Our Life: Now & Forever
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Begin your life anew in this second installment to the lovingly nostalgic Our Life series! Create an experience that’s all your own in this near-fully customizable, choice-heavy story. A demo is available 🍂
Fall settles over the charming mountain town of Golden Grove as the story begins. But it isn't only glittering leaves that are changing. You and your mom leave behind everything you knew before when you move to a new home nestled right in the middle of a tight knit cul-de-sac. It’s there where a paper airplane lands at your feet and brings you to unanticipated crossroads.
Make your own path through life as you grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. Even in the chilly autumn weather, it’ll be a truly heartwarming time.
Developer: GB Patch Games
Price: Free-to-play base game with optional paid DLCs
Release Date: Steps 1 & 2 releasing November 27th, 2026 (6am US Mountain Time/8am EST), other Steps releasing at future dates
Rating: Teen
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Presskit: HERE
Create the protagonist of your story:
Pick a first name, last name, honorifics, and have a nickname, too. Use any pronouns you prefer, including using multiple types and implementing your own set. Design your appearance using a dress-up doll, from skin tone, to hair, to clothes and accessories. Your mom’s appearance is partially customizable to have a family resemblance!
Take it Step by Step:
Experience four distinct periods of time: childhood, teen-aged, young adulthood, and grown. With all the highs and lows, the fears and fun, and the endless possibilities of self-discovery.
Live as you please:
Express your personality and preferences through hundreds of choices, then see those traits reflected in the story as people remember who you are. And you can always change as the years go by, whether that means discovering a new passion, shifting your disposition, or transitioning to different pronouns.
Find friendship, family, and romance:
Your own mom, peers, their parents, teachers, and other acquaintances; there’s a whole community in Golden Grove, and it’s up to you to choose your place in it. Meaningful connections of all kinds can be nurtured. Is the stoic elderly man on the street scary or is he your new adopted grandpa?
Develop relationships that are truly yours:
Use your own judgement to set how quickly bonds develop. Grow closer or farther apart as years go by. Focus on only one of the leads or be fond of both, including the option for a polyamorous relationship. And how you feel towards the people in your life is what determines your closeness. There are no limits on which behaviors you can have to be liked.
Enjoy a world to return to:
Our Life: Now & Forever features a welcoming, sentimental story that can easily be played over and over using new qualities for yourself or different relationship types with those around you.
Read your way:
Customizable lettering size and font type, two different textbox arrangements to choose from, and a self-voicing option built into the engine. Present the words in whichever style works best for you.
While you’ll be able to decide how fond you are of everyone in your life, there are two people you’ll meet whose connection to you will go deeper than all the rest: Qiu and Tamarack. Each one the same age as you and both living right next door.
Qiu “Autumn” Lin:
A true Golden Grove local, born and raised. Qiu is the kid to know in that town. The most popular, the most charming, until it all becomes too much. There’s a point where a coldness comes over Qiu and they shut out all except a few people. However, the rain doesn’t fall forever, and sadness can heal with real support. The day comes when Qiu is able to shine again, even brighter than before.
In Autumn you will find a thoughtful individual who just needs some time to embrace the person they’ve always known they were. Qiu was assigned male at birth, but comes out as genderfluid (they/he) partway through the story.
Tamarack Baumann:
A fellow newcomer, Tamarack moved in only about a week before you did. She’s a darling joy to those who get to have her company. And like the forests she loves so much, Tamarack is always changing in big and small ways. That isn’t always for the better. She’s surrounded by wrong branches, leading her down paths that only cause hurt. Yet despite all the pricks and snags on her path, the heart always remains the same.
With Tamarack you’ll see a kind miss who has a lot to learn about herself, but will never stop trying to find her way. Tamarack is a woman who only ever uses she/her pronouns.
[Qiu and Tamarack have more than one hairstyle they can end up with in the future.]
Build your life with them:
Set your unique "dynamic meters" that broadly describe how you behave towards one of the leads, keeping them consistent or switching that around as you grow up. Qiu's and Tamarack's dynamic towards you will develop in a custom way over the years based on who you are and what happens.
A romance with Qiu or Tamarack can develop as love at first sight, a longtime platonic closeness turning into last-minute confessions, a slow and gradual growth of affection that started at nothing, or anything in between.
