![[The dazzling guest image is an alternate version of the art used in the month start post by caffeinana on Twitter!]
Happy belated new year!
This is an update by GB rather than Claire. I’m gonna let everybody know what’s going on with the project and our new plans for releasing Our Life: Now & Forever. I’ll start with what people most want to know: the changed release schedule for the initial launch of OLNF.
We will be releasing all of Step 1 & Step 2 November 2026 in Early Access. Step 3 and Step 4 are delayed until 2027.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:y4eozsfe6esub43qjn4khvnl/bafkreibyzq3xq5y2r7f7hjcsby7ivhlttqiqa4typ3rmzsidkxtzxjzs6y)
[The dazzling guest image is an alternate version of the art used in the month start post by caffeinana on Twitter!] Happy belated new year! This is an update by GB rather than Claire. I’m gonna let everybody know what’s going on with the project and our new plans for releasing Our Life: Now & Forever. I’ll start with what people most want to know: the changed release schedule for the initial launch of OLNF. We will be releasing all of Step 1 & Step 2 November 2026 in Early Access. Step 3 and Step 4 are delayed until 2027.
Our Life: Now & Forever Roadmap Text Version: Early Access Launch - November 2026 Step 1: 5 free + 5 DLC moments, intro, ending Step 2: 5 free + 5 DLC moments, intro, ending Room customization for Steps 1 and 2 16 CGs, 25 art cut-ins, 25 chapter cards 1,100,000+ words Performance improvements for lower powered devices Steam Cloud save support Features from the feature list Step 3: Adulthood - Mid 2027 Step 3: 5 free + 5 DLC moments, intro, ending Additional CGs, BGs, cut-in art, and character sprites Room customization for Step 3 Features from the feature list Step 4: Full Release - Late 2027 Step 4 Epilogue + full launch Additional CGs, BGs, cut-in art, and character sprites Achievements (in-game & Steam integration) Many new doll parts for the character creator Additional room decorations Remaining features from the feature list Wedding Update - Early 2028 Wedding DLC, one long story Additional CGs, BGs, cut-in art, and character sprites Future Features (added as completed) Updated moment selection UI Updated character customization system Voiced names and nicknames Controller + Steam Deck support Detailed playthrough information That is definitely different from our original release plans. This year things are changing significantly at GB Patch Games. From the start, I’ve written the scripts and lead programmer Shawna has implemented them. In 2025, we hired Mae to help add scenes. Shawna has spent months preparing training material and changing the back end to allow others to join in with programming, while also keeping up with their normal script programming. In 2026, we’ll be hiring additional programmers and Shawna will be moving into a manager position to work with a whole team on adding scripts. Once that’s in place, the average amount of words programmed per month is going to double, from 25,000 words to 50,000 words. That’s what will allow us to release part of the game this year.
But why only Steps 1 and 2? We seriously considered releasing Step 2 and Step 3 without DLCs available for the initial launch instead. The problem is that it’d be risky. I’ll be finished with writing Step 2 in another couple months. I’ll spend the rest of 2026 working on the Step 3 script. However, if something happens to me and I can’t finish it by November, that’ll be it. The officially set release will have to be pushed back and 2026 will be another year with no launch. Adding new programmers to help with the script will increase how much script can be completed per month, but it also means we’re doubling the amount of content that needs testing. With more team members also comes more communication and coordination to make sure every part of the game flows how it’s supposed to. Even with monthly beta testing, there are so many possible variations that it’s difficult to iron out every wrinkle in that time frame. Launching in Early Access first will give us room to fix more issues and ensure we can add in promised features for the final release, while giving you a chance to explore the story in the meantime. Basically, finalizing so many scenes that are this complicated just can’t be done without a ton of time or a ton of eyes checking it out. Because we had that poll where half of the audience said they’d prefer an episodic style release, I thought launching half the game in Early Access would be better than taking the chance of not putting out anything in 2026.
Now, I’d like to give you an idea of what I mean when I talk about the scale of this project. Our Life: Beginnings & Always, with four steps and five different DLCs, has a script that’s 1,260,000 words. The content from just Step 1 and Step 2 of Our Life: Now & Forever will be around 1,100,000 words. Almost the same length as the entire prior game. That’s excessive, but I never want to limit what players can do in a scene — over a million words for two out of four time periods is the result. Hopefully, it’ll be amazing in the future when it is done. Until then, there’s much to do. The silver lining is that the early access launch is going to have over a million words to explore! It’s not some little demo. We’ll be adding new features too as they’re completed, such as the updated character creator and controller support. That’s outlined in the infographic, and we’ll update it throughout development. With all that said, thank you for supporting us throughout development. It’s been great seeing people’s reactions to every update over the years. We hope you’ll continue playing and being part of the community as these bigger releases begin rolling out!
Presenting... The 2026 Our Life: Now & Forever development road map!
GB and our lead developer, Shawna, have put together their plans for the year. If you're a longtime GB fan, new to the community, or somewhere in-between, you'll want to take a look!
