID=377 "Launching a game Off-Steam: Sales number from Week 1"]. onehouronelife.com. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref> During this time he aims to create craftable objects until the game has 10 000 of them. To accomplish this, Rohrer created a program that automatically traces sprites from scanned images.<ref name="destructoid_live_together"/> If required, he records a crafting sound for the object with his own voice.<ref name="gamasutra_crafting">Wiltshire, Alex (2 April 2018). [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/making-a-civilization-scale-crafting-system-for-jason-rohrer-s-i-one-hour-one-life-i- "Making a civilization-scale crafting system for Jason Rohrer's ''One Hour One Life''"]. Gamasutra. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref>
==Release== ''One Hour One Life'' was released on 27 February 2018 on the website ''onehouronelife.com''. In an interview with Richard Moss in Gamasutra in August 2018, Rohrer described that he deliberately had avoided putting the game on digital distribution platforms such as Steam and GOG. His reasons for doing so included the large amount of work needed to integrate the game's code into these services, as well as the control offered by hosting the game independently, which he described as allowing "a very sort of customized experience" in regards to "how the website [...] is sort of integrated with your account". The game's website, aside from distributing the game, contains various information about things such as family trees and character trivia. Rohrer describes this as giving the website the feel of a "cohesive portal" for the game.<ref name="gamasutra_steam" >Moss, Richard (30 August 2018). [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/skipping-steam-why-jason-rohrer-independently-distributes-i-one-hour-one-life-i- "Skipping Steam: Why Jason Rohrer independently distributes ''One Hour, One Life''"]. Gamasutra. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref> The game was released on Steam on 8 November 2018.
==Reception== {{Video game reviews | rev1 = The Games Machine | rev1Score = 9/10<ref name="tgm">Turrini, Roberto. [https://www.thegamesmachine.it/one-hour-one-life-pc-mobile/one-hour-one-life-recensione-pc-mobile/ "One Hour One Life Recensione PC Mobile"]. The Games Machine. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref> }}
KG Orphanides, in an article in Wired, described the game as tough but more accessible than Rohrer's other games, while noting the game's short sessions allowed for casual play. Orphanides also praised the game's social aspects and found the game successful in condensing human life within its short time span.<ref name="wired"/>
Matthew Gault, writing in Vice Motherboard, described the game as having "broke[n] [his] heart and restored [his] faith in humanity". Gault went on to say that while the survival gameplay is reminiscent of ''Don't Starve'', ''One Hour One Life'' also touches on themes of "sustainability, morality, and civilization". He also stated that despite the hostile nature often found in game communities the players of ''One Hour One Life'' generally take care of each other.<ref name="motherboard"/>
Roberto Turrini, reviewing for the Italian game magazine The Games Machine, called ''One Hour One Life'' a "masterpiece of game design" and claimed it lacked any negative aspects. He rated the game 9/10.<ref name="tgm"/>
''One Hour One Life'' had poor sales figures at its Steam launch, selling 315 copies compared to 2400 for Rohrer's The Castle Doctrine. However, sales improved over time.<ref name="pcgamer_content">Fenlon, Wes (20 March 2019). [https://www.pcgamer.com/one-indie-devs-solution-to-overcrowding-on-steam-make-games-that-are-infinite-content-generators/ "One indie dev's solution to overcrowding on Steam: Make games that are 'infinite content generators'"]. PC Gamer. Retrieved 26 March 2019.</ref> Four months after the launch on Steam ''One Hour One Life'' had grossed almost $700,000.<ref name="gamasutra_generator">Wawro, Alex (18 March 2019). [https://web.archive.org/web/20190323063431/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/338910/Rohrer_Make_fewer_consumable_games_more_unique_situation_generators.php "Rohrer: Make fewer consumable games, more 'unique situation generators']. Gamasutra. Retrieved 26 March 2019.</ref>
==''You Are Hope''== Developer Dual Decade runs an unofficial mobile fork of the game, titled ''You Are Hope'', for iOS<ref name="yah_ios">[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/you-are-hope/id1386813914 You are Hope on the App Store]. Retrieved 24 March 2019</ref> and Android.<ref name="yah_android">[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wereviz.evolution&hl=en_AU You are Hope - Google Play Store]. Retrieved 24 March 2019</ref> It uses a fork of the ''One Hour One Life'' source code but runs on an independent server hosted by Dual Decade, and features a number of changes and additions. Only the Chinese version has ads.