Friendships form in just as many varied ways, ranging from immediate connections to hard-earned fondness, from casual company to irreplaceable family, and more. What you have together is complex with history and detail, yet still as natural as the leaves changing colors in the fall.
Join our Patreon to beta test scenes before their public launch and for sneak peeks!
Download
Development log
- Our Life: N&F Early Access Release Date Announcement!5 days ago
- Our Life: Now & Forever RoadmapJan 12, 2026
- OLNF Major Demo Update Out Now! 🍂Nov 29, 2025
- Our Life: N&F Demo PlansApr 20, 2025
- Our Life: N&F Structure Poll ResultsFeb 18, 2025
- Our Life: N&F Release Structure PollFeb 07, 2025
- Our Life: N&F - 2025 PlansJan 01, 2025
- Our Life: Now & Forever Public Demo Update November 2024Nov 24, 2024
Comments
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This might be a bit of a weird ask, but I'm pretty sure it was stated that this will be the last Our Life game. In that case, would you guys ever be open to giving tips on how you did things, like how the choices change certain thoughts or dialogue options or relationships and whatnot if someone or a team came to you guys wanting to continue the series with maybe a winter or spring themed game? Not like all the scripts or code or whatever, just how you did certain complex concepts. Of course not if they were trying to claim ownership of the idea and if they gave credits where it's due. Again I know this is an odd question but I think it would be cool if you guys had inspired someone to want to make a similar game, and essentially continue the series on where you guys couldn't. I'm not sure I worded this the best, but, you know...
I would recommend asking GB Patch before you make another game with similar things to their games, just to be safe, but they have mentioned before they use the Ren'py engine. Pretty much every visual novel uses it because it's pretty easy to learn and works well, it does use some python language for the code but for the scripts it's easy to learn. First obviously you write the actual script, but for the choices changing future thoughts and dialogue I'm pretty sure you set it so when they make a choice it gives the player a thing (or adds to it so it only gives it after they select enough of one kind of choice or whatever) and when it gets to a part where the dialogue would be different depending on their previous choice(s) it checks if they have the thing and if they do then it gives them the matching dialogue for it.
Im sure my explanation isnt the best but I recommend first learning Python and Ren'py! I will say for any game even close to the scale of Our Life you'll probably want a team because of just how many words and code you'll need to get even a semi-long game that has the kind of dialogue variety that Our Life does (even just one step has at least a million words total if I remember correctly)
While I wasn't exactly asking for me, I did want to make some VNs in general so thank you for the information! I was mostly just asking to see if it was possible, and maybe, one day, we could hope for like a winter themed Our Life, though I don't know if it will be as good as this one lol
Hello! We'd be happy if you or anyone else was interested in making a game inspired by Our Life. You can potentially find some useful guides and tools created by our lead programmer, Shawna, here on their website:
https://feniksdev.com/navigation/
Thanks so much for following, and best of luck in your creative journey!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I WAS RIGHT!!!
but it was to be expected.. <3
Wonder how I predicted the date? I only based it off of TWO factors!!
1. Gb mentioned that the EA will be on late november
2. She won't be releasing the EA on the weekends because steam doesn't allow updates(?) on the weekends
And I kinda just chose the most reasonable date, which was the 27th!
OMG YOU WIN
Part 2 of making OLNF character into minecraft characters! Qius turn!!
Created with LABY skin studio
Will the game be completed in 2027, or will it be finished this year?
There is a road map that answers this question under the development log on this page.
Most of the game's content will be completed in 2027, but there will be extra content added in 2028 as well. You can find the full breakdown on the roadmap. Thanks for following!
Hi ! I downloaded the Mac version of Our Life: Now & Forever, but macOS Tahoe says Apple can't verify it for malware. Is it safe to open on my Mac ?
I have a Mac and have been trying to find the version to download it for the past 2 days, can you tell me how you did it or perhaps what you used?
You can find the Mac version here on this page. It's the third download on the list. If you need help setting it up, let us know, and have fun!
Yes, it is safe to open. It's normal for some malware programs to flag executables like our game. Thanks so much for playing, and have fun!
I got my friend into OLNF about a week ago, and I had the idea we could play minecraft as Qiu and Tamarack so I'm making minecraft skins of each of them! Heres tamaracks render!
(For anyone intrested I used LABY Skin studio!!)
