Alex here. My team and I have been working tirelessly over the past three years on Hometopia and Iām sure youāve been wondering what exactly has been going on lately. You keep hearing about a new release date and then are understandably confused when nothing comes out. Iām here to explain the last six months, the next six months, and the exciting future of Hometopia!
This game has had a wild ride and up till now, weāve been entirely self-funded. Game development in general is complex, messy and expensive. By the beginning of 2022, we didnāt think we could afford to bring you the big experience we wanted to provide. We could have pushed out what we had, but I didnāt feel right doing that. We have an obsessive goal that centers around a single vision for Hometopia:
Building Community Together
We want to provide the world, environment and tools to give you the creative freedom to really express yourself. But even more importantly, we want to help you foster relationships and social ties with other players as you build amazing neighborhoods and communities together! To reach that goal, we realized we needed a partner that can help us take it to the next level.
After six months of long conversations and work towards full alignment on the vision, we are happy to announce we have partnered with Everyrealm as a joint venture for Hometopia! They are not only providing all the resources we need to help bring you the game you deserve, but also have a unique perspective that helps us see the broader ecosystem.
Now onto the fun stuffā¦
We are building at 100% capacity and pushing every day to bring a truly amazing experience to you soon. The first thing that comes with that is transparency and frequent updates. Starting next week, our very own Mariana will be giving you an inside look into what weāre working on and provide frequent updates documenting our journey. Keep an eye on the #updates channel in our Discord for that.
Next, we plan to share our Roadmap so you can see our plan and timeline. Carl, who comes from AAA gaming, recently joined as Game Director and has been working crazy hard on getting this together. We canāt wait for you to see what we have in store for you! From our initial launch, all the way through updates and expansions, we think youāre going to love what Hometopia is becoming.
Another exciting change is we finally have our home at our official website domain, www.hometopia.com :)
Lastly, weāve decided to make a big change to the gameā¦
HOMETOPIA WILL BE FREE!
There will be no nickel and diming here. While weāre planning some amazing quality paid DLC that will enhance the experience and provide additional content for building and designing, it absolutely wonāt be required to enjoy the game.
Thank you so much for your patience this year as we worked through the best way to keep supporting this game and bring you what you deserve. Canāt wait to see your creations.
Hey Topians! Everyone from our development team currently have their heads down and working hard on making Hometopia the best game possible for you, our beloved community. But of course, we always have time for everyone who has been following the development of Hometopia as we would not be where we are today without you, so without further a due, we're here to show off some of our new biomes that'll be available to you in sandbox for single player and multiplayer!
And what would be a better way to show off these amazing biomes, then sharing with you some Hometopia postcards? As we can't wait to see our Topians joining us to relax in a paradisiac beach, or the mountains!
Always dreamed about leaving the concrete jungle and returning to nature? Well, now you can, with one of our brand new biomes - mountains, available in sandbox mode for single and multiplayer! Design your dreamhouse within this beautiful biome, surrounded by mountains, beautiful lakes and lush vegetation.
For those seeking relaxation along with sun-kissed skin, our paradisiac beach biome is perfect for you! Design your holiday home within this beautiful biome, surrounded by palm trees and a panoramic view of the sea.
See you again soon, Hometopia team!
Exciting Steam Next Fest Results
Hey Topians!! From October 1 to 7, we were part of the Steam Next Fest, and as a team of five, we have been overwhelmed with how positive the reception has been.
In less than a week, the Hometopia demo had:
- Over 1,200 days worth (or 28,000 total hours) of time spent playing the demo
- Hundreds of multiplayer concurrent players building simultaneously online
- 200,000 unique individuals tuning into our livestream
- In the Top 10 Trending on the front page throughout the entire Next Fest
- So many incredible designs shared!
And it's about the last one that we're here to talk about, as we couldn't thank our topians, new or old, enough for the Steam Next Fest, and for the amazing designs that they shared with us during those days. You guys are all so talented! Thanks for trying out our game, and we look forward to see your designs when Hometopia is released, in January 2022! But for now, let's take a look at some of our favorite creations:
Don't forget to Wishlist Us on Steam and join our amazing Discord community!
See you again soon! Hometopia team š”
Thanks for an amazing Steam Next Fest!
We want to thank all of our Topians, new and old, for an incredible Steam Next Fest! As a team of only five, we have been overwhelmed with how positive the reception has been and want to share a few results from the sandbox demo.Ā
Before we do, there were so many incredible quotes from new players, but here's just a few:
"Absolutely blown away! There were so many "no waaaaay moments"
"It takes a special game that makes a person when they wake up want to jump on and play right away."
"This game has huge potential to put a shadow on all similar games in that genre. The devs ofĀ HometopiaĀ have created an incredible game so far!"
"This is the most fun I have had in a game in a long time."
"I haven't sat down and played anything for this long."
"It combines all the features that so many people wanted to see in one game.Ā The potential of Hometopia is massive and I am sure it will become a huge success in the genre!"
"Omg sold. I'm sold on this game now"
"I'm actually shaking with excitement"
"Utterly blown away by my first play on stream tonight! It has such an enormous future! Anyone who loves the building part of Sims and the decorating parts of House Flipper is gonna fall in love with this like I did!"
In less than a week, the Hometopia demo had:
- Over 1,200 days worth (or 28,000 total hours) of time spent playing the demo
- Hundreds of multiplayer concurrent players building simultaneously online
- 200,000 unique individuals tuning into our livestream
- In the Top 10 Trending on the front page throughout the entire Next Fest
- So many incredible designs shared!
The demo focused only on one of our modes - free build sandbox (single player and multiplayer) - and we're excited to share our full Career mode soon as players will be able to fully renovate rundown homes across five unique neighborhoods and flip them for a profit while unlocking items.Ā
We're hugely excited to launch Hometopia in January and we're one step closer to being Your Home in the Metaverseš
