Home By The River — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| Replaced classic workstation game dev mini game | 2026-07-13 | Pioneers, this is a small update and I've replaced the old game dev mini game, which was quite boring and took a long time. I hope the new one is more easy to understand and more interactive. It is accessed through the classic workstation (the one with CRT monitor).Thanks,GTGD |
| Steam Achievements! | 2026-07-10 | Pioneers, I've included 89 Steam achievements for you to earn! Most of them are earned by playing the game but some require you to go beyond such as building a really big home. I've also done some bug fixes and improvements to the game.Bug fixesMissing eggs from the pantryFireworks only blue in colourDifficult to click on bunnies!You could be locked out of the Donation achievement if you already achieved global prosperity.ImprovementsI replaced fish textures with Peacequarium fish. I spent lots of time drawing fish for Peacequarium so I thought to bring some of them into Home By The River.The old rainbow texture was really jarring so I made a |
| Wholesome Refresh | 2026-07-04 | Pioneers, I've come back to Home By The River after three long years to implement some important updates! The game performance should be better now and graphics sharper and clearer! The reflecting water is more efficient and looks much nicer than before. I've replaced the old tutorial and created a brand new one that should help show how to play the game way better and clearer than the old tutorial.I've improved the user interface and implemented a Game Settings menu, which was sorely needed.5120 x 1440 is now a supported screen resolution.Steve and George will now replant crops after harvesting them!I've thrown out Sigil drones and the demol |
| Implementing Control Rebinding | 2023-04-16 | This is a small update and I've added control bindings for character movement. At the top of the screen in game you'll see a keyboard icon and when you can click on that you can rebind the players motion controls. If more controls need the rebinding option then just let me know. |
| Launch is Today! HBTR Update 10 | 2023-02-15 | Today Home By The River launches on Steam and it's been a long and great journey for me in developing a game with deep mechanics. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting Gamer To Game Developer for the last ten years! What is HBTR? 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. E |
| HBTR Steam Next Fest Broadcast | 2023-02-05 | Revive your polluted land and build your home, farm and lab. Remove trash, dead trees, and plant new trees. Build green energy like solar, wind, a clean reactor, and transform your world by your efforts. This is a more peaceful 2D builder game with a touch of Terraria and Stardew Valley inspiration. |
| HBTR Steam Next Fest Broadcast | 2023-02-05 | Revive your polluted land and build your home, farm and lab. Remove trash, dead trees, and plant new trees. Build green energy like solar, wind, a clean reactor, and transform your world by your efforts. This is a more peaceful 2D builder game with a touch of Terraria and Stardew Valley inspiration. |
| Home By The River Update 9 | 2023-01-25 | I spent a lot of time eradicating bugs and improving the game in general. A great improvement is that the hoverboard now hovers which makes it fun and easy to build taller buildings or up in the sky. I failed many times at creating a trailer that made any sense, but this time around I think I did ok. These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: I’ve changed the hoverboard so that it actually hovers now. I realised that I really want to hover in the air and build structures and it is so much easier if the hoverboard maintains its position. So from now on the hoverboard will no longer keep on falling slowly. It will keep |
| Home By The River Update 8 - Pioneer AI's | 2022-12-22 | This is another major update and the introduction of the first NPC characters to help the player. These are Harvester Pioneers that can remove trash, cut down dead trees and harvest mature crops. You can enlist them by placing and using a Pioneer Console. Using their help you’ll have more time to focus on more creative tasks. This was a major undertaking for me and it took months and several thousand lines of code to get the pathfinding and AI to work correctly. I was getting nowhere for several weeks, but I didn't give up, and now I'm really happy that I didn't. I can continue to improve the system I've developed and I can use it in future g |
| Home By The River Update 7 | 2022-11-22 | These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: Thanks to StarlightRemix for another great soundtrack. I’ve improved the NPC dialogue window by showing the NPC in the window so it is clearer which NPC the player is talking to. I’ve changed the players collider to do continuous collision detection which is more performance wise expensive, but I hope that this will eliminate the player from accidentally going through walls and floors from time to time. I’ve made the shower water look a lot better. What do you think? I’ve changed kitty to only eat meat and fish. In the future I’ll add milk when I’ve created that item. I've im |
| Home By The River Update 6 | 2022-10-24 | These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: Thanks to StarlightRemix for making awesome soundtracks for HBTR! All soundtracks in the game are now original works by StarlightRemix. Holding down left shift and then left clicking/dragging will build a solid wall immediately. Both background and foreground layers are filled in. This makes construction much more fluid and is also great for building defence drone walls fast. You now get a gift box added to your inventory for every 12 tiles placed. You can open the gift box from your inventory and see what random item you get! Your pet now talks from time to time and may give |
| Home By The River Update 5 | 2022-10-07 | These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: I’ve added a Sigil Corp droid swarm that comes at 10pm every night. The swarm will get a bit bigger each night. The player has a lightning rod that will turn on when droids are nearby and you can then click on the droids to destroy them. You can also build walls and the droids will lose their health as they destroy the wall tiles. Good fun in LAN co-op! I’ve added sky nodes! You can fly around on your hoverboard and collect these. Every player across network will receive money, exp and spirit when one player collects. I think it is a good option to have so that any player who |
| Home By The River Update 4 | 2022-09-20 | These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: I’ve added cute fluffy bunnies that hop around in the game world. You can feed them vegetables to gain virtue! Buy vegetables from the pantry. The main menu of the game has been completely overhauled. It looks way better now and you can select your character and kitty colours before starting the game. I’ve added a fridge and now you can buy cold ingredients for cooking from the fridge. I’ve improved the appearance of the background by adding more animated trees and replacing all of the old static trees. The forest now has a beautiful fountain to make it look better. I’ve adde |
| Home By The River Update 3 | 2022-09-12 | These updates apply to both the demo and full versions of the game: I’ve made cooking more interesting and now you need ingredients to cook food. I’ve added a flour mill from which you can grind corn, wheat, and sugar into their respective ingredients. I’ve added a pantry from which you can buy ingredients. You can no longer fly on the hoverboard when spirit is too low. The player will get off the hoverboard when over a ladder tile. You can no longer build when sleeping, resting, or praying. :D I’ve made mouse scroll wheel zooming smoother and inverted the scroll wheel axis. Future development Over time I aim to keep on adding dishes from all |
| Home By The River Update 2 | 2022-09-06 | This update applies to both the demo and full version of the game. Some exciting news! StarlightRemix is working on creating new and original soundtracks for Home By The River. With this update you can hear the first soundtrack that plays when you start the game with a world that is polluted. I’ve successfully implemented a hoverboard for the player. All of you have to do is drop off a ledge and it will switch on allowing to fly around the world! You can also place a Hoverboard Workbench tile in the world and then use it upgrade the speed of your hoverboard, and change its colour! Please do help Home By The River by wishlisting here on Steam. |
| Home By The River Demo Update 1 | 2022-09-04 | I've made some general updates: Most trees in the background are now animated so that they look like they are gently blowing in the wind. I've added pins so that the interface on the right and bottom can be hidden. This gives more space on the screen for construction and harvesting! The player will now get EXP when harvesting or demolishing. This will help the player level up faster in what might be a more natural way. Btw, you gain exp by making computer games, using the study shelf, of course by placing tiles in the world, completing rewards. |