Heres the skin breakdown if anyone wants!!
Absolutely gorgeous, u're talented GUH DAYUM.
I've commented before, and this time I wonder if there's a way I can get the bgm audio? It made me feel easy and peaceful, I even want to sleep with it ToT ... I'm going through a real hard time now, olnf is quite a relief for me, hope your work well.
The soundtrack will be available when the early access release comes out! We're so glad you enjoy it, and thanks for playing.
Thanks for replying! I've done the demo playing, I'm so TOTALLY and COMPLETELY impressed and touched. I'd say it's a great pleasure to have chance of playing it. Can't wait the updates!!
I LOVE THIS IN A WAY YOU WOULD NEVER UNDERSTAND, LIKE THIS IS MY LIFE IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE, VERY LOVELY EVERYTHING, DEF WILL BUY IT
i ADORE this game. the first time i played the demo i had just started college after leaving secondary school. i won't get into details, but i've survived a lot of academic abuse. this game was the thing that made it click for me that i hadn't really been there for myself. there's this one part in the step 2 demo where qiu like. ragdolls on you. and playing it made part of me feel really upset and bitter because when i was 14, my best friend was really not doing well mentally and also being neglected, so their hygeine was bad. i mean like i was picked on for being their friend because it was so bad. so i hadn't really had anyone who i could be that cuddly with!
that whole debacle led me down a rabbit hole that helped me realise some important things. okay so you know how sometimes people talk about healing trauma by doing stuff that would've made their younger selves happy??? i do that a lot and i think of my younger self as an entirely seperate person to me. playing that part of olnf made me realise that............ there's no way to explain it other than as well as having an inner child i have an inner tween as well. and i'd been neglecting her for years. like yeah okay my 7 year old self is having the time of her life living vicariously through me, but my 12 year old self is still physically unable to consume media where kids around her age have healthy friendships without getting angry and sad and demanding to know why it couldn't have been her.
since i realised that, i've been trying to reconnect with my inner tween again and i'm feeling a lot better. i've reignited old hobbies and reconnected with old friends - a new theatre group has started up and i've joined rangers, because i used to be in brownies, dropped out of guides during lockdown and then had a run-in with one of the other members when i was about 13 and never went back. now i'm in rangers on mondays, one theatre group on wednesdays, and the new group on thurdays. one of the people in that group used to be my best friend before life got in the way and who i'm already reconnecting with. the cast list for the show we're doing, fame, came out 3 days ago. we've both got leads. again, if not for this game i don't know if i'd have done any of this.
on another note, playing through the start of school in step 1 and being able to be distrustful towards the teacher feels incredibly cathartic. my main coping mechanism with school was to unconsciously almost compulsively find silver linings to things - even the teachers who abused me or my friends had some redeeming quality to them, so when i had to see them the following lesson it was easier to pretend to like them. i didn't start hating the teacher who abused me as a kid until i was 16 because it was the first time i was in a safe place to acknowledge the flaws of the education system, since i didn't have to put my uniform on the next day.
like i said, olnf is important to me.
about to do my 7th replay over the last 3 years. i am curious about the photo update bc ive never gotten the rroute to accessing 3 of them 0-0
its also possible those are teasers for the upcoming early access release, but lets hope not (cuz i wanna see what leads there)
frr me too! ill probably pay happily for early access regardless icl 7-7 im playing through rn and havent seen the pic with our mom and both kids so im assuming its not out
you do know that early access and full game are free right? only dlcs are paid. if you didnt know this. this is informing you.
oou shi no i didnt! why is it called early access though? isnt it just access? lol
Probably because its not the full game, but it's no longer exactly a demo either.
Can't wait for the full release! I come here to check every once and a while xx
I've played the Our Life: Beginnings & Always before, and it's my first time to play OL : N&F, what can I say??? I've played it for two hours aaaaand already fall for it ? I felt very attached to the game and mc as I did make a moving on my fifth grade then met my bestie here in rl? Besides I have to admit Tamarack and Qiu, they're so cute I love them already! Now I'm thinking, no expectations of GB Patch is too high! Your games have always been a comfort to me, tks for the great job u've did!!!
tem para portugues BR??
até agora não, infelizmente
por favor coloque!!!
