Interview: House Flipper 2 Developers Are Working On New Free Updates

Michael: I’m Michael, and I’m in charge of Public Relations at Frozen District. My work mainly consists of media relations, but I also create buzz around House Flipper. My work is fascinating, and I enjoy doing it!

Michael: House Flipper 2 includes a more developed story layer for players to get more into the characters and feel that they are part of a community, in this case, Pinnacove, which has a history that changes as the years go by.

Pinnacove was modeled on American suburbs (it was very similar to House Flipper 1), as it captures the atmosphere well. As I mentioned, the city itself has its own happy and sad stories – we are very keen for players to discover them as the game progresses.

Michael: First, I’d like to highlight how the game’s story mode campaign begins. In House Flipper 1, the game started in a small office where the main character did all the admin work for its business. In House Flipper 2, we start the game story at the family house, which was given to us by our parents.

This completely changes the way we look at the “workplace” because we want to renovate it as soon as possible and restore it to its former glory. There’s a more emotional connection to this workplace. It is rooted in the character’s past, present, and future. We wanted players to feel like they are a big part of this transformation taking place in Pinnacove.

Now, to answer your question, we changed a lot of things in the game, some of which are invisible and some of which are conspicuous at first glance. We significantly changed the code to make the game more stable and up to new standards.

We redesigned the UI to make it more accessible to new players, added improvements to the overhaul mechanics, and, most importantly, added a Sandbox mode that allows you to do amazing things. 

Behind all of this was the basic idea: to create a game that would be more accessible to new players but allow those familiar with House Flipper to feel at home.

Michael: We wanted Sandbox mode elements to appear a bit in the story part of the game, which allowed players to get used to certain solutions. One of them is the fact that it was finally possible to build rooms outside the building, which until now (and only partially) was available in the Farm DLC for House Flipper 1. 

However, the Sandbox mode itself is designed in such a way that it allows new players to quickly find their way around all the options and build their dream houses.

Michael: This mode is a real sandbox! Seriously, you can build whatever you want and as high as you want (well, almost!). You can change everything from the terrain to the surroundings of the house itself; you can build a huge castle, a lighthouse, or a grand palace.

House Flipper 2 is fully integrated with the mod.io platform, which allows you to upload your houses and share them with other players. We are watching what goes out there and are very impressed with what our community can create. They are so very talented!

Michael: Our community rightly pointed out that these mechanics sometimes unnecessarily prolonged the process of decorating the house and did not allow us to focus on the creative process itself. We understand this, which is why we moved the assembly of furniture and other things to a separate mode that allows you to become a DIYer! 

Michael: Our team of developers is roughly 25-30 people.

Michael: House Flipper 2 is a much bigger game than its predecessor. It was quite a challenge to make all the puzzle pieces come together. We wanted to be sure that the game would be bug-free and enjoyable for players for the release.

One of the biggest challenges was designing the Sandbox mode. First, it’s an entirely new mode that hasn’t been in the game before, so everything had to be created from scratch.

The second challenge was to add several tools that would be manageable (that would make the process too complicated) but at the same time would not limit players’ creativity. Third, we were concerned about whether this mode would appeal to players and whether it would be fun and accessible enough.

In this case, we found the golden mean, and Sandbox mode allows you to do amazing things and is affordable.

Michael: It’s always the case that we have a lot of ideas, and then something has to be cut out because otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it in time, or a particular mechanic or content wasn’t polished to the point where we could show it to players.

But nothing is lost; after this year, there are still a few free updates to the game that will add new content and maybe more!

Michael: Many, many thanks to all of you who are in our community and who appreciate with great understanding what we do (and sometimes rightly criticize us). You guys are awesome!