Last updated on January 16th, 2026 at 01:30 am
Sometimes You Die – Adventure Game Review
Sometimes You Die is a Adventure/Puzzle game from Philipp Stollenmayer, first launched in 27th March 2014.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 155+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Sometimes You Die Stand Out
In a game, you die.
And imply that it has no effect on you.
You feel invincible in the realm behind the screen.
This one is different.
In this game, you have to die.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ G A M E ∙ ∙ ∙
What is your motivation?
What do you expect from this game?
Do you want to beat it?
How do you know it can be beaten?
This game plays with expectation, illusion, and reality.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ P U Z Z L E S ∙ ∙ ∙
Think before you act.
Who knows what it means to die behind the screen?
Is it only a number that goes up?
Pixels that change their intensity?
Solve disturbing, surprising, and malicious puzzles.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ D E A T H ∙ ∙ ∙
Is it possible to go through the game
without dying even once?
Will you aim for it?
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ D I F F I C U L T Y ∙ ∙ ∙
Some think the game is easy.
I think,
those haven't discovered the hidden levels yet.
∙ ∙ ∙ ∙
slidetoplay.com > "interactive art"
appspy.com > "manipulates expectations"
148apps.com > "borderline brilliant"
ilounge.com > "messes with the players' heads"
toucharcade.com > "incredibly unique"
tabtimes.com > "extremely clever"
cultofmac.com > "must play"
pocketgamer.co.uk > "deliciously unputdownable"
tuaw.com > "play it, and love it"
80+ levels.
Hidden content.
Wow factor.
Epilepsy warning: One level includes fast flashing lights.
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Sometimes You Die is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 18th May 2018
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
- iPhone X
Download & Availability
Sometimes You Die is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Sometimes You Die on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Kamibox. Enough said. We would love to know where the ideas for these games come from. This game is so unique, and we love the story or plot that you literally follow. Its such an interesting concept. Do you or have you ever dabbled in console game development, or is there anything on steam, or are these only mobile games? We seriously love everything you put out. Our favorite is a toss up between squaredance, supertype, and zip zap. We would absolutely love to see what you would do with an RPG. Ive no doubt youre unique stylistic choices, story, and playability would be a smash! Keep the games rolling! So good.
This is another excellent game, from a brilliant developer, thats grossly underrated. It seems most people arent interested in games that are unique and thoughtful. Anything more cerebral than match 3 is lost on most people. Thank goodness there are still developers who are willing to create great independent games for those who want more than more copies of the same old thing.
Fantastic game, blew our mind with the orange levels, they are terrifying. What a philosophical game! We love the bonus features after completing the game. Advice: Make a leaderboard to see who has won in the fewest number of deaths! We think Apple added it recently, you can create leaderboards that are sorted by fewest points instead of most points (used for golf type games like this one) we want to beat the game in 0 deaths, but theres one point where we think you are forced to die, unfortunately. So the minimum should be 1 death. That will test our patience! Overall, a very fun and frustrating platformer game.
In the stage where it asks you to pay $9999 to unlock the rest of the game, the notification is physical and lets you beat the level.
This game is awesome and we all should play it. Hidden number=9240226. Youll see what that means when you play enough. The ending bye bye we saw. Amazing.
Really really good game! We can play this without getting bored forever. We wish the Developer would make more games like this: and yes, Id pay for more! Thanks Philipp.
We loved the game but it was kind of short and we got the prologue code and it just said hi. Im the developer we dont get that 10 out of 10.
Man, this game is just amazing. The combination of frustrating and fun is amazing. And we especially love the Orange Levels. We can say that we have beaten the orange levels, and the ending is a bit anti-climatic. Either way, we love the game.
Amazing game like Ive never written one of thes before but we loved the game sm that we took time outta our day to write one… One of the best games Ive ever played if not the best… Would recommend playing with headphones tho.
As much as we enjoy this game and stuff like the orange levels prologue and all that other stuff. No one gives us a lot of information about where we are or why the square is here. But we know he only had 6 weeks to make this game. Its a really good game though. So thank you to the people who made this game.
Honestly pretty decent game, Im a fan of this developers games, but seriously we took us 5 hours to beat one section definitely a good time waster but at the expense of your sanity.
Ive have bought all of your games but this is the one that is definitely the shortest and the most meaningless seeming.
The game has a nice concept, was challenging enough at times, but short-lived and super frustrating at the end. The entire game was kinda easy, but then at the orange level everything was super difficult and near impossible to finish. Im not even sure some of the levels there were actually possible to finish. So we gave up after 100+ tries and looked up a walkthrough to see what would happen at the end. Guess what? Its an empty orange room with absolutely nothing in sight. So dont waste your time trying to beat the orange level, youll hardly be rewarded. The insane difficulty on the last level just seemed to be an excuse to lengthen the already super short game.
It is pretty short and there is no way to turn off the volume. We want to listen to music while we play but you cant.
Im not exaggerating. As far as entertainment goes, this is the best game Ive played. Its a wonderful blend of puzzle and platformer, with a side of innovation in game design, and a sprinkling of meta. The simplistic presentation is really appealing as well. Despite a short playtime, the orange levels were extremely challenging for us, and the prequel was a nice, deep intellectual challenge. As an aspiring game developer, the texts you get from the developer were a great insight on the process, and we were absolutely astonished to find out the entire process was 6 weeks.