Does anyone want to place their bets on the release date of the EA? 🤔🤔🤔 The winner will win.. uh... Maybe a hug from Qiu and Tamarack themselves?
But anyways, I place my bets on november 27th!!
26
I place my bets on any date earlier than that; I cannot wait any longer!!
29
NO, PLEASE 💔💔
I'll bet on 23th... To be honest, if GBPatch haven't said the release is on the end of november, I'd bet on nov 1st ... ToT
i know you knew things, how did you know it was gonna be 27
Let me say something.. I legit bet on my future child that Tamarack is autistic or something like cove and ONLY finds out abt it in step 4.
I'm pretty sure it's confirmed that Tamarack is not on the autistic spectrum 🥹🥹 but I could be wrong!
Does she have dyslexia? It is mentioned in step 1 that she couldn't be able to read lessons.
She doesn't, she's got astigmatism
even if it,s never confirmed to be canon, with the power of headcanons EVERY character can be autistic if u want them to be,,,,,,,,,,,
is there anything new in the game yet ?
Depends. If you’re talking about on here or steam then that would be no, but the patreon does get a new beta every month with new content each month
Sorry If this has been asked before, but, will we ever be able to romance Ren?
I believe GB said they have no plans for a Ren romance route unfort
unfortunately not 🥲 GB has said that the base game is already huge, and adding a DLC like that would be too much iirc
Unfortunately, there won't be a Ren DLC. Though we do love her, and we're glad you do too!
I can't help but wonder, can relationships between characters go backwards? I know you can't do that in Our Life: Beginnings & Always (once a relationship improves, it can't go back to a previous stage), but does Our Life: Now & Forever have that feature? (Although I imagine that would make the amount of text absolutely massive 😅)
Probably at the start of each stage, when you can change how you act towards your/MC's neighbours and how they act towards you? If you mean romantic relationships, though, it was said that once you start dating Qiu or Tamarack, you can't break up with them.
Your relations can change around between neighbor, friend, and crush, but once you change to love or family, or in an official relationship, that's permanent. Thanks for your question, and hope you're looking forward to the game!
I think I get it now! I’m really looking forward to it! 🤩 (In Our Life: Beginnings & Always, relationships can only progress and never regress; knowing that in Our Life: Now & Forever it’s actually possible for relationships to go backward makes me excited for the added gameplay depth and the potential for branching narrative paths!)
Hey , I'm new to pc and i really want to play this game. How can I install it.? I've tried everything.
there's three download options and one of them should say (PC) with the windows or the little penguin symbol, download that one. When it's downloaded go to your computers downloads and it'll show it's a compressed file. Double click it and look until you find the "extract all" click it when its fully extracted click the new file and inside the files contents you'll see a file that has "application" in it's description, click it and eventually the game will load up
Omg ive had a question for awhile and it might seem a little dumb but will choosing the envious of/jealous over option for either of the characters have a big impact on the story? Or does it just change a few interactions but otherwise keeps the same main relationships with the characters?? 😢😢
It will change certain interactions and dialogue, but it won't have a drastic or irreversible effect on the story. No matter what, you can always be friends with both leads! Thanks for following.
Simplesmente incrível, amo seus jogos, me apaixonei pela historia do cove e agora estou amando ''o'' qiu também, a tamarack também é muito fofa.
Não vejo a hora do lançamento completo incluindo os dlc's <3
Omg this game is literally perfect i love it so so much!! I love the art style, especially the rendering/shading, it's beautiful. The scenery and music is amazing too. I love all the character designs and the variety in characters personality, identity, issues, etc. Including how the characters change in the second chapter and what you do. It's so immersive with all the different dialog options and how sometimes characters comment on your appearance. And i especially like how after picking nonverbal responses a few times, the game adapts and changes the auto messages you say to be either thoughts or nonverbal responses too. I love everything about this game, it's amazing. I can't wait until the next chapter and the full game!! I'll actually be about to graduate when the full game comes out so that'll be a nice graduation present lol
I truly love the variety of choices in this one! The ability to be mute, or selectively silent feels very validating to me- so thank you for providing such an accommodating experience. I am curious if there will be possible deaf or HOH options- though I assume that would be a LOT of additional coding and writing ^^'
We're so glad you're enjoying the choice options! You suggestion for deaf or HOH MC options would be lovely, but you're right that it would involve much more work than we are able to sustain for a game that is already going to be quite large. We always encourage fans to headcanon other options we weren't able to fully realize. Thanks for following!
