house party

House Party 1.0.1 Stable Release
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House Party 1.0.1 Stable Release

House Party, News

House Party 1.0.1 Stable Release

After-Party Bug Fixes & Performance Updates Arrive In House Party Stable Release 1.0.1!

The exciting post-release after-party is here, doods and lady-doods!

If you’ve been watching our updates lately, you know that the Doja Cat DLC is coming along awesomely, and we’re still working super hard on improving the base game, too! Also, we’re proud to announce that House Party’s Stable Release 1.0.1 is available to all players now!

What’s in this fancy new release? Well, before House Party left Early Access, we added some of the biggest graphical improvements that the party had seen thus far, and we also added some pretty graphically intense cutscenes. In this update, we worked hard to account for these graphical upgrades by adding a ton of optimization improvements!

We have also significantly reduced the memory that House Party uses, increased the frame rate of the game, improved frame drop and game lag issues in the yard (which were reported by multiple partiers), and fixed several crashing and stability problems. The game should be a much smoother and consistent experience for everyone going forward!

Thanks to these changes, House Party also runs smoother on the Steam Deck! You should find that the game now plays great on Ultra settings.

Of course, a handful of bug fixes and other changes to existing content were added in this update, too! It should be much harder for characters to accidentally fall outside the game world (total party foul right?), new translation components were added to the “hard coded” English text so translators can make more progress on localization, and we improved some sight check/culling check settings.

You can also now grab more items around the house, and keen-eyed players might spot a few mysterious, spoilery items hanging out and about in the game world!

Want to see a full list of the changes? Read our patch notes below.

-Eek! Team

CHANGE LOG:

https://housepartygame.com/release-notes

Note: Custom stories may no longer function as intended, until updated by their owner/author.

Eek! Games CEO Discusses House Party With Tvgry
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Eek! Games CEO Discusses House Party With Tvgry

House Party, News

Eek! Games CEO Discusses House Party With Tvgry

Recently, popular YouTuber tvgry, also known as @TenPanMateusz, posted his video game review talking House Party highlights and outrageous missions. He, of course, noticed a certain character on our settings page, describing him as “a bald guy just sitting there looking into nothingness” – you guessed right…it’s Frank.

As a preamble to his review, tvgry sent over some questions to our beloved Founder and CEO Bobby Ricci – we figured we’d share this interview-Esque dialogue for your reading pleasure. So, as @TenPanMateusz put it so eloquently, “grab your friends, put on something nice, grab some juice (yes I said juice) – you’ll find out why later.”

From your point of view – who should play the game? Who is your target audience?

BR: Anybody over the age of 17, really! (The game is rated Mature 17+ by the ESRB). House Party appeals to a large audience with its Sims-like gameplay mixed with free-roam sandbox, and the game’s main aim is to be a comedy first and foremost. You can play as a male or female protagonist, and the game is very inclusive in its portrayal of sexuality. We have found men and women between the ages of 17 and 35 are mostly enjoying the game, but we also have a significant amount of players over 35 as well!

Is it a dating sim/adult dating sim or house party tropes parody?

BR: Both! House Party’s main aim is to be funny, and there are hundreds of opportunities with thousands of branching storylines, a lot of which have nothing to do with dating or romance at all. Though it’s possible to romance most of the characters in the game, that is more of a feature rather than a focus of the game. Most of the storylines have endings and don’t always end in romance, depending on the choices you make.

How did it all start, and have you incorporated any of your real-life experiences?

BR: House Party actually started as a character engine I was writing for Unity. It started shaping up very well and was unique, so I figured I would try my hand at creating something with it before I tried to sell it on the Unity assets store. I didn’t want to do another tired game with violence and/or gore, and I was always a fan of those old adventure-style games, so I decided to do something along those lines. I also felt like I wanted to bring back that old style with a more modern feel, and the House Party concept was born! There may or may not be real-life experiences mixed into the game, but I will leave that to the player’s imagination. 🙂

How the hell did you get Doja Cat to have a guest appearance?

BR: Doja Cat doesn’t just have a guest appearance, she has her own DLC with hours of gameplay, and she will be voice-acting her character herself! The player will be able to interact with her like most of the other characters in the game, and she will have a storyline where you can help her out with her goals and schemes for the night, or not. As always with House Party, the choice is yours.

With the success and positive reception of adding the Game Grumps, we thought it would be a good idea to do it again, only this time going for a much bigger celebrity. We talked to many, but Doja Cat just seemed like an awesome fit for our first DLC with the perfect mix of personality and her crazy and silly sense of humor.

