The residents

Every family will remember what you did

Four households live through your forty years: a Hanlin hawker family, Selari fisherfolk, a Tamari railwayman's daughter and a Vessin schoolteacher. Each has around thirty moments that appear only if your choices cause them. Their homes change as the island does, and every story can be read aloud.

The Residents book: the Ko family's story so far, shaped by your choices

How the people feel

A barometer for your policies

The Residents book shows each family's story so far, which choice caused each moment, and a meter of how the people feel. It swings with elections, laws and storms. A new badge counts the moments you haven't read yet, and the clock waits while you look.

Hanlin · Hanlin Row

The Ko family

Hanlin hawkers who sell noodles on Hanlin Row.

The Ko family at home in the middle years — The middle years

The Ko family at home in the later years — The later years

A few moments from one game

The Kos sell noodles from a cart on Hanlin Row. Grandma Ko counts every coin twice.
The Kos get a real stall in the new hawker centre. Running water, a roof, and a queue at noon.
Little Mei Ko comes home reciting a Selari poem. Grandma Ko pretends not to be proud.
The dock crews lose their jobs in the sale. Mr Ko feeds them on credit and writes nothing down.
The autumn storm passes. The hawker centre roof holds, and the Kos open by lunch.
Three Ko stalls now, and a sign in four scripts. Grandma Ko still counts every coin twice.
Grandma Ko turns ninety in the hawker centre. Four languages sing her one song.

Selari · Selari Reach

The Ombak family

Selari fisherfolk in a stilt house on the lagoon.

The Ombak family at home in the middle years — The middle years

The Ombak family at home in the later years — The later years

A few moments from one game

The Ombaks fish the lagoon from a stilt house in Selari Reach, as their grandparents did.
The typhoon took the Ombaks' boat. Tomas Ombak sleeps on the roof to guard what is left.
Clean pipes reach the stilt houses. Little Ina Ombak drinks from a tap and laughs.
Sand pours into the Ombaks' fishing grounds for new land. Tomas mends nets he no longer needs.
The Selari boat festival is a public holiday now. The whole block comes to the shore to watch.
The Ombaks own their flat now. Tomas paints the front door sea blue.
Tomas, nearly eighty, cuts the ribbon on Ina's seawall. He brings his old net to the party.

Tamari · Tamari Yards

Anu Sarath

A railway worker's daughter who will build the island.

Anu Sarath and her father at home in the middle years — The middle years

Anu Sarath and her father at home in the later years — The later years

A few moments from one game

Anu Sarath is nine. Her father fixes engines at Tamari Yards and hums along to the radio.
The ring road reaches Tamari Yards. Anu draws every bridge in her school book.
Anu learns maths in the common tongue. At night she teaches it back to her father in Tamari.
Anu's father takes night classes in diesel engines. He is the oldest in the room, and the best.
Anu is the first Tamari girl to study engineering at the new university. Her father frames the letter.
Anu tours the new sea-water plant. 'Nobody can cut this pipe,' she tells her father.
It is Lantern Night. Anu lights her father's lamp, and begins her story at year one.

Vessin · Vessin Hill

Clara Duval

A schoolteacher with forty pupils in one room.

Clara Duval at home in the middle years — The middle years

Clara Duval at home in the later years — The later years

A few moments from one game

Clara Duval teaches forty children in one room on Vessin Hill. Half of them have no shoes.
Mara tears the school roof off. Clara teaches under a tarp, and nobody misses a day.
After the riot, Clara seats Hanlin and Selari children side by side. They fight, then share lunch.
Clara's pupils hold a debate on the radio. One of them is quoted in the papers.
Clara's pupils read the news in four languages on school radio day.
Clara's pupils argue with her in class now. She has never been happier.
Clara turns eighty. Her first pupils, grey now, bring her forty pairs of shoes as a joke.

See what you can build →