Solo developer Jason Rohrer, well known for auteur games like Passage and Gravitation, revealed his next game today: One Hour One Life, a multiplayer survival game set in a persistent server where players work together to advance civilization.
As you may have deduced, you only have one hour-long life to work with each time, though you can create as many characters as you want. Sometimes you'll spawn in as an adult, sometimes you'll be a baby. Sometimes you'll be an adult with a baby, and your baby is another player. Rohrer puts it best:
"I was this kid born in this situation, but I eventually grew up," he writes on the game's official site. "I built a bakery near the wheat fields. Over time, I watched my grandparents and parents grow old and die. I had some kids of my own along the way, but they are grown now... and look at my character now! She's an old woman. What a life passed by in this little hour of mine."
There are a whopping 10,000 craftable items in One Hour One Life's "tech tree", ranging from humble loincloths to sports cars to gold-plated robot servants. Rohrer says he'll be adding 100 new items each week to keep up with the server's progression. It sounds like a 'race against the dev' kind of deal, which sounds pretty cool.
One Hour One Life is now available DRM-free directly via Rohrer's site for $20. You can get a glimpse at some of those items in this trailer:
