A Note on Ongoing Public Releases: Updated 9/14/2020

For general House Party discussion, gameplay questions, and feedback. Also where to ask questions about how to avoid Frank of the House "Fister", First of His Name.
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eekdon
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A Note on Ongoing Public Releases: Updated 9/14/2020

Note for Patreon Patrons: please refer to Patreon for news and release info specific to Patreon. None of the below applies to Testing releases (on Steam OR Patreon, or Patreon perks.

Hey all, just wanted to touch base and pin a reminder about how often we put out updates. Remember that this game is NOT finished yet (it's in Early Access) and these updates are not merely "free content updates" or "seasons", etc. They are development updates, meaning their goal is to add core content and features, or at least the groundwork for such things. You are joining our tiny studio on the path to completing a game, simple as that.

Anyway, we will be releasing Distributor site (Steam, GameJolt, Itch, etc.) updates as often as we can, but only when we deem them ready. Usually this takes roughly two months, but it may take longer for larger updates. We will not be providing time windows or release dates for updates. This is simply due to the fact that we are a very small, very busy team. We have 5 consistent deliverable-focused staff, i.e. people who make pretty things, develop sexy things, write funny things, or test all the things.

Due to our small team size, workload, and the scope of what we're trying to create, any illness, vacation, or even PC/software issue can cause huge holdups that push back deadlines. Also, we don't abuse the #@!% out of our people. So the insane hours other studios might work are not a thing here.

A Few FAQs...

When is the next public (non-testing) Update?!
SO if you want to know generally when the next release is, look at the date for the most recent update you received (Steam Store/News, Itch DevLog, etc.), and then add a few months. Somewhere around that time will be the next release. Otherwise, ask or search around here, on our official forums, Discord, or wait for us to post news about an update. We are going to try to be more communicative about future updates in terms of features and content so that you at least aren't sitting around with nothing to look forward to for awhile.

What are the Changes in the Next Update?! Do you have a roadmap?
If you are curious about what will be in an upcoming release prior to it becoming available, you can always get the notes for the testing versions we've worked on at the link below. If you combine and compare the differences in each version against your current game version (so for example, as of the day of this post, add up all changes AFTER 0.8.8 up to 0.9.2) you will get a very good idea of what to expect in the next release. We will also post site-specific release notes shortly after updates go live.

https://housepartygame.com/release-notes/

And here is a loose roadmap of what we're working on for House Party. Note that this list is NOT exhaustive/all inclusive, and is NOT representative of order of update delivery:
  • Expanded content for Frank (update size TBD)
  • Expanded content for Vickie (tie-in of other stories, then add enough content to wrap up her post-hut tub "finale")
  • At least one technical/bug fix/polish update prior to jumping into female playthrough. Need to greatly improve controller support, add more intimacy positions, continue polishing existing positions, etc.
  • Female playthrough (large update, possibly more than one required)
  • Expanded content for Brittney (update size TBD)
  • Minor supporting content additions for various NPCs as necessary to tie off and complete the above
  • Tie off plot holes, interconnect as much content as is reasonable to further enhance the "sandbox" feel of the game, make sure UI, animations, etc. are what we want them to be
  • Reassess whether all misc. mechanics like mini-games, etc. that we like or that have been in "high demand" are in place
  • Reassess if we've got enough tools available for modders/custom story creators
  • Polish, QA, polish, QA
  • Review translation requests and requisition additional translations based on volume of requests and impacted users
  • ...Profit???
  • Do a thing in VR
You can also check out our high-level "Eek! Development Roadmap" here that pertains to House Party and our follow-up title, Office Party:

https://games.eekllc.com/eek-games-road ... s-in-2020/

RAWR WHERE R U IS TEH GAME DED?1
We're busy. Very busy. And no, it's not. We'd tell you if we could no longer continue development and/or complete the product you paid for. That would probably be the *@%!&#est of all "surprise mechanics" and we wouldn't do that to you.

In the matching Steam post linked here you can find an archived, public-release tailored list of update info: https://steamcommunity.com/app/611790/d ... 6219216155

4/7/19: Consolidated the other Update-related pinned thread info into this one.
7/12/19: Updated the language about our pace of releases/updates to no longer reflect the hilariously inaccurate "60 day window". Added further clarifications about the nature of updates, life, and other blah blah blah. Added additional snarky FAQ response.
9/10/20: Simplified some language and shortened where appropriate.
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