VIRTUAL VILLAGERS: THE LOST CHILDREN starts where Virtual Villagers: A New Home left off, with two villagers exploring a passage on the island where they're stranded. The villagers discover a group of five children struggling to survive. You guide this group as they learn how to survive and multiply. You also help them solve 16 puzzles including how to make fire, build a dam, fashion tools, and discover a new species of fish.
You need to find each villager work they will enjoy -- to farm, build, heal, parent, or research -- and you can change assignments as needs arise. As your tribe accumulates tech points through research, they can purchase upgrades in farming, engineering, medicine, science, exploration, and culture. This is a "persistent game," which means that your little villagers keep living even after you have turned off their game. While you can pause it, this game is played for several weeks; you will only need to tinker with it for about 10 minutes at a time, a few times a day.