Furniture Assembly Simulation 'Home Improvisation' Released In Early Access On Steam

The latest game in the current trend of silly simulation experiences is one that is rooted in an familiar activity, and is actually a pretty fun experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWurQYLH0YU

As can be seen in the trailer, Home Improvisation takes inspiration from assembling the kind of flat packed furniture you'd buy at IKEA. The process of fitting pieces together has been greatly simplified though, by having a system of pegs and holes that snap together like LEGO bricks. You can also give your creations a personal touch by applying color with a paint brush or making additional pegs and holes.

I've been playing the game a bit over the weekend, and I've mostly enjoyed it so far. There are two game modes to choose from: form and function.

In form mode, your job is to fully decorate the basement, dining room and living room. There are no instructions though, so you're free to construct furniture to your own taste and abilities. Each room has a handful or more objects that go with them and can be freely selected from a catalogue. To clear a room, you must put together all of them.

Function mode presents you with a height challenge, where your goal is to place a trophy above a certain height limit. You start out with a small pre-assembled table, which is enough to get you past the first part of the challenge, but there are two additional goals. You're free to approach them as you wish, but I found them fastest to solve by placing a peg in the middle of the table and fitting together several planks to form a mast of sorts on top of it.

This is the only challenge available so far, but hopefully developer The Stork Burnt Down will come up with other interesting challenges while the game is still in Early Access. According to the Steam store page, they plan to expand the game based on community feedback, and are hoping to engage fans through contests.

QuoteWe feel strongly that a game about custom-built furniture should be driven by community feedback, and getting this feedback earlier in development will allow us to create the game everyone wants.

Among other things, they also plan to add online multiplayer, Steam Workshop integration and a lot more furniture. The game already has local multiplayer, and though I haven't played it myself, it looks like it could be a ton of fun already.

The game can be played with both keyboard and mouse, and a gamepad. To me, keyboard and mouse controls feel a bit off, and though I haven't quite managed to put my finger on why, I find that I'm constantly moving my hands from one to the other, even though several of the functions are present on both. A way to remap controls would surely be a welcome addition. Gamepad feels a lot more comfortable to me, even though I don't often break out my wired Xbox 360 for a game. The left stick is used to move around the room, the right stick to adjust the angle of a piece, and the triggers adjust height. Adjusting angle can take some getting used to, but that's the same for keyboard and mouse controls too.

To sum things up, I think this is an interesting title, and it's especially worth considering if you, unlike me, have someone to join you for a session of couch co-op. As a single player game, it feels very light on content at the moment, but hopefully that will be addressed soon, with more rooms and function levels.

About the game (from Steam)

Home Improvisation is a game about building crazy modular furniture. It is playable solo or with up to 5 friends working together. You can try to build the furniture correctly, or you can make new and terrifying furniture creations. The choice is yours!

Here are all the fun features you can look forward to:

• Build the beautiful furniture of your dreams with simple mix-and-match furniture packs
• Your friends can join in the fun too! Up to 5 people can build together
• Decorate 3 unique rooms in Form Mode
• Test your furniture building prowess in Function Mode
• Customize your furniture with the Peg and Hole Guns
• Choose the perfect color palette with the Paint Brush tool
• Careful of fragile objects: they shatter!

Originally created as part of the Global Game Jam, Home Improvisation became a viral sensation. The Stork Burnt Down took this momentum and fleshed out the game into a full experience, while retaining the fun of the original prototype.


If you're interested in buying the game in its current state, you can do so on Steam. Buying from Itch.io will give you a Steam key, but note that there is no DRM free Linux version at the moment.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.