Hometopia News

Hey Topians,

We're thrilled to share with you the official Hometopia Roadmap, a guide to our major plans from now until our full 1.0 launch and beyond. In this video, Hometopia’s Game Director, Carl Ahlund, walks us through the updates coming to Hometopia!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here's a breakdown of our roadmap:

Q4 2023

• Sandbox Mode (Nov. 8th): Unleash your creativity with unlimited budget, unlimited inventory, and the freedom to build whatever you want
  
• UI/UX Improvements: Expand display options and improve/debug other features
  
• Player Profile Resets: Start your game fresh from the beginning
  
• Full Offline Play: Play offline in single player
  
• Performance Optimizations
  

Q1 2024

• UI Overhaul: A revamp with animated elements and captivating effects
  
• Improved Multiplayer: Stabilized multiplayer experience and gameplay
  
• Full Audio Pass: Immerse players in the world with satisfying sounds and ambient noises
  
• New 3D Campaign Map: A visually revamped map with terrain updates and new job icons, aligning with Hometopia's style
  
• Snapping & Grid Improvements: Perfect building precision tool
  
• Localization Improvements: Enhance translations for a global audience
  

Q3 - Q4 2024

• New Items
  
• Expandable City: Expand the city map block by block with your own custom-designed neighborhoods
  
• Communities: Create diverse urban spaces including shops, restaurants, art galleries, city parks, residential areas, hotels, and much more
  
• Progression Rewards: Earn exclusive titles, profile pictures, card styles, and emotes
  
• Customizable Player Card: Craft your unique player profile with unlocked content
  
• Custom Keybinds: Personalize your controls for a tailored experience
  

Q1 2025 (1.0 Launch)

• New Item Placement, Building, & Roofing Systems: Rework and improve how players design and build
  
• Weekly Challenges: Implement various challenges including title screen image gallery of winning player builds
  
• Client System Rework: Massively improve logic for traits, preferences, desired layouts and job evaluation to be more naturalistic
  
• Cars & Pedestrians in Neighborhoods: Bring neighborhoods to life with bustling streets
  
• Controller Support
  
• Item Customization Overhaul: Dive into more intentional and customized design choices
  

Future Features

• Free Roam Neighborhoods & Biomes: Explore expansive, open-ended neighborhoods and diverse biomes
  
• Interactive Items: Collaborate and engage in co-op with interactive in-game items like ping pong
  
• New Game Modes: Explore new neighborhoods, job types, standard items, and terrains
  
• Customizable Player Avatars
  
• Console Ports
  
• Mac Support
  

We have a lot of exciting plans for Hometopia and can’t wait to deliver these features to our players!

Let’s build better, together,
The Hometopia Team

Hello Topians,

Update 1 is here!

We are so excited to push the first Early Access update to Hometopia! We have been listening to all of your feedback and have been heads down implementing everything we possibly could for this first push! In this update, we have some major improvements and fixes to the tech infrastructure, gameplay, and bugs. Let’s get into it with some patch notes!

Highlights

• Performance optimizations (with many more on the way!)
  
• You can now restart your game progress
  
• You can now play offline
  
• Numerous job and gameplay bugs have been squashed
  

Patch Notes In Full

Tech Improvements

• Removed the online requirement; the game is now fully playable offline
  
• Improved support for a wide range of display resolutions
  
• Improved CPU, GPU, and memory optimizations when painting large number of items
  
• Implemented rendering optimizations and fixes for vegetation in Plaza Lakes, Midtown Heights, The Palms, and The Gables, affecting both enabled and disabled vegetation
  
• Various performance optimizations
  
• Item physics optimizations
  

Gameplay

• Added a way for players to restart their profile in the 'account' section of the settings menu
  
• Rooms offered in outdoor construction projects should now be more varied
  
• Each active neighborhood now has a minimum of 1 job and a maximum of 3 jobs
  
• Removed 'Delete Home' button from the Starter Home until level 7
  
• Limited the character length for renaming homes
  
• Foundation tiles can now be mass-placed in walk mode and in unlimited numbers (Caution - can be laggy if you place too many)
  
• Minor item balance
  
• Increased font size for player notes
  

Bugs

• Fixed ivy not registering as an objective-completing item
  
• Fixed stair pivots
  
• Fixed item thumbnails not loading immediately in the store
  
• Removed half walls from career mode as they were causing bugs (still available in player homes)
  
• Fixed room labels hovering over flat foundations
  
• Fixed a laundry room in Gables displaying "room too small"
  
• Fixed some closet requirements displaying "room too small"
  
• Removed a room hidden under a roof in the Gables causing counting issues for tasks
  

Developer’s Note:
We are really appreciative of the Topian community’s thoughts, ideas, and bug reports. We’re already putting your feedback into action, as seen in Update 1. And you won’t want to miss what we’ve got planned for Sandbox Mode on November 8th! We’re looking forward to making Hometopia even better, together. Keep the feedback coming!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hey Topians,

You asked for SANDBOX MODE: the unlimited budget, unlimited inventory, all-you-can-build environment that lets you create exactly what you want.

You want it?

YOU GOT IT!

Mark your calendars: November 8th, 2023. Sandbox Mode is coming!

Let’s build better, together. 🛠️🏠

–The Hometopia Team

Hi Topians!

Join us in this stream as Sam and Rachel from the Hometopia Team walk you through Career Mode, My Homes free building, and some Hometopia tutorials!

🚨The Hometopia Launch Sale is ENDING!🚨 Make sure to get Hometopia before the sale ends tomorrow so you can start building and designing the most beautiful homes in the virtual world!



As a reminder here are the Key Features of the game:

• Full co-op support - Work with up to 4 other players in any and every part of the game. Work together to take on ambitious renovations or to develop entire neighborhoods.
  
• Career progression - Build a career starting as a beginner and progressing to professional home designer.
  
• Dynamic job system - Engage with a dynamic job system that offers a wide spectrum of client-based tasks. From minor one-room makeovers to large-scale house constructions, every job challenges and enhances your design, renovation, and building abilities.
  
• Player homes - Exercise creative freedom with no restrictions or demands. Purchase land in a preferred biome, and transform it into a dream home.
  

Let's build better, together.