Erasmus

Controller Support, UI and QOL Improvements…and the First Look at House Party’s Female Player!

The female player’s first look is here, doods!

Since adding her is a huge task, and because we want as much feedback as possible, this update will be a little different than what we’ve done in the past. Here is how we’re doing that:

On Patreon: this will be released as a Stable update, with all its features. In order to get as much feedback from our Patrons as possible, and because we’ve been super busy and might’ve dropped the ball on delivering certain perks to them ( <3 !! ), this update will be made available to all Beta-tier Patrons and up.

On Steam: We’ll be offering two versions of this update: First, a “live” or “no branch” version, which will offer many controller support improvements, UI tweaks, bug and quality of life fixes. Steam users who just want access to this version need to ensure that they do not have a beta branch selected in the game’s properties (“None”). The second version is identical to the first, but will also include the female character first look. To access this, Steam users will need to:

1. Click the gear icon on the House Party game’s landing page (or right-click House Party in their Steam Library) and click “Properties”
2. Navigate to the “BETAS” tab
3. Use the “Select the beta” drop-down menu to select the “testing – Testing Branch” option
4. Close the Properties window

On GOG: enter into the game’s Configuration menu (next to the Play button) in the GOG Galaxy client. Select “Manage Installation”. Then “Configure”. Then in the “Beta channels” dropdown, select “Change private channel password” and input the password ‘testing’ to opt into the testing version.

On itch.io: there will be two downloads available for the product you purchased. One will have no subtitle or special labeling. The other will be marked “(Testing Build – Female Player…)“. That one. Download that one.

On all Other Distribution Sites/Platforms: unfortunately, these do not support branch/version switching as conveniently, and therefore will only be getting the controller support, UI, bug, and QOL-improvement version for now. Eventually we will roll out the female player to all sites/platforms as soon as it is more fleshed out, so please be patient! It’s coming! She’s c…yeah!

So, why treat the female player first look all special-like? In short, she ain’t done yet. But we also wanted to show as many customers as possible our progress (as opposed to waiting and waiting the entire time we worked on her!), and give them ample time to provide us with feedback. While her Original Story content is not done, those with access to the female first look can choose to Start a New Game of the Original Story with her on the Main Menu. In terms of content, we’ve done a thorough first pass through the existing story lines and made a bunch of tone, pronoun, and wording tweaks to make you feel at home in the party as the female player! Unfortunately, we have not had the time to get voiced lines for much of this alternate content or fully convert all intimacy sequences, but bear with us! We’re working on it, and will continue to do so up until (and if needed, after) we exit Early Access!

Controller support is also fully functional, and we added some general House Party polish and UI improvements to this update. You can play the game without any major hang-ups on all supported controllers and the Steam Deck. We still plan on adding some quality of life features and fixes in the future to fine-tune how everything feels, but, as it is now, it’s completely playable.

If you’re curious about the polish we added, some notable changes are that we adjusted the colors for most of the interactable UI elements so they’re easier to see and fixed some cutscene issues that could cause them to get stuck. We also added a garage cutscene and a Frank mini oral scene in the yard.

Leading up to our release from Early Access later this year, we’ll be adding some quality of life features to controller support, polishing and bug fixing the hell out of the base game, and adding a lot more Original Story content, voice acting, and intimacy-specific tweaks and fixes for the female player.

Thanks for being the coolest partiers ever and staying patient as we worked through the hurdle of uncensoring Lety’s content in our last update. We’re sorry for the delay, and we hope you have fun playing as a female! We’re excited to add more of her story as we get closer to House Party’s exit from Early Access!

-Eek! Team

CHANGE LOG:

https://housepartygame.com/release-notes

Note: Updates labeled as “Testing”, “Beta”, and/or “First Look” contain unfinished and untested content. Placeholders may be present for dialogue and various assets. Older save files may no longer be compatible. Custom stories may no longer function as intended. Translations may also be incomplete. Controller support is nearly finished, but if you do run into issues, you may need to temporarily use your keyboard/mouse to restore normal functionality.