I wish I could see my own character 😔
i mean its in first person plus theres a option to see your character chibi in the chat bubbles
i cant wait for the update this november yayyyyy!!! >.< (i hope its going well)
I absolutely love this game I can't wait to buy it when it comes out I also wanna know if we're only gonna be getting 2 leads or will u also make other separate ones...im sorry but I see potential in ren😭
We will only be getting Qiu and Tamarack! Initially, Ren was tentatively planned to be a potential DLC love interest, but due to the amount of work that is already going into the actual game it was scrapped.
Ohh that's a shame it would've been nice to have him,but I can't wait for the full steps to come out
We're so glad you've enjoyed the demo! To give official confirmation, yes, Ren was originally planned as a DLC romance option, but her side story had to be cut due to the scope of the game. Thanks for following!
if i dont end it before november ill be real excited to play the EA :)
u have to stay so that u can play!!!!!!!!!! it gets better ily
OKAY SO I PLAYED OURLIVES 1 AND THEN THIS OMG I NEED MORE LIKE I LIVED IN GAME THATS SO COOL I NEEEEEDD MOREEE I EVEN WANT TO BUY THATS SO COOOL PLS DO MORE I BEG YOU (╥‸╥)♡(╥‸╥)
I'm so excited for steps 3 and 4 to come out omg!!!! I loved OLB&A(i loved cove so much ❤️🩹) since i played and i'm 100% i'll love this game the same or even more when it comes out fully🥹 i've played steps 1 & 2 plus extra moments hehehe
I'm also super duper hyper mega happy that there will be an option to be in a poly relationship with the two!!! It's great because i love Qiu and Tamarack both so much (⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎)
Is the soundtrack gonna drop with the early release or the full release? (sorry if this was already asked lol)
Yes, the soundtrack will be released with the early access. Thanks for following!
IM GONNA BATTLE MY MIDTERM TO STILL BE ALIVE NEXT MONTH FOR THIS GAME UGHH TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME BUT NOT THIS
oml this game is so cute I cannot wait for full release I am shaking and crying and throwing up I’m so excited
as the release gets closer, i find myself debating replaying the demo or just waiting the month-to-month-and-a-half until i can just do the full version of the first two steps. for sure i am buying it the moment it becomes available.
The early access and full game will be free, only the DLCs are paid.
I love them both!! I don't wanna choose just one! Can't we be poly together?!?! ;-;
Yes, actually! It isn't something you can do in the Early Access release, but eventually you'll be able to have a polyamorous relationship with the two leads. We're glad you love them both so much, and thanks for following!
That's perfect! Thank you so much! I found this after I played OLB&A, so I'm very excited :3
Hello GBPatch!
I am an Italian game localization specialist, and I would love to localize Our Life and bringing to the Italian players! :)
I have just contacted the Team through email, hope I did right!
Thank you so much for your time and consideration, I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon <3
Hello again! We just saw your email, so thank you for your interest, even if we aren't able to do any localization for the game. Take care!
I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS GAME FOR SO LONGGG!!! I'm so excited for the early release in Novemberrr. I've mentioned before I LOVE LOVE LOVE your games I've played Our Life: Beginnings & Always and bought the DLCs for the game I love it so much! I'M SO EXCITED for everythinggg I have a some questions!! I just wanted to know when DLCS for this game will be released? will the ones for step 1 & 2 be released with early access? For Step 3 & 4 is there like a exact date in mind for the release date during like 2027 like maybe the month? because I know the step 3 is mid 2027 and step 4 is late 2027? but anyways I love your games I love eerything you do PLEASE DON'T GO BALD OR DIE ON US BECAUSE I WILL CRY FOR THIS GAME!! also like Our Life: beg & always will there be like DLCs for different character like how we had one for baxter and dereck?
Yes, the DLCs will be released at the same time as their relevant Steps, so Step 1 and 2 DLCs will come out with the Early Access release, and Step 3 and 4 when those release.
No exact dates for Steps 3 and 4 yet, but you can get a rough timeline on our Roadmap.
Unfortunately there won't be any other character DLCs for Now & Forever, as the main game with the two leads is going to be so huge.
Thanks for following, and have a lovely day!