What’s next on the list of updates after Doja Cat DLC?

BR: I’m not at liberty to say yet, but let’s just say…if you think Doja Cat is big, we are having some conversations right now that will blow your mind!

Who’s your favorite character, and why?

BR: Hands down, Frank. He’s just the funniest to write for, and it’s always a treat having his voice actor, Bentley Michaels, bring him to life with new lines.

What can I do to be one of the guests? Just asking for a friend ;p

BR: Super easy! Just become a Grammy award-winning Pop Star! We’ll wait.

Ok, so maybe the award-winning pop star requirement is a bit over the top – but so is House Party! Our player-choice, free-roaming game will let you (and maybe even encourage you) to align and re-align that moral compass of yours.

4 Ways You Can Destress Playing House Party
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4 Ways You Can Destress Playing House Party

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4 Ways You Can Destress Playing House Party

People are looking for one thing when they go to a house party – to destress and forgo responsibility for a little while. But what if you’re stressed on a Tuesday, with the weekend seemingly being so far out of reach? Here are 4 ways you can destress by playing House Party:

Find your Alter Ego

At a house party, everyone wants to make a good first impression so that they’re invited back.

At our House Party, you can forget about that.

As a player-choice game, you should be more concerned about finding the dumb to your dumber so that you can pull off your outrageous pranks while simultaneously testing your charm on whichever character strikes your fancy.

Avoid a drink actually being spilled in your face – or getting beat to a bloody pulp – by making sure you find allies that will have your back throughout the night. That’ll be a lifesaver when you inevitably piss off the wrong NPC!

Stimulate your Head

…the One Above your Shoulders.

With hundreds of stories, side-quests, and narratives – and the thousands of branching storylines – House Party is like a never-ending psychedelic trip. Consider it a mental vacation.

No matter how many times you play, you’re bound to encounter new NPCs, new player-choice-driven storylines, and, most importantly, new opportunities for debauchery.

Take a Dopamine Hit

The best medicine is laughter…with a side of vice.

House Party is a hilariously designed, interactive video game that will have you doing double-takes throughout.

The games’ vibrant storylines featuring parodical personalities will make you feel like you’ve just entered the Twilight Zone – scary? Maybe. Unforgettably adventurous? Definitely.

**F*ck Around…It’s that Simple**

House Party encourages you to adopt the ultimate stress-free attitude – consequences? Never heard of em’.

Free your inhibitions while meeting NPCs and playing through the thousands of storylines available. You can be the antagonist or instigator – it’s up to you.

Eek! Games’ House Party is here to keep you sane by letting you do the insane – stop stressing and start playing!

House Party Exits Early Access with the Release of V1.0.0!
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House Party Exits Early Access with the Release of V1.0.0!

House Party

House Party Exits Early Access with the Release of V1.0.0!

The time is finally here! After a long and incredible journey, House Party is officially out of Early Access! Check out the release notes for House Party 1.0.0 right here, brah!

Wow. We can’t believe how much House Party has changed since its original concept and first build. Because of your financial support, we’ve been able to expand Eek! Games from a one man operation into a small, close-knit team of artists, writers, and programmers, and it has greatly improved the quality and amount of content in the game.

Just because we are coming out of Early Access, though, doesn’t mean we are going to stop working on the game. We feel the game is ready enough to no longer be considered Early Access, but translation updates will continue to be rolled out over the next week or two, and there will still be more polish, cutscenes, and Easter Eggs in the pipeline.

We really can’t thank everyone enough for buying, playing, translating, bug testing, and sharing the game with friends over these past few years. Your support has made House Party the super fun and expansive story-rich 3D comedy-adventure it is today.

Not only that, but House Party has always had to battle against censorship and it’s constantly been a struggle for us to get the game listed on new platforms. We’ve been faced with so much journalist negativity and censorship, but you guys have had our backs through all of it. We couldn’t ask for a more brahsome community of brahs! And the community keeps growing – we love all of you for partying with us.

Today, House Party has overly positive reviews on Steam, good press, a strong player base, and is allowed both censored and uncensored on many platforms. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to add celebrities (with Doja Cat on the way), globalization/translation, a combat system, cutscenes, controller support, and even a female playable character to the game. We can’t wait for you to experience the full game we always wanted to make for you.

We couldn’t be more thankful, and we hope you’ll all continue to show our future House Party DLC and Office Party the same love you’ve been showing House Party! We’ve been listening closely to your feedback on socials, Discord, and our contact forms to hear things you’d love to see in House Party and its sequel game!