Jordan Thompson, writing for ''TouchArcade'', rated the game 4 out of 5 stars in a review, describing it as a "more mechanically deep version of ''Don't Starve''" and praising the player interaction and the decisions of life-and-death "that will sit with you long after you play". Maria Alexander reviewed the game for ''Gamezebo'', giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars while saying that it was "a crafter's dream" due to the many ways in which materials can be broken down and used. Both reviews criticized the mobile controls, though Gamezebo considered it only a minor issue.<ref name=toucharcade_review/><ref name="gamezebo_review">Alexander, Maria (20 August 2018). [https://www.gamezebo.com/2018/08/20/one-hour-one-life-review/ "One Hour One Life review – Live life to the full"]. Gamezebo. Retrieved 24 January 2019.</ref>
===Branding controversy=== In August 2018, Dual Decade created a mobile port of the game, originally titled ''One Hour One Life for Mobile'', using the ''One Hour One Life'' source code which Rohrer initially agreed was fine.
In March 2019, Rohrer publicly expressed frustration with Dual Decade's port. He worried their use of the same name could have potentially misled buyers into thinking it was a product made by him, even though they had labeled it an unofficial port in the descriptions of both the English and Chinese versions, and stated on their forums which of his updates they were porting over to their version. Rohrer eventually wrote a post titled ''Open Letter to the Mobile Developers'' on the ''One Hour One Life'' forums.<ref name="open_letter_to">Rohrer, Jason (1 March 2019). [https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5479 Open Letter to the Mobile Developers]. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref><ref name="gamesindustry_port">Sinclair, Brendan (5 March 2019). [https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-05-one-hour-one-life-dev-struggles-with-unauthorized-port One Hour One Life dev struggles with unofficial port]. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref> He cited at least one reviewer of the mobile game who was not aware the port was not directly contributed by Rohrer. He also cited an email of a Chinese player who thought Dual Decade was stealing his game, but ultimately, the wording only stated it was the Chinese adaption created by Dual Decade. Dual Decade expressed concerns that the game would not do well if it was labeled as unofficial. Jason Rohrer asked Dual Decade to state that the game was an "unofficial adaptation", which they did in the English version of the game, but not in the Chinese version. In response, a spokesperson from Dual Decade cited their rights to use the work and name, as Rohrer had placed it in the public domain, and attempted to negotiate with Rohrer.<ref name="open_letter_from">Christoffer (7 March 2019). [http://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5534 Open Letter From the Mobile Developers]. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref>
As a result of the public dispute, Dual Decade agreed to hard-fork the game, changing the graphics and title, and continuing development independently of Rohrer.<ref>Rohrer, Jason (16 March 2019). [http://onehouronelife.com/newsPage.php?postID=5636 Update: More Emotions]. Retrieved 24 March 2019.</ref> The name of the mobile port was changed to ''You Are Hope''<ref name="yah_ios"/><ref name="yah_android"/> on 22 March 2019.
==''Two Hours One Life''== A fork of this open source game.<ref>{{cite web |title=Two Hours One Life - One Hour One Life, play for free |url=https://twohoursonelife.com/ |website=Two Hours One Life}}</ref>
==See also== *''The Castle Doctrine''
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[http://onehouronelife.com Official Website] *[https://github.com/jasonrohrer/OneLife Source Code]
Category:2018 video games Category:Commercial video games with freely available source code Category:Indie games Category:Linux games Category:MacOS games Category:Open-source video games Category:Public-domain software with source code Category:Survival video games Category:Video games about children Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Windows games