Nova-Life: Amboise is a multiplayer city roleplay game from TeamNova, available on Steam in early access. Its store page calls it the first French roleplay game, and that is the key fact about it: the city is based on the real town of Amboise in France, and the game itself is in French only, from the interface to the voice acting and subtitles. You create a character, take a job, earn money and build a life in town, playing alongside others with text and voice chat.

The game is played on community-hosted servers, each with its own rules, staff, plugins and Discord. Since the game provides the town and the jobs but the community provides the story, choosing a server is choosing the kind of roleplay you will get.

A French Town as a Roleplay Stage

Nova-Life is built around work and status. Jobs have ranks, and climbing them raises your salary, so a character's career is real progression rather than a label. Players can also become self-employed entrepreneurs and run a shop or a company of their own, which puts part of the town's economy in player hands. Vehicles and a driving system tie the map together, and the developers plan a final version with around a hundred and twenty jobs.

The rest comes from people. Customers, rivals, colleagues and the occasional troublemaker turn a shift at work into a scene. Because the game is still in early access, systems keep changing between updates, and much of what makes one server different from another comes from the plugins and textures that a French modding community builds on top.

What to Look For in a Nova Life Server

How Serious the Roleplay Is

Some servers expect you to stay in character at all times, with a written backstory and an application or whitelist before you can join. Others are open and relaxed, closer to a social life sim. Neither is wrong, but joining a strict server expecting a sandbox, or the other way round, ends badly. Read how the server describes itself and what it asks of new players.

Server Rules and Staff Hours

Good servers publish clear rules on what is allowed in character, how conflicts between players are settled and what happens to people who break immersion. Look for staff who are online in the evenings French time, when most players are, and a Discord where reports get an answer.

Plugins and Custom Content

Plugins can add jobs, vehicles, shops, interfaces and whole new systems, and they are often what makes a server feel finished. They can also break when the game updates. A server that keeps its plugins working after patches, and tells players when maintenance is coming, is being looked after properly.

Salaries, Businesses and Perks

Check whether salaries and prices make sense, whether every job is actually worth doing, and whether businesses can survive on player customers. If the server sells perks, they should be cosmetic or convenient, not cash, rare vehicles or a shortcut up the job ladder.

Population and Stability

City roleplay needs a full town. Check how many players are on in your hours, how often the server restarts or crashes, and whether the Discord is active between sessions. A stable mid-size server usually beats a large one that goes down every evening.

Getting Started

You will need to speak and read French, since the game and nearly every server run in French. Pick a few servers that match the roleplay level you want, join their Discord, read the rules and finish any application before your first session. Start with a simple job and let the town come to you. The ranking below lists the Nova Life servers players vote for here. Vote for the town you live in - rankings start over every month, so the list follows where the roleplay is happening now.