None that is really an issue, as the aforementioned Steam Workshop support could fill in gaps upon release. The former tend to be a little bland and woolen-looking, while the latter is too focused on flowers and things you’d find in your nan’s house. Nonetheless, despite the entire overabundance of lamps, washing machines, and other bits and pieces, carpets and wallpapers are a little limiting. In fact, I avoided what little there may be to the Steam Workshop additions thus far, as it could be somewhat buggy at this early stage. It might not entirely be there just yet, but even if it was nothing more than a limited supply of furnishings available throughout the demo this week, it is still quite a lot. There are lots of lamps too, or even wardrobes. That made painting it more frustrating, especially because I wasn’t too sure about picking a color before I’d been able to furnish it.Īnother expedition into the unknown is furnishing, with lots and lots of things to choose from. My entire house was a little large for what I thought was quite a small lot. That tends to be my problem, I’ve never been great at scale in these games. When I showed Alexx and Lisa (our Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor) the first bedroom I had created, admittedly very much like an excited child with a drawing of the family, the first comment was, “that’s big.” I could make a crude joke about it being the first time I’ve heard that in a bedroom, but I’ll refrain and say I won’t despite highlighting it.

You can drag and place things, but there is no button to say “paint this entire room” which would be useful when you are doing the entire exterior. You paint every tile or place every square of flooring, individually.

In some cases, I’d argue that can be a little too much: I’m mostly referencing painting a room or the entire house. You can place every knick-knack and home appliance like you are actually renovating and moving in. Hometopia is everything it is advertised to be: You are given an empty plot of land, you can construct your mansion made of gold, your happy cottage life, or recreate Bill & Deana Riker’s house they share with their daughter in Picard. Ok, that’s enough Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy references for one article! The sandbox mode on the other hand, does very much interest me as it allows me to create my dream “little” home that I can lay outside of when the bulldozers come to knock it down. I tried to avoid that this week during the Steam Next Fest because those restrictions don’t interest me at all. You focus on fixing things up on a budget and selling it on. In career mode, it is a little more akin to House Flipper. Hometopia does take that consumerist section of the home design aspect from The Sims and makes that the entire game. For the life of me, I can’t remember where it was said (I think a Channel 4 doc by Charlie Brooker), but Will Wright, who created The Sims, said that it was always designed around a satirical look at US consumerism. Ok, Lisa and I disagree on this one a little, but I always found The Sims games to be about home design. Hometopia is a game I wrote about coming to this week’s Steam Next Fest because, when I saw the press release that said it is about designing homes with as much detail as possible, I almost jumped for joy. Ok, I’ll stop now, but only because the Earth is about to be obliterated in two minutes and nineteen seconds.Īnyway, Hometopia is The Sims 4 if it was created by a human that understood what we all wanted: More home design gubbins. I think I’d need to be looking in a dark and dank basement bathroom with no staircase or light to get down there, and I just cannot be bothered. It may also be a crime that I make such a lengthy and on-the-nose reference to Douglas Adams, but I haven’t checked.

I think I speak for the entire Earth delegation in that, to put up a notice over in Alpha Centauri that a hyperspace bypass will be constructed right through the happy little homes we’ve just spent many hours creating, that is a crime.

Hometopia download