Thamesgate Play free
A free browser game · ages 16+

One week. Two lives. Same luck.

Thamesgate is a life-sim about everyday racism. You live one week as Tolu or Teni Adeyemi, a young civil engineer from Lagos. On Sunday night the game replays your week, with the same choices and the same luck, as Callum: same job, white and born here. The difference is what racism cost you.

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The city of Thamesgate from above: streets, houses, a market and the train line, with Tolu's day, money and needs shown around it.
A small city, a full week: work, rent, the train, landlords, friends and family.

How it plays

  • Friday is your probation review, and your visa depends on it. Sunday, the rent is due.
  • The clock runs on its own. Get to work, eat, sleep, see your people, and keep your money, Peace and Self up.
  • Things happen: a pitch handed to a colleague, a ticket check that only stops you, a room that "went" the moment the landlord saw you. You choose what to do. There's no right answer, only different costs.
  • Log what happens on your phone. At the review, a record can matter.
A scene at the Monday stand-up: Priya gives the client pitch to Callum, though Tolu built the model. Three choices: say nothing, ask privately why, or ask to co-present.
Monday's stand-up. Every scene is a choice, and every choice costs something.
The Sunday ledger: Tolu lost 2 hours 20 minutes to friction and was stopped at the barrier twice; Callum, with the same choices and luck, lost nothing.
Sunday night: the ledger, next to Callum's week.

The ledger

At the end of each week the game plays your exact week again under fair rules. Same dice, same choices. Only the city's rules change. The ledger shows, moment by moment, the time, money, Peace and Self it cost you, and what the same moment cost Callum.

Tolu: 2 h 20 min lostCallum: 0 min

The odds aren't guesses. How often a landlord replies to an African name, how often a ticket check picks you: each comes from published research, listed with links on the ledger.

Who it's for

People who've lived it

To see it named, counted, and set next to what it would have been.

People who haven't

To feel how small things add up over one ordinary week, in a way a statistic can't show.

Classrooms and groups

Each day ends as a chapter, a natural place to stop. "Today's week" gives everyone the same luck, so a group can compare ledgers.

Good to know

  • Free, in the browser, on phone or computer. No download, no account, no ads.
  • Add it to your home screen and it works offline.
  • Four versions: the UK, Ireland, the US and Germany, each with its own city, money, research and helplines. In English and German.
  • No slurs and no violence. For ages 16 and up. Support links are in the game, on the phone under Help.

Privacy

Your game is saved on your device. There are no ads and no tracking cookies; the game only counts, anonymously, how far players get. Leaderboards and cloud saves are optional and use a nickname, never an email. The full privacy notice is in the game, under Privacy & settings.

Press, schools and partners

Writing about Thamesgate, using it with a group, or want to work together? Get in touch: privacy@playthamesgate.com.