This game appears at first to be simple and straightforward, but don't stop–keep going. There are so many hidden elements and surprises that will shock you completely. It is not a short game and the levels will be hard to perfect when you get that far. In addition, it points out the common problems of games today and defines what it means to be a good game. It probably is the most meaningful game we've seen.
It's an insane game, really deep and dark, and very few bugs. Recomend 10/10 would and did play again.
Amazing! We loved it. Is it finished once you get a note from the developer calling you a little cheater.
This game was amazing and has taught us a lot about game design and the ending is great. Best platformer on iOS we'd have to say (better than Mario run).
This is a good game, and is worth getting to the end. It is dark and fun kind of like Limbo and A Dark Room. Highly recommend.
After two years of trying to beat this game we finally did it. At the end we kept putting in the numbers to see if you would say anything else but you didn't. We would love to know how you came up with this idea of the game.Although, it did get frustrating at times but still an amazing game. It was worth the two dollars.
The game is simplistic in its controls and gameplay, but the ominous, distorted voiceover makes the storyline interesting and engaging. We'll play through the game hours at a time without getting bored or tired.
This is a very cool game very cool idea being able to use your own corpse as a platform. But did we beat it? We got to the section named death where he teaches you you can flip the device over to be able to work on the ceiling. But then it just went back to the beginning. What.
This game is amazing, we suggest everyone play it. We think the only thing it's missing is a way to reset the game.
Don't look at it for more then it is. Its just a simple little game. Don't stress out over it. Get through the game and find the hidden features. One of them is a very nice commentary from the author about the game. Wish more would so something like that (thanks for doing it!).
We loved this game. Only game we played all the way through. It's hard but not so hard that you have to look up how to do it every five seconds. We only had to look up a cheat once.
Whoever rated this one star definitely has no idea what the concept of this amazing game is. Stollenmayer, you're brilliant! One of the very few apps we spent our money on. This is like the only app we've used that doesn't insist on us rating the app. We appreciate that so much.
So good. Then you think you beat it and it gets better. Then you realize there's a THIRD phase, if you're up for it. Seriously, a great game! Not sure about the final ending but we're also not sure what we expected in a game like this.
We don't play many games on our iPhone but we saw this one and the name intrigued us. It isn't difficult but we're still finding hidden levels.
A couldn't-put-it-down game. We enjoyed the twist after finishing it and it made replay value high. It took us by surprise too when we answered the number puzzle and briefly wondered why they were texting us. Thank you for the excellent game.
Great game, excellent music!! It deserves a five star.
Not sure if we won or not, but it was entertaining regardless. Found the pause button, so we're guessing that was the end :).
Gameplay: 10-15 minutes. Review: The game wins just because of its simple design. We loved how the narration was done. Really innovative indeed. It doesn't bring anything new to the table but instead serves itself in a totally unique fashion, which we loved. We just found something about orange levels. This means that there are more levels out there?? We have to play the game again. Make more soon devs! For the guy complaining they make you purchase a level for 9,999$, Don't play games.
We never rate things but this game was so worth it! Well done.
Simply amazing and well thought out. We haven't gone back for the extra levels but we plan on doing so. This game is amazing l.
One of the best games in the App Store. We can't spoil it. You'll love it.
This game is stunning. We love how it gets you thinking about games and what we expect games to do. The gameplay isn't difficult, but it is unique. We can wait to show this game to our friends who are gamers, but we would recommend this game to anyone. Seriously, this is the kind of game that makes you question the other games you've given 5 stars. Well done, devs.
Loved it! Played through several times to find everything.
Everything about this game is right! The music, the atmosphere, the lighting, the descriptions, the subtlety, and of course the gameplay. All of it is exceptional. As it drives toward the conclusion, something big is anticipated, and it does not fail to deliver.
Theme of psychology of gaming is raised in this game. Which there were more like this game.
The creativity and everything is just amazing. Such a well done game this deserves some sort of award.
Step 1: Die Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit.
It feels like you are having a satisfaction that a few game can give Music is also a plus.
We honestly lobed every second of this game. The music, the art, the design, the idea, the twists, the tricks, it is all perfect. We would love to see more content like this game. spoiler ahead Though, (unless we haven't found it) an in game map of the orange levels would be really cool. The ending was definitely good and we love what was done for the prologue ending. Hope to see more games from you that are as intriguing as this, or even further extending this one.
This is one of the best games we have played.
This game is absolutely amazing. We won't spoil it, but the twist at the end literally gave us goose bumps. This game had us thinking so hard the entire time. We do admit. The game is not easy. We actually yelled into a pillow at one point. But the game kept us coming back. Love it. Will recommend to all our friends.
Especially PURCHASE! We don't play this game cause: 1. The game soon began to repeat; 2. Flip. But it's still new and original. Just give the developers a big hug! ;) Thank you for your good ideas.
Great game; simple, yet complex.
This game, although it has very simple mechanics, still manages to challenge the player especially if you wish to find the secret "orange" and prologue level and beat them. After the prologue level the creator begins a commentary on the creation of the game as you replay it from the beginning and he reveals some other secrets that you may not have already found. Finding all the hidden elements in the game definitely add to the value of your experience and we would encourage that do attempt to find them.
We usually do not play these types of games but we are glad we played this one. Very cool.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.32
- Size: 27.55 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN, DE
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Philipp Stollenmayer
Last updated: 18th May 2018 | Genre: Adventure, Puzzle | Developer: Philipp Stollenmayer