That's not the end when it comes to House Flipper 1. Interview with House Flipper 2 devs
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So, you wouldn't call yourselves renovation experts? If we asked you to come to our company and fix the hole that gapes in the wall...
MK: We watched videos on YouTube where you use instant noodles to fix absolutely everything. We are experts at fixing things with instant noodles.
JB: Some noodles, a bit of glue and we can do it.
I have to pass this on to my colleague, Matthias Pawlikowski, because he's a true expert when it comes to instant ramen.
JB: Put some noodles away each time you have ramen, and it will be just fine.
MK: We heard that you will be moving to a new office, so why do you care about repairing holes?
You know, bailout. How long are you planning to support the original House Flipper?
MK: We have a special bond with our players. This isn't just an ordinary single-player game that was made just like that. I'd say that the vast majority of single-player video games aren't supported long after the release. Unless they're very buggy, like Cyberpunk for example (laughs). We care very much about our community and, in fact, all the changes that we have introduced since 2018 were created to some extent in cooperation with our players, and we appreciate it very much. In the same way, we will want to cooperate with the community and develop the sequel; support it, rather than kill it after release.
JB: The House Flipper games are like fleeing perfection – we can constantly develop them and never get to saturate the market, because people will still want more. This is where the second part of House Flipper, the successor, naturally comes in, and we're going to keep the same approach as with the first one, because it works.
MK: We have a subsidiary company that still supports the first one – both Pets DLC and Farm DLC were created by this company. It consists of members of our own team who just moved downstairs and keep doing their work. The original game will enjoy support for a long time, and we don't want to end that just because another game is coming. There is still a long life ahead of it.
JB: We also integrated Steam Workshop to HF, which enables people to add their own content to the game, and they regularly do it. The game is supported by both the community and us.
A fresh start
One is already so polished and fleshed-out, and at the same time you are releasing a second part – how do you want to convince people to buy it? Maybe just tell me right away?
MK: Clever.
JB: The biggest problem with HF1 was that this game was intended as a rather small production. We had indications that it would become popular, but we hadn't thought it would explode as it did, that we would have such a gigantic player base, nor that the game would be supported for so many years. There are many elements, such as in the code architecture, which prevented us from implementing some cool features, or only allowed implementing them in a form that was not entirely satisfactory to us. HF2 will be a fresh start for us – we are experienced, we already know what we did wrong and what we did right, which allowed us to be that much smarter and build the code infrastructure we really need. Therefore, one of the things that will distinguish it from the first part is that it will be possible to construct buildings from scratch.
The community will be happy! This is all I can get? Maybe something more?
JB: There are many changes. I can also say that we focused on unifying the graphics style. It will be one that allows for better optimization and better consistency. Anyone interested should be able to find screens showing the current graphical style in the teaser.
MK: We don't want part two to be just a revised version – we want to revolutionize the gameplay. Therefore, it's worth waiting for House Flipper 2 and you can be sure it will be much better than all the imitations of our game that have been appearing on the market since our game launched. And much better than the original, though it will have the same vibe – the same addictive core.
We get various orders in the game. We can, for example, be ordered to immure a mother-in-law in the basement, or to destroy a mother's garden. Urban legend says that if you piss off a mason, he will brick a rotten egg into your wall. Have you thought about making this possible in the game? Give players the opportunity to get revenge on a bad client? Wanted to entomb your mother-in-law in the basement, now suffer.
MK: There were similar references in HF1. Some of them were pretty drastic. Just not all of them are so easy to find. You may need to hit a wall with a hammer in a place you don't really expect you should hit with a hammer. All sorts of strange things can happen. We don't want to spoil it. There aren't so many houses and walls, so you know what to do. In part two, we will also want to hide different things, because it is our secret way of communication with players, like winking.
Are there any easter eggs in HF1 that no one has discovered yet?
MK: Maybe.
JB: We definitely like to add photos of our developers in various places, so if someone finds all of them, make sure to get in touch with us.
MK: And there may be a little something on our great House Flipper 2 website as well.