In addition to updating the base game and Explicit DLC, we’ll be releasing expansion packs like the Doja Cat DLC this fall, and slowly starting work on Office Party alongside everything!

Other House Party updates to look forward to in the near future will be more female player cutscenes and that awesome VR port we promised. And we even have some super secret projects that could see Eek! Games branch out into different genres of gaming and storytelling!

We’re stoked to explore the future of House Party with everyone, and this has been a wild and amazing ride through Early Access. Cheers to the future and let’s keep partying, doods!

Wishlist the Doja Cat DLC here!

Women in Gaming
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Women in Gaming

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Women in Gaming

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

This is a PSA for all badass gamer girls: House Party is officially out of Early Access today! The full launch featuring a playable female character is available now.

In honor of our new female playable character, let’s talk video gaming…stats. More specifically, let’s talk Women in Gaming. Contrary to popular opinion, gamer girls are on the rise and have continued to crush stereotypes and break barriers. That’s right, boys – we’re coming for ya!

Women Taking the Lead in Gaming:

We’re busy taking over the market AND the number of gamers (Anderton, 2019) – it’s safe to say we’re here to stay. Worldwide, the number of gamer girls is increasing exponentially, from France to Taiwan and back to the U.S. This is despite the male-dominated and male-centric field that video gaming has evolved into – but what else is new? So who exactly are these women? Well, they may be the ones that raised you – that’s right, they’re not like a regular mom; they’re a cool mom. Yeah, you heard us right the first time. Women between the ages of 50-65 are playing more video games than the average man at that age (Anderton, 2019).

And the best part? They raised kickass daughters leading the charge in redefining a woman’s place in the video game industry, especially concerning sponsorships and Esports competitions. The OG sisters to break ground in the gaming industry are none other than Brady and Dalton, AKA the badass PMS Clan or Pandora’s Might Soldiers. The group gained traction after building relationships with other women over Xbox, which they describe as “Pure Awesomeness!” We couldn’t agree more. The two have recently received the ESports Lifetime Achievement Award (Ong, 2021).

Female Representation in Gaming:

Twitch has long been a boys club, but they’re in for a rude awakening! The women of Twitch are here to tell you that the amount of clothing does not define the “realness” of a gamer. We’re all gamers, no matter how we look, so shouldn’t our playable female characters represent that?! Emma Pearl on Twitch says we need to change the perception of what women should do online (Strapagiel, 2021).

Often, women are underrepresented as characters and protagonists in video games. Feminist Frequency advocates for online representation crunched the numbers for 126 games featured at the 2019 E3 conference. Out of the 126, only six centered exclusively on female protagonists, and 28 centered on men…yeah, 6 (Sarkeesian and Petit, 2019).

Play with Us!

Here at Eek! Games, we’re proud to say that our ladies of House Party have the beauty to turn your head and the brains to keep you in check. Say hello to Amy, Ashley, Brittney, Katherine, Leah, Lety, Madison, Rachael, Stephanie, and Vickie Vixen. Eek! Games believes female representation in video games, especially concerning playable characters, is essential. We’re proud to say that House Party is now included in the rising percentage of video games with a playable female protagonist.

Why is this important? Progress starts by making noise, and those equipped with the loudest voices (i.e., video game development companies) are responsible for changing the visual narrative gamers are exposed to daily. At our House Party, you can play the way you want to, however you want to – and maybe f*ck around while you’re at it.

Sources:

Yokoi, T. Female Gamers Are On the Rise. Can the Gaming Industry Keep Up?. Forbes. (March 4, 2021). Retrieved June 28, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomokoyokoi/2021/03/04/female-gamers-are-on-the-rise-can-the-gaming-industry-catch-up/?sh=3e7ca877f9fe

Anderton, K. Women Over 50 Are Playing More Video Games Than Men. Forbes. (January 29, 2019). Retrieved June 28, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2019/01/29/women-over-50-are-playing-more-video-games-than-men-infographic/?sh=7e6d383c1093

Ong, A. The PMS Clan Blazed a Trail for Women in Competitive Gaming. PC Gamer. (November 13, 2021). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.pcgamer.com/remembering-the-origins-of-the-trailblazing-pms-clan/

Strapagiel, L. No One Wins When Women Are Pitted Against Each Other. BuzzfeedNews. (June 10, 2021). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/women-on-twitch-are-done-with-being-stereotyped

Sarkeesian, A. and Carolyn P. Female Representation in Videogames Isn’t Getting Any Better. Wired. (June 14, 2019). Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.wired.com/story/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames/