What can you build in eight hours?
For Shalom Rayhamen, a Nigerian software developer, the answer was a virtual Lagos.
In just one night, Rayhamen created the first version of Lagos Life, a game inspired by the realities, humour and everyday experiences of living in Lagos. What began as an idea quickly became a game that attracted millions of players within days.
But the idea did not come from nowhere.
Growing up, Shalom loved The Sims 3, a life-simulation game that allowed players to create characters, build homes and experience virtual versions of everyday life. She enjoyed the freedom the game offered, but eventually began to wonder what that experience would look like if it reflected the environment she knew.
What if the streets looked familiar? What if the places were Nigerian? What if the struggles, humour, ambition and chaos were not foreign, but distinctly Lagos?
That thought became Lagos Life.
Shalom wanted to create something of her own. Something Nigerians could look at and immediately recognise. Something that captured the everyday realities of living in Lagos — the hustle, the struggle, the ambition, the money, the chaos and everything an average Lagosian encounters.
And she did not spend months building it.
She built the first version overnight.
According to Rayhamen, she spent about eight hours working on the game, from the late hours of the night into the early morning. By the time she was done, she had created something she could share with the world.
She posted it on Independence Day.
Then, people started playing. And then, people started talking.
Within days, Lagos Life crossed one million players. It later passed two million, with the game's player count continuing to climb rapidly.
The irony was almost too perfect: a game built overnight was becoming an overnight success.
But Lagos Life was not simply another game.
For many Nigerians, it felt familiar.
Instead of stepping into an entirely foreign world, players could enter a virtual Lagos and create the kind of life they had imagined.
You could build. You could create. You could make decisions. You could change your circumstances. You could, in a virtual world, create the life you often fantasised about.
Starting Life in Lagos
The game begins with different backgrounds that can shape your experience, including Nepo and Lapo.
The two identities draw from familiar Nigerian conversations about privilege and struggle. The Nepo background represents the advantage of being born into money and connections, while the Lapo background starts with much less and uses the idea of a loan to reflect a different financial starting point.
The game turns a familiar Nigerian social-media joke into part of the player's story.
And for many players, the experience starts from somewhere familiar.
You are broke. You have a loan. You have a house. You have to figure things out.
Just like in real life, you have to find a way to survive, grow and build.
One of the game's characteristics that makes it particularly engaging is the freedom given to players to decide what their character looks like. You are not simply handed a fixed identity and told how the story must go.
You get to make choices. You get to shape your character. You get to build your own world.
And perhaps that is part of what makes Lagos Life so interesting: it takes the unpredictability and ambition of Lagos and turns it into something you can actually play.
When you enter the game, your starting experience depends on the background you are assigned. The different backgrounds affect your starting financial position and the way you approach the early stages of the game.
The beautiful irony is this: this game gives you a life that we all often wish for.
Billionaires are built in one day.
The other day, a friend of mine sent me 100 million.
Wealth isn't scarce. Your friends are not stingy, although some still beg for “urgent 5k.”
You get to build your dream life.
Of course, it is a game. The money is not real. The game's own terms make clear that its virtual naira has no real-world monetary value.
But perhaps that is part of the fun.
Lagos Life takes the things people spend years chasing — money, houses, cars, jobs, status and social connections — and compresses them into a virtual world where you can experience them without waiting decades.
A Virtual Lagos
Apart from the individual experience this game offers, it also captures landmarks and places that are recognisable to Lagosians from different backgrounds.
There is an airport. There are markets. There are beaches. There are entertainment spots. There are places associated with business, food and everyday Lagos life.
The game features recognisable locations and environments inspired by real Nigerian places, although its official disclaimer makes clear that these virtual representations may differ significantly from their real-world counterparts.
You get to host parties and interact with other players through your in-game phone.
And that phone is interesting on its own.
It reflects some of the things that have become part of everyday Nigerian life: banking, food ordering, transportation, entertainment, jobs and other digital habits that shape how young Nigerians spend their time.
There are also recognisable Nigerian brands and services within the game.
That familiarity matters.
Because when you open the phone, you are not just seeing another fictional technology system. You are seeing pieces of a world you already know.
The game's creators also make an important distinction: the appearance of a real-world brand does not automatically mean that the brand has endorsed, sponsored or partnered with Lagos Life. Only relationships explicitly identified by the game should be treated as official partnerships.
More Than a Game
Business development is another interesting part of the game.
The virtual city does not just exist for players to walk around. Businesses and players can also become part of the environment through digital advertising spaces.
The official Lagos Life website currently lists 38 virtual billboards that players can rent with in-game money. The rentals are part of the game's virtual economy and are not purchases of real advertising space.
This adds another layer to the game.
It is no longer just about playing. It becomes about building an economy around the world being created.
And Lagos Life is slowly becoming bigger than Lagos.
As mentioned earlier, Lagos Life captures an airport, and as you know, there is no airport without a new destination.
The addition of Abuja and Port Harcourt became another landmark in the game's development. The official website now describes Lagos Life as one Nigerian life simulator covering three cities: Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
The expansion means the game now stretches beyond its original Lagos setting.
Whether the creator will spread her wings to all the states of Nigeria is unclear.
But for now, the game has covered three major Nigerian cities.
Why Lagos Life Matters
And that brings us to the bigger question.
Why does Lagos Life matter?
The significance of Lagos Life to Nigeria, and even to Africans, is worth considering.
For a while, Westernised games, cultures and movies have dominated the phones and screens of Africans.
We have grown accustomed to playing games where the houses look foreign, the streets look foreign, the characters live foreign lives and the experiences being represented are far removed from ours.
Lagos Life changes that conversation.
Here, the environment is familiar. The language is familiar. The struggle is familiar. The humour is familiar. Even the problems are familiar.
You can see yourself in the game.
And perhaps that is why the game has resonated so quickly.
There is an exploration and an awareness of Nigerian culture through Nigerian games which are relatable to Nigerians. It creates a sense of familiarity and shows that our culture can be more than something we watch in movies or hear in music. It can become something we interact with.
Games like Lagos Run, the Nigerian browser game centred around driving a danfo through Lagos, have also contributed to the growing interest in locally themed Nigerian gaming. Rayhamen has identified the game as one of the inspirations for Lagos Life.
What Lagos Life has shown is that Nigerians do not necessarily need a foreign setting to enjoy a game.
Sometimes, we want to see our own streets. Our own cities. Our own humour. Our own realities.
The fast growth and engagement surrounding the game says something beyond gaming.
It suggests that Nigerians and Africans desire more products, both digital and physical, that embody African culture and society — products that are not just fun to use or play, but are relatable to Nigerians on different levels.
Maybe that is the real beauty of Lagos Life.
It is not simply that a Nigerian developer built the first version of a game in eight hours.
It is that in those eight hours, she built the foundation of a world that millions of people would recognise as their own.
