About
A modern life simulation should no longer have the public and private spaces split apart by arbitrary loading screens. In the age of massive open worlds gracing almost every AAA release, a major life simulation should follow suit. Habs™ aims to deliver a detailed world, based off the New Zealand city of Queenstown. It will encompass various ways of life: from the bustling streets and active nightlife of cities, the relaxing days at the beach and bays, to the family-orientated and animal friendly suburbs, to the wide fields of crops and animal farms. The yet to be named city (to be chosen by the highest donor) will be made up of numerous neighbourhoods each sporting unique traits so not every cluster of homes feels the same. Which way of life will your Hab™ walk?
What is an open world without its weather pattern? Or animals to inhabit it? The base game of Habs™ will come with all four seasons and their various weather patterns. The Habs™ world will tailor into a calendar, with the seasons coming and going and bringing with them a holiday the whole city will celebrate, and a festival running in the city’s major park.
- Summer Town Formation Day + arts/music festival
- Autumn A Halloween-type Day + harvest festival
- Winter A Christmas-type Day + lights festival
- Spring An Easter-type/Romance Day + life/rebirth festival
Animals can play an important part in the lives of Habs™. The game will offer domestic pets like cats, dogs, rabbits, rodents and fish; to farm animals like horses, cows, pigs, chickens and goats.
Each animal will have their own skills and needs to fulfil, and all can benefit the lives of those around them.
Our Habs™ will feel like real people with personalities, quirks, interests, routines, turn offs/on and habits. They will feel like real people as they grow, work, relax, socialise, form communities, make enemies and friendships and establish families of all kinds. Each Hab™ will be able to feel and express emotions based on the world they experience. They can feel happy after hugging their cat, while harbouring sadness over the loss of their job.
They will form emotional memories of significant moments in their lives including their Big Days. Big Days are important moments of transition and growth for each life stage. For example, a toddler will age up to a kindergartener, live at home for a few more days, then their Big Day – their first day of school – will arrive and the support from their guardians will mean a lot in their development. We know in order to make this life simulation feel alive, you the player will have to have the power that makes it worth controlling and the gameplay enjoyable.
Habs™ don’t all start life with the same household fund. The player can customise their Habs™ to let them have a history – give them any level of any career you want, gift them however many skills you want, and decide how much money their household begins with. In our game, there will be a class structure between the wealthy, the middle-class and the less fortunate, and the world will reflect this through its environments and gameplay. Try to raise your Hab™ from poverty to wealth or simply focus on playing your Habs™ with what they have.
Like a dress but hate the colour? Love the cut of the skirt but can’t stand the leopard pattern? Habs™ has you covered with its customising feature, allowing the player to change the patterns and colours to all the clothing, furniture and architecture. You can change your roof’s colour to hot pink if so desired or cover the walls with fur. Our Habricator™ where Habs™ are created and the building/furnishing modes of our game will give you ample opportunity to play with style.
Life is more than just children and adults. In Habs™ there are up to now 10 life stages for the player to experience including:
- new-borns (0-1) needing protection and care,
- adventurous toddlers (2-4) exploring their surroundings,
- kindergartners (5-7) ready to start school,
- children (8-10) keen to make friends,
- preteens (11-14) going through their phases,
- teenagers (15-17) learning independence,
- young adults (18-25) simultaneously ready and not ready to take on the world,
- adults (26-49) who are finding their way into destined careers and families,
- the middle-agers/pensioners (50-79) who have settled and are gradually moving into retirement and
- the elderly (80 – beyond) who like to hang on for as long as possible.
There are no limits on age customisation. Want to start your Hab™ off as a brand new baby? Sure! Each life stage spans over a number of days and you can pick how many days they’ve lived that stage. Want to make a teenager two days away from aging up into a young adult? No problem. How about making a pregnant Hab™? No worries, just pick how far along they are and you’re set.
Tired of one second in real life equalling one minute in a life simulation? Does time fly by too quickly in your game? Would you like to just slow down your Habs™ day so more time can be spent on family moments and special events? In Habs™, the time is adjustable into three offers: the traditional ratio, five second in real life = one Habs™ minute, or ten seconds our time = one Habs™ minute.
Collosal developers attribute much of their success in Cities: Skylines to their modding community, and while we have a roadmap with 5 planned expansion packs, we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We will be closely listening to our modding and player communities as you provide the “special sauce” for what’s coming next.
Heck! That’s why we’re doing this Kickstarter in the first place!
We believe US$40 for the base game is affordable. Sales & distribution will be via Steam.
Single player, offline PC only. We have completed our concept trailer, validated and verified the functionality and capability of our concepts with leading games development studios, senior producers and project managers in our local industry. Once we are successfully funded via this Kickstarter, we will commence immediately.
We’ve been circulating the trailer pre-launch and getting some excellent feedback. It is important to note; the trailer is concept art only at this time.
Most notably, the look’n’feel of the Habs™ is a vitally important design element. We’re keen to have a realistic feel to our Habs™ that is not necessarily 4K HD true facial replication, but a "not-far-from" realistic perspective that provides for emotive, rich tones that shows Habs™ as realistic, but not “automatonic”.
For the trailer, we had to stick to a very tight budget which meant we couldn’t go for the detail or animate that detail.
We will post updated artwork shortly.
We've constructed a rewards structure that provides for everyone to be honoured on a specially constructed "Founders Way" that will feature names on bricks, pavers, benches, statues, shop fronts, buildings, sports stadiums, walkway Hollywood type stars etc., right up to naming the Habs™ metropolis itself (all names subject to our approval). Our options include:
- Small - pledges up to AUD$9.95 - a sincere thank you and a "brick in the wall"
- Software Only - pledges from AUD$15 up to $50 - discounts on the base games software - "we built this city", and a "brick in the wall"
- Permanent Naming Rights - pledges from AUD$75 upwards - base game software and naming rights to various town features, bulidings etc.
- Early Release Participation - pledges of AUD$100 and AUD$200 - base game software, plus become alpha and beta software program participants - be an integral part of our software delivery team's final output.
To sum our efforts up??
We simply believe we can do better when the players are considered more important than shareholders.
Stretch goals? In the words of Mr Incredible "we'll get there, when we get there!!"
Risks and challenges
Lack of Development Experience
We acknowledge the Habs™ team has never developed a video game but that doesn’t mean this game is impossible. It takes a team to create a game. We have a creative & community element in Evie & Hannah, and the long experience of software sales, development and project management of Ray. Everything we’ve pitched to you has been reviewed, vetted and approved by major studio developers with a wealth of knowledge and industry experience.
Once funded, we already have our development team and Senior Producer ready to go – we just need the funds.
Why trust us?
There is much to be cynical about crowd funded projects and their well-documented failures, and when asking for multi-million-dollar targets, that cynicism is heightened further – we get it.
We can only pitch our ideas honestly and put ourselves forward as best we can.
Our concept is designed by someone who loves what the Sims created in life simulations and simply wants to do better because she wants to play a better version than what is currently offered. She wants to play a game without the restraints, the money gouging and greedy tactics of Electronic Arts. A game that caters to the players and not the shareholders. She hopes that many other players wish the same thing.
Not Paying Ourselves Fully
The funds we've asked for will primarily all go to the development studio. The remainder will go to Kickstarter fees, and a very small amount to the founders for marketing support and base salaries. We're going to keep doing it tough to ensure we focus all the funds we possibly can on building the best possible gaming experience. And we’ll be happy to show you our books as we progress, we have nothing to hide.
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support
Funding period
- (43 days)