Community matters. Interview with House Flipper 2 devs
Table of Contents
Do you have any outstanding community players that you would like to cooperate with? Creators you would like to engage in the development of the game? Or maybe you have already done it?
MK: When we introduced the Workshop, a lot of new items appeared, and among their creators, there were a few individuals with higher skills, or just some people who added much more of these items than others, and they looked very good. And we got in touch with one of those people. We are currently working together – this person prepares items for us, and we pay them for it. We cooperate with the community a lot. We try to look at the big picture – if a given subject is very popular, we consider whether it is a cool idea indeed.
JB: We also have beta testers selected from the community who provide feedback for us, and they also develop something from time to time. And we listen to it them the time and improve on a regular basis.
In the second part, will you want to go beyond the mechanics we already know from the first one and, for example, apart from renovating, furnishing and selling houses, let players lie on a bed in their office or take a shower? Would you like to introduce more real-life elements and interactions?
JB: House Flipper 2 is the second part of the House Flipper series, so the core mechanics are about flipping houses, cleaning them, renovating, arranging; it's bit like a combination of architect and interior designer sims. We just have to keep this spirit in part two, it's the heir. This is where the focus is – do things from House Flipper 1, just better. We already have the right tools, skills, experience, and feedback. And whether it will be possible to interact with the shower is of secondary importance. We definitely want to add as many items to interact with as possible. It's important for us that the players are able to feel at home in their condo, after renovating it. How far all this can go is still being decided, but opening cupboards, sitting in chairs – these are nice details. We definitely want to take interaction further. We'll see how far. The core is the most important, though.
MK: At the same time, we want the distinction between Sims and House Flipper to be very pronounced. It is a very nice coexistence – if someone wants, they can experience something different in either game. We definitely don't want to go into the social aspects all that much.
JB: Life simulator - not so much. It's a completely different pair of shoes, and if we wanted to engage in it, it would practically be a second game.
I don't know about the others, but when I play House Flipper, I do it in 6-hours sessions at a time, because I just can't stop. I fall asleep, but I keep wiping windows, weeding out the lawn. Have you considered some facilitations for people like me...?
JB: You mean addicts?
Yeah. Like creating a day-night cycle where you work during the day, but not at night, so as not to disturb the neighbors with noise.
JB: About the day-and-night cycle and times when you should be able to work – discussions are still underway, because such a solution has advantages and disadvantages, mostly in terms of optimization – since everything else is dynamic, dynamic light is a tricky thing to implement, and we still have to examine it further. Secondly, one of the things we want to avoid are elements that could distract the player too much from the heart of the game. We understand that some people can spend hours in the game...
MK: We don't mind!
JB: ...But it's not really an element that we want to resolve; we do not believe there's such a need. As for sleeping on beds – we're discussing that, too. Maybe it will be possible.
When are you launching it?
MK: In 2023.
It's soon!
MK: It depends.
On how long a year is 2023 going to be?
MK: Exactly. And what if they decide to repeat 2023 after 2023? But seriously, there are many factors to consider here. As we said, many things are still under discussion. The moment people find out about part two, we'll be able to start talking to them. We are very curious about the wider opinion, because so far, only very basic, closed tests were carried out. It all depends on what decisions will be made and how much work will be done. It's hard to define the release date precisely. Ideally, we'll release it on January 1st. But it's rather impossible.
Has your team grown significantly since the release of the original? Or are you still a close-knit, little team?
JB: The company is constantly growing. We try to keep it contained; when you grow too fast it's hard to keep control. Especially since one of the core assumptions of the company is that we try to have a family atmosphere. It's very rare that someone is leaving the company. We have many pre-House Flipper veterans, and they're still here, still growing. And so, we are growing too, but this is a controlled growth. On top of that, because our game is earning money, we have nice opportunities to diversify our capital. There are a couple of projects that we're developing regularly. We have, among others The Tenants, a few people are working on it; there's House Flipper, and there's House Flipper 2, which we started working on simultaneously.
So, there are more people, but also more projects. We keep this indie style in the end. This also means that the team working on House Flipper 2 isn't gigantic. It consists of people who have worked on the first part for a long time, especially at the very beginning. They're experienced programmers and designers. We are sure that we'll positively surprise you.
MK: The sizes of the teams that work on House Flipper 2 and 1 are very similar. It's not like twice as many people are working on part two.
JB: This may change, because the people who work on the first part naturally start to help with the second part at some point, but we want to focus on a natural transition here.
So, what's next for you? Moving to the Central Refrigeration Center?
MK: We'd prefer your own offices, but I hear there's some holes in the walls.
