HBTR - | Build | Harvest | Clean Pollution | Windows, Mac game

HBTR - | Build | Harvest | Clean Pollution |

GTGD | Released Feb 14, 2023

Home By The River is a unique builder game set in a dystopian not too distant future. You move to a polluted land by a river so that you may build your clean reactor secretly, and hide from the mighty Sigil Corporation. Construct your home & lab, farm, harvest, cook, earn money, gain virtue, clean pollution, get your technology out to the world, and so transform your dystopian world forever by your efforts. Enlist Pioneers of various professions to help you in your cause! You can play single player or LAN co-op. This is a more peaceful 2D builder game with a touch of Terraria and Stardew Valley inspiration, and without all the unnecessary grinding. Enjoy smooth and swift construction gameplay.

REMOVE POLLUTION

Cut down dead trees.
Remove trash.
Plant new trees.
Place solar panels.
Establish wind farms.
When you're filthy rich, build your clean reactor.

CREATE YOUR HOME

As you level up you'll gain more tiles to place in the world and evenutally you can build your lab as well. I've designed the tools for construction to be easy to use:

Right click acts like a colour picker and can also swap to the Axe tool for quick harvesting.
Alpha numeric keys allow you to quickly select a mode; delete, build, interact, inventory, foreground, props.
You can left click drag build and delete for fast construction and deletion.
Holding down left shift while constructing will immediately build a solid wall which is great for building faster and setting up defense walls against the Sigil drones.

FARM AND HARVEST

Plant corn, wheat, sugar, and trees.
Sell the harvested crop or you can process them further for use in cooking.
Let some trees grow to help reduce pollution and harvest some to sell their lumber. Do sustainable forestry.

YOUR STATS

Hunger - you can't do anything if you're hungry so eat food.
Energy - you can't do anything if you're tired, so get rest.
Spirit - you can't do anything if you're depressed, so meditate.
Hidden - your world will be demolished if you get found out so do keep away from the drones and destroy them.
Experience - gain XP, level up so you get more tile types to build and more neat stuff to do.
Virtue - defines how people react to you and your end game experience.

EARN INCOME

Sell harvested crops to rivermen, or better, through a trading terminal when you're higher level.
Collect sky nodes and get money, XP, and spirit.
Make computer games, if you make a legendary one you will make tons of cash.
Establish ventures in the background and let the passive income roll in.
Build solar panels. Yes, you'll get income from your solar farm.
Bail out businesses that are close to default. They'll take you on as a shareholder and give you dividends!
Do quests for the townsfolk.

AND MUCH MORE

Establish your underground lab, gain research points, unlock research cards and create clean reactor components that you'll donate to the world.
Stop Sigil drone swarms from demolishing what you have built and upgrade your lightning rod to fight back!
Feed your cat, change its colours, or give it a hat.
Play single player or over LAN. Harvested resources are duplicated across the network so everyone benefits. Also you can place a chest in the world to share items or just store it in that world!
Upgrade your hoverboard and fly!
And more for you to experience.

YOU INTO GAME DEV?

If you're interested in developing your own games then you may be interested in my Gamer To Game Developer Series 2. It is the foundation for Home By The River and you'll see how to make your own 2D world that players can build using the Unity game engine.

Thanks for coming by and please do wishlist the game on Steam.

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Home By The River Update 10 - Launches Today!

Feb 14 2023 News

Today Home By The River launches on Steam and it's been a long and great journey for me in learning more and getting better at making a game with deep mechanics.

What is HBTR?

My Pyramid

These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game:

I've added a drone beacon tile that allows the player to summon up to 150 enemy drones for good old drone combat fun. When you destroy drones you gain money and exp. At level 4 you can use a Lightning rod workbench to power up your weapon against drones and make short work of them. This adds a bit more variety in how you can earn income besides farming, the game dev mini game, investing, etc.

Drones coming on the first day is too intense because most players are still learning the basic construction controls. Drones will now come from day 7 onwards.
Your lightning rod now auto attacks instead of having to left click. Some players were struggling to control the player with the keyboard and attack with the mouse. I've simplified it and now the player just has to focus on keeping their distance from the drones. The lightning rod auto attacks with precision making drone combat easier.
The lightning rod emits a trail when attacking drones so now you can see more easily which drone is being struck as it auto attacks.
Clicking on potted plants will teleport you to them like many other props. Now you can place these strategically to beautify your home and for fast travel.
For each objective where you need to place a particular tile, that tile type will now have a golden border in your construction/props menu to help you find it easier.
Energy never stays at zero. You will have at least one point so you can keep on constructing or harvesting until you sleep or drink etc. to recharge energy. I noted that new players like to remove trash and dead trees and suddenly find they don't have energy and they don't understand why they can't build then. I don't want players to feel frustrated so I've made this change so you don't feel stuck at the beginning of the game.
I've changed the prayer book tile appearance to a standing book because some people thought it is a bed.
I've updated some of the icons that show in the Objectives panel. In particular wherever Supply Chain Workstation is mentioned I've put its icon instead of the props icon. This is to help players understand that they need to place and use the Supply Chain workstation in order to unlock the mentioned tile (e.g. solar panel).
I've added a global condition console which you can unlock from the supply chain workstation at level 2. Using this console you can see the current state of Sigil Influence, global prosperity, and global environment.
The random gift box now appears as a reward for twelve tiles placed. I've done this to give the player a clearer notification that they've received a gift box. I've also made opening of gift boxes through the inventory more noteworthy so the player can have some enjoyment from clicking through them to open them, because you can collect a lot of gift boxes!
I've added sounds for when you collect commodities and I think this adds to the giving the player feedback on their gaining of those commodities.
I've added sounds for when drones lose health. I find this gives nice feedback especially when striking them with the lightning rod.
I've added more coin sounds throughout the game to help make it more obvious when you are receiving money.
I've added a subtle footstep sound to the player to add a bit more liveliness to the game. I've also made the characters more buff in appearance.