Afterlife (video game)

Afterlife
Developer(s)	LucasArts
Publisher(s)	LucasArts
Designer(s)	Michael Stemmle
Composer(s)	Peter McConnell
Platform(s)	Windows, MS-DOS, Macintosh
Release	June 27, 1996[1]
Genre(s)	God game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Afterlife is a god game released by LucasArts in June 1996 that places the player in the role of a semi-omnipotent being known as a Demiurge, with the job of creating a functional Heaven and Hell to reward or punish the citizens of the local planet. The player does not assign citizens to their various punishments and rewards since the game does this automatically. Instead, the player creates the infrastructure (roads, zones for the various sins/virtues, reincarnation centers) that allows the afterlife to function properly. Players are accountable for the job that they do because of their bosses, The Powers That Be, check in from time to time. The player also has the assistance of two advisors—Aria Goodhalo, an angel, and Jasper Wormsworth, a demon. Aria and Jasper provide warnings when things are going wrong with the afterlife, and offer tips on how to fix the problems.

The game is very satirical, with various references to pop culture (such as a passing mention of a "San Quentin Scarearantino" or sending a Death Star to destroy buildings if the player cheats too much).

The primary goal of the game is to provide divine and infernal services for the inhabitants of the afterlife. This afterlife caters to one particular planet, known simply as the Planet. The creatures living on the Planet are called EMBOs, or Ethically Mature Biological Organisms. When an EMBO dies, its soul travels to the afterlife where it attempts to find an appropriate "fate structure". Fate structures are places where souls are rewarded or punished, as appropriate, for the virtues or sins that they practiced while they were alive.

While the seven sins are based on the seven deadly sins, only two of the seven virtues correspond to the seven heavenly virtues.

Alternatively, players can choose to lay down generic zones for fate structures, that can house all souls of all types easily. However, these structures do not support as much population or are as effective as the single virtues/sins, and are more of a short-term solution for lost souls who cannot find a reward/punishment.

The paths that souls take through the afterlife depend largely on the tenets of the souls' belief systems. Depending on these tenets, a soul may visit a single fate structure or it may be rewarded/punished for multiple sins or virtues. Tenets also determine whether a soul will visit only Heaven, only Hell, or both, as well as whether that soul will reincarnate after it has received its final reward or punishment.

The player can view of the current distribution of sins and virtues on the Planet, as well as the percentages of EMBOs who believe in each of the tenets. The player may spend a considerable amount of money to influence an important EMBO on the Planet. This influence can cause the EMBO to adopt one or more of the sins or virtues, as well as persuade him or her to believe in the tenet or tenets selected. This EMBO will then spread their newfound ideals, which will cause a shift in the beliefs and sins/virtues in the surrounding area.

At the start of the game, the EMBOs on the planet will be at the lowest level of technology, which is fire. As the game progresses, new technologies are discovered, ranging from pottery to medicine to aviation. New technologies help the EMBOs to become more widespread on the planet, which means a larger population for the afterlife when they die. The development of new technologies can be assisted by wielding influence on an EMBO artist or inventor in the same way that EMBOs are persuaded to new tenets or sins and virtues.

Most buildings in the afterlife produce Vibes, which are a measure of how buildings affect one another. Buildings can either produce "good vibes" or "bad vibes". Fate structures need to be under the appropriate type of vibe (good in Heaven, bad in Hell) in order to evolve into larger and more efficient structures.

As Demiurge, the player receives a yearly paycheque from The Powers That Be. The amount received is based on a number of factors, such as the number of souls that passed through the gates of the afterlife in that year.

The player's afterlife is staffed by angels (in Heaven) and demons (in Hell). At first, all workers are imported and must commute from other afterlives, which quickly becomes expensive. The costs can be lowered by building Topias to house workers in the player's afterlife, making the commute unnecessary. Employment costs can be further reduced by building training centers, which train processed souls to become angels and demons.

Balance can be done in two ways. The first, the Micromanager, allows the player to browse a specific structure and adjust its balance level for free unless the player decides to lock the structure, in which case a maintenance fee is charged yearly. The balance level is measured in a grayscale bar, with the two extremes dedicating to research (permanent souls) or production (temporary souls). The Macromanager, on the other hand, allows the player to balance manually or automatically all fate structures of a specific virtue/sin simultaneously.

"Bad Things", which are akin to natural disasters, occur at random. Each one can be repelled by one of the Special Buildings that are granted as rewards for reaching population milestones. Bad Things can be disabled via an in-game menu. However, doing so decreases the player's soul rate by half.

Like most god games, Afterlife is open-ended and does not have set conditions for winning. There are, however, a few definite ways of losing the game. These include having an excessive number of unemployed workers (leading to an all-out war between Heaven and Hell), staying too deep in debt for too long, and the Planet's population being wiped out by either nuclear warfare or an asteroid event.

Lead designer Michael Stemmle said the idea for the game came as he played SimCity, combined with a fascination for creating an organized afterlife "that tickled my bone ever since I read Dante's Inferno". In what he attributed to LucasArts being "a rather experimental studio at the time", his pitch was approved and a team of 20 people would then work on the game. Stemmle wanted in particular to go "whole hog goofy" by not having a setting trapped to reality, full of satirical descriptions and pun-based names. He found Hell to be easier to design, as "ironic punishments are dime a dozen", leading him to find Heaven more creatively rewarding.^[2]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score GameRankings 75%[3] Review scores Publication Score AllGame [4][5] CGSP [7] CGW [8] Game Informer 8.75/10[9] GameSpot 7.6/10[10] Next Generation (MAC)[11] (PC)[12] PC Zone (1996) 88%[13] (1998) 72%[14] Computer Game Review 90%[15] MacUser [16] PC Games A−[17]

Afterlife received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.^[3] A Next Generation critic called the game "a title that will immediately attract anyone who was even mildly amused by the mother of all sim-builders, SimCity", and praised the vast number of options and responsibilities, the characters, and the complex government.^[11] They also made similar praises of the PC version, but with a lower score.^[12]

Tim Carter in Computer Gaming World called Afterlife "a well-designed simulation that adds a lot of new twists to a successful genre." He praised the game for its humor, variety, and systems, while criticizing it for its "completely inadequate documentation."^[8]

Macworld gave Afterlife its 1996 "Best Simulation Game" award.^[18]

In a critical reappraisal in 2014, PC Gamer writer Richard Cobbett looked back on Afterlife writing that the game represented a unique idea “trapped in little more than a clone of SimCity 2000.” He argued “it's one of LucasArts' least-remembered games for a reason, being neither good nor bad, but a definite wasted opportunity.”^[19]

In 2023, Aftermath writer Chris Pearson revisited Afterlife and reflected on its impact after finally unlocking all the game's structures 27 years after its release. He called it "complicated and counter-intuitive" yet "wildly funny and structurally fascinating in a way that no other game is."^[20]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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