A new front door: the 13 to Valletta

The Malta Living first screens have a new look. The first thing you see in Malta Living is now a street you might know: the loading screen and the Log in and New player screens open on our logo over a bus stop at Balluta, in Sliema. A short queue waits by the stop's sign, and the first person steps onto the 13 to Valletta.

Day and night, on Malta time

Like everything in the game, the front door keeps real Malta time. From 19:00 to 06:00 the same street is shown after dark: the windows lit, the street lamps on, and the X2 to the Airport at the stop instead. Both routes are real ones you can catch on Malta's buses, and in the game you ride the buses too, from the stop near you to anywhere on the map.

The lines under the loading bar change while the game gets ready, and they follow the clock as well. By day it's catching the 13, putting the kettle on, finding a parking spot or opening the shutters. At night it's the X2, the street lamps coming on, locking up the shop and checking the last ferry. They're small things, but they're the things a day in Malta is made of.

One calm sheet

On a phone, the street sits on top and the form is one white sheet below it, like every other sheet in the game. New player or Log in sits at the top, then your username and password, and one blue button. The welcome line is still the one players liked most: pastizzi in Rabat, clubs in Paceville, queues at Identità.

Nothing about signing up has changed. You still pick your look, come in as a tourist, a resident or a local, and start your first day where you always did. If a friend's link brought you here, their invite still shows at the top of the sheet, and your welcome gift still arrives as you land in Malta.

Sharp on a big screen

On a laptop or a big screen, the street fills the window and the card sits in the exact middle of it, never off to one side. The street is drawn as vector art rather than a photo, so it stays sharp on any screen, from a small phone to a wide monitor, and it's cropped to fit rather than stretched out of shape.

Our own logo

The logo is the one you already have on your home screen: the painted eye of a luzzu on the hull's blue, with its yellow, red and green stripes, and the game's name under it. It's the same eye you'll find on the boats at Marsaxlokk, and now it greets you at the door too.

Why a bus stop

Most of us met Malta from a bus stop: waiting at Balluta in the sun with the sea behind us, or catching the last X2 at night with a suitcase. A bus stop says what the game is about before you've even logged in: real places, at real prices, on real time, with other people around you.

Questions people ask

Why is the first screen dark?

It's night in Malta. From 19:00 to 06:00 Malta time the street is shown after dark, with the X2 to the Airport at the stop. Nothing about your game changes.

Did logging in change?

No. It's the same username and password, the same buttons and the same steps, and your progress is exactly where you left it.

Which bus routes are on the front screen?

The 13 to Valletta by day and the X2 to the Airport at night, both real routes that stop in Sliema.