Lifeline Games Getting Major Updates For Apple iPhone and Apple Watch November 22, 2021

When I purchased my first-ever Apple Watch earlier this year, I became obsessed with catching up on all the unique games and applications that I had been missing out on for waiting so long to purchase one. While Apple has a great bunch of first party pre-loaded programs like its ECG and Fitness apps, a few games that can either only be played on or played best on the Apple Watch have been released. One of the games I saw listed in nearly every “Best of” Apple Watch games lists were the Lifeline series of games by 3 Minute Games.

Lifeline was one of the first games I ever played on the Apple Watch, and I absolutely fell in love with it. It had a simple interface, which functioned similarly to the interactive novels I remembered reading as a kid. However, the thing I appreciated the most about the game was that it could be played on either my Apple Watch OR my iPhone, and that any progress I made on one device would transfer to the other. Since the game required making a player wait in real-time for certain story sections to progress (similar to the alternate reality game Majestic I played back in 2000), being able to respond to the game as soon as the story event unlocked was a major immersive factor for me and helped blur the line between reality and game.

Earlier this year 3 Minute Games announced they were back in development of a new game and would be releasing updates for their games, starting with the original Lifeline. Part of that update would include native support for newer iPhone screens (like the iPhone X, 11, 12 or 13), as well as native support for the more recent versions of WatchOS. The version of Lifeline I played on my iPhone 12 Pro and Apple Watch Series 6 likely included this update.

While there is a Lifeline 2 (and I fully intend to play it someday), as far as I can tell, it was not a direct sequel to the original Lifeline, it features a new story, a new setting, and new characters. However, 3 Minute games has produced more games that served as follow ups to the original Lifeline and continued the plotline of the original game. The next game to follow Lifeline is actually called Lifeline: Silent Night. After completing the original game’s epilogue, I fired up Silent Night only to discover that my Apple Watch and iPhone progress were not in sync. I immediately stopped playing, and held out hope the game would get an update. This morning, that update finally came. A major free update was just released for Lifeline: Silent Night, and progress syncing is now possible between iPhone and Apple Watch.

I applaud 3 Minute Games for continuing the support of their applications this long after their original program release, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for them and their applications. Hopefully Taylor will be okay.