Created as a reboot of InstaLife, simulation app BitLife has received 10+ million downloads on Google Play and 1 million ratings on the Apple App Store, charting in the top 10 mobile games overall.
You can learn an instrument, immigrate across the globe, battle addictions, commit crimes, and find true love. You can join cliques, gangs, or professional sports teams. What makes this game so immersive is that your character's talents, location, and family dynamic influence the choices they make.
BitLife is made unique by the crass writing and random event generation. Seriously, this game has no chill. Your family, friends, and pets can get sick and die at any time from freak accidents or grotesque ailments such as rabies or anal cancer.
Despite the critical and financial success of the title, long-time fans have a few gripes. Android stayed consistently six months to a year behind in terms of updates. Candywriter has received all the flack, but how much are the original developers really to blame?
The app has a solid UI, but the genre by definition requires content to be added consistently in order to curb repetitive storylines. Some updates did well to expand upon the existing content, such as the Fame update. Fame unlocks new activities and opportunities for financial growth, and can be achieved through the sports, music and acting career paths.
Careers are the most frequently developed aspect of the game, the newest addition being the Street Hustler. Generations, Pets, Prison, and Fame, updates were released for iOS in 2019, opening a new layer of gameplay. BitLife has also teased entrepreneurial paths such as modeling.
It’s fun to grow up, but once you’ve locked in a career path or reached the pinnacle of fame, the game can get boring and monotonous. After obtaining a certain amount of money, there are only so many things that you can buy.
You can choose to spend your riches on ten luxury vehicles, but this is pointless if the game allows no use for the vehicles except to be stored and depreciate in value. There is no penalty for not buying property, except for your in-game spouse nagging for you to do so.
Additional content in the form of accessories can be unlocked by completing challenges where the user creates a life with certain objectives in mind. Each challenge is live for a specified amount of time, after which it expires.
But downloaders from the start were uneasy about content being locked behind a paywall and the overabundant sales pitch for microtransactions. The first comprehensive microtransaction was a Bitizenship, an ad-free experience that allows users access to all future content.
If you genuinely enjoy this game and play it often, these purchases may be worthwhile as they give you more range and depth to personalize your story.
The Bitizenship currently unlocks the salon and spa, pets, teacher/boss interactions, and allows users to continue the family lineage for unlimited generations. For the same price, you can also unlock God Mode, which not only allows you to choose all of your traits at birth, but lets you edit your family members, friends, and lovers.
It can take months for even iOS users to receive updates that couldn’t have possibly needed much new code. they could at least roll out the most basic content Fans feel that the devs have abandoned them to prioritize new titles DogLife, CatLife, and worse yet, RankLife.
DogLife and CatLife should have been combined to create a uniform app (PetLife?). Both apps allow you to play as the other animal respectively, eliminating the need for a separate app altogether.
Not only was the game bland and almost pointless, but what was marketed to be a more kid-friendly alternative to its 17+ successor has come under fire for pedophilic and zoophilic elements that were chalked up to an error in code.
RankLife, on the other hand, is less a game than a grift. You basically are given a list of generic options that you rank from your favorite to least favorite in whatever chosen category. Then, the app pairs you with people who answered similarly. That’s it.
Since the majority of downloads come from teenagers and young adults, the brand has failed to identify with their target audience. Being adults, players would have easily looked the other way if it weren’t for those microtransactions rearing their ugly heads again. In March 2022, Candywriter introduced Boss Mode, a $4.99 micropurchase including all future job packs. As of April 2022, the price has increased in the UK by roughly 2 euros.
But many fans were furious at Candywriter’s false advertising, as users who previously paid for Bitizenship had been promised all future content packs with purchase. Only certain members received the unlock, which the company called an oversight and released the content to Bitizens in the next patch.
The BitLife devs, whether through the influence of Candywriter or Stillfront, have not been particularly receptive to criticism.
The most recent update includes in-game popups that ask the character their opinion of DogLife and allows players to respond to multiple-choice options with their opinion of the new update. If you answer the option reading “the devs are clueless”, all your character’s stats will instantly drop to zero.
The community is still large and ever-expanding, and there’s plenty of time for Candywriter and Stillfront to turn their reputation around. But for now, we wait…
