What Is Heartopia? A Day in the Free Life Sim
For anyone whose feed keeps filling up with a pastel seaside town, and who wants to know if it's worth the download.
Rain rolls over town just as your stamina runs dry. You head home to sleep it off and pass a stall that wasn't there this morning. It belongs to Doris, a vendor who appears in special weather like rain and meteor showers. Back at your plot, a player you've never met is watering your crops.
So what is Heartopia? It's a free multiplayer life sim from the game company XD, on iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows PC. You build a house, take up hobbies like fishing, cooking, gardening and birdwatching, dress up from more than 1,000 outfits and adopt a cat or dog, all in a town you share with other players.
We make MirrorMii, a game where you pick Miia's outfit and she decides what she does in it, so a town full of other people's choices is our kind of place.
What do you actually do all day?
Mostly, you putter around. The game lists six hobbies, including fishing, cooking, gardening and birdwatching, and bug catching is in there too. Some crops are ready in 15 minutes and others take hours, so there's time to go fishing. When walking gets old, you pick out a vehicle and zip around the map.
There's a stamina bar, too. Sleeping refills it, and so does eating, so it's worth carrying food. Run out and you can't do much besides shop and go to bed.
The town is the other half of the game. You share the map with other players, up to 11 of them in Game8's review, and they walk around town too. You can send gifts and postcards to strangers, and some of them will water and fertilize your crops for free. As Pocket Tactics' reviewer put it, "It pays to be friendly."
Among people who play multiplayer games online, feeling connected to other players went with enjoying a game and wanting to keep playing. Richard Ryan and Andrew Przybylski of the University of Rochester and Scott Rigby reported that in a 2006 study in Motivation and Emotion. If you like company while you play, that shared town is the part to try first.
Is Heartopia free?
It is. Heartopia is free to download on the App Store, Google Play and Steam, and the game hands out some of its paid currency through play, too.
On the US App Store, Heart Diamonds come in packs from $0.39 to $30.99, next to membership passes and festival packs.
The shop also runs luck-based outfit and home banners. Reviewers at Pocket Tactics and Game8 both found the banners optional and cosmetic. Game8 did warn that finishing a whole set gets expensive.
If you're happy wearing what you earn, you can ignore that corner of the shop completely.
Can you play it with friends, and on what?
Heartopia is on iPhone and iPad, Android, and Windows PC through Steam. Steam lists Windows only, and the official site's download buttons cover phones and PC, with nothing for Switch, PlayStation or Xbox.
Phone and PC players can play together, and you can invite friends over to build your house with you.
PCGamesN criticized the PC port for keeping the mobile-focused controls, and its Steam reviews are mixed. Game8 also found no native controller support. If you've got a choice, we'd start on your phone.
Who is Heartopia for?
It's for you if your favorite part of a life sim is the dressing up and the decorating, and you like other people around without having to team up.
Picture an afternoon fishing beside someone you've just met.
It's a harder sell if you want to play on PC with a controller, or if half-finished outfit sets would nag at you. A wardrobe screen with gaps in it is a small thing until it's all you see.
What should you play if you like Heartopia?
Palia gives you another shared world on PC. It's a free life sim on Steam where you build a home of your own and play in the same world as your friends.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is for anyone who'd rather skip the shop. On the US App Store it's $19.99 once, with no in-game purchases on top. You fish, catch bugs, chat with animal campers and pick from more than 10,000 items for your campsite.
Stardew Valley puts the focus on its villagers, with seasonal festivals and 12 people you could marry. It's $4.99 on the US App Store. For more phone picks sorted by what you'd miss most, see our list of mobile games like Stardew Valley.
MirrorMii: you choose the outfit, Miia chooses the day
In most life sims, you pick the outfit and decide where to go in it. MirrorMii is a game that hands the second choice to Miia, your digital twin, a reflection of you who lives her own life.
The outfit starts with your real day. You snap something, like lunch or the walk home, and hand it to Genii, the glass slime who looks after the island. What you find becomes outfits and decor for Miia.
She also has her own friends and her own drama, and she keeps a diary you can read but never rewrite. The rest of the day is her story.
FAQ
What age rating does Heartopia have?
Heartopia is rated 9+ on the App Store and Teen on Google Play. Both listings show in-app purchases, and the town is shared with strangers, so if it's going on a family tablet, set purchase limits first.
Does Heartopia use AI?
In two places, according to its Steam page. AI redraws your in-game snapshots for a puzzle mode, and it translates in-game chat so players who speak different languages can understand each other. The developer's disclosure lists only those two uses.
Can you play Heartopia on your own?
You can. Steam lists it as single-player as well as multiplayer, so you don't need friends to start. You'll still share the town with other players.
Love Heartopia's outfits? See what Miia does with hers. Snap your real day, and Miia takes it from there. Join MirrorMii free