The Long Game

The Long Game

A trail running life sim that runs on real time. One runner, real Wellington trails, and a world that gets on with it while you're at work.

play the teaser Ten minutes at Western States. Thirteen ways it can end. sign up Free. One runner per person. That's the whole deal.

Your runner

at rest
on the run

Rolled stats. A class, a region, a day job. A look you're dealt and can change one arrow-key at a time, settled once you're in. You don't pick the face. That one's on them.

What you're in for

Real time, really

One day in the world is one day of your life. A session resolves over real minutes, not on a tap. Your runner wakes before you do and reports in. Skip a week and you'll come back detrained. The world noticed.

Ground worth holding, on real trails

Real Wellington ground, sent in by the people who run it and held by whoever's posted the fastest recorded time on it. The locals contesting it train, peak, pick their days, get injured, and go out on days you wouldn't: mountain goats, gravity merchants, diesels and weekend warriors. The ping that says it's been taken off you is the ping that opens the app.

Race day, played live

WUU2K is one morning at three distances. XTRAIL West Wind runs on the wind farm at Mākara. The Wednesday handicap is free and goes at six whether you're watching or not. You play the day through as a branching terminal narrative, and the doors that open are the ones your stats earned. The story says how you ran. The field says where that put you.

Long days in the Tararuas

Three mountain routes with a mark on them, free to attempt, and hours rather than minutes. The biggest one is declared the night before, with tomorrow's real forecast on the board to decide on. Nothing stops you walking into a bad window. It just costs what it costs.

Other people, and a ladder

One region so far, Wellington, and most of the runners on those hills aren't people. A few of them are. Watch anybody, human or simulated, and what they get up to turns up in your feed. Everybody is ranked on fitness and cut into four groups, Tops down to Valley, and promotion and relegation settle when the real season turns. Nothing about any of it buzzes your phone.

A life, not a spreadsheet

Your day job pays a wage, eats your afternoons and adds stress. Shoes wear out. Poles snap. Head torch batteries die on the one evening it mattered. Kit can cost you a run. It can never make you faster. That part's still your legs.

Start

Five screens once you're in: today, your runner and what there is to do; out, the three ways to spend a day; region, the other people; shop; account. Two to five minutes a day. Play the teaser first if you like, or just move in.

play the teaser No account. Just the terminal, the canyons, and your decisions. sign up and roll your runner Two to five minutes a day. Years of consequence.
It installs to your phone like an app, and the pings find you at work: ground gone, a race tomorrow, a calf that doesn't feel right. You pick which ones are worth a buzz.
© 2026 The Long Game · made in Wellington, NZ · what's new · contact

A mashup from Molehill and TRNZ.