House Designer : Fix & Flip

Review by eFreeware

Most house-flipping games settle for a paint roller and a color swatch. House Designer: Fix & Flip goes further by handing you the backyard as well, with tools for cutting grass, planting flower beds and laying tiles around a pool. That combination of interiors and outdoor space is the most distinctive thing about it, and it is the reason I would point it out to anyone who treats garden planning as a genuine hobby rather than an afterthought.

It comes from Turbogoose Games and has been on Google Play since August 2018. The install count sits above 100 million, and the 4.6 average across more than a million ratings suggests a large audience has stayed with it. It is free to download and carries no ads, though the developer does offer in-app purchases.

As for who it suits: this is a game for people who like arranging rooms, choosing furniture and tidying up a neglected space. If you enjoy the planning side of a renovation more than the demolition, the premise lands squarely in your territory.

From wreck to showpiece, one house at a time

The core loop is exactly what the title promises. You buy a house in poor condition, repair it, upgrade its design and then decide what to do with it. The developer frames the choice as yours: move in and live there, or sell the property and take the profit. Either way, the point is to build up a fortune through flipping.

What gives the game its range is the sheer quantity of objects the developer describes. There is a broad catalog of furniture for every part of the house, covering beds, chairs, tables, and both bathroom and kitchen fittings, along with paintings and other decorative pieces. That is the raw material for the interior side of the work, and it is where most of your decisions will be made.

The outdoor side is treated with the same seriousness. You can cut the grass with a grass-cutter and a rake, plant flowers, and set out garden beds with exotic plants. For a more built-up look, the developer mentions installing a pergola with comfortable chairs beneath it, or laying tiles around a pool area and placing sun beds on them. The whole yard can be planned according to your own imagination, which is a broader brief than most renovation games offer.

Cleaning, decorating and the jobs in between

A typical session moves between two kinds of activity. One is the free-form design work: choosing furniture, arranging decor, deciding how a room or a garden should feel. The other is task-based, with jobs for cleaning and designing houses and other locations. The cleaning tasks give the renovation some structure, and the design tasks let you spend time on the parts you enjoy most.

The game also lets you develop a reputation as a decorator. There is a skill progression system, so the abilities you bring to a project improve as you go. That matters for anyone who likes the idea of being measured on how well a space turns out rather than simply how quickly a job is finished.

Because the locations extend beyond houses, the work does not stay in one setting forever. The developer refers to other interesting locations alongside the residential properties, which adds some variety to the routine of buy, repair, decorate, sell.

What keeps a renovation game interesting

The long-term appeal here rests on two things: the size of the object catalog and the freedom to plan a space your own way. With beds, seating, tables, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, paintings and assorted decor to place, plus everything the garden allows, there is a lot of room for individual taste to show. Players who enjoy the arranging itself, rather than chasing a score, are the ones likely to keep coming back.

The skill upgrades add a second thread. Improving your abilities as a decorator gives a sense of progress that is separate from the money you make on a sale, so the game has something to offer whether you are motivated by profit or by craft.

The most recent update points in the same direction. It adds a large batch of new tasks, which makes the game more varied, and it refines the control sensitivity settings so players can adjust them to their own comfort. For anyone who has found touch controls fiddly in this genre, that second change is the more welcome of the two.

Free to play, with purchases on offer

The download costs nothing, and the developer does not run ads in the game. That is a cleaner setup than many free titles in this category, and it means your time with a renovation is not interrupted by commercial breaks.

In-app purchases are offered, so there is a paid layer somewhere in the experience. I would not guess what those purchases cover. The base game is free, ad-free, and rated for Everyone, which makes it easy to try without committing to anything.

One practical point worth noting: the studio invites players to write to its email address with problems, and says it will consider each report. That is a small thing, but it tells you there is a route to reach the people who make the game if something goes wrong.

A calm pick for armchair renovators

House Designer: Fix & Flip is a renovation simulator with an unusually broad canvas. You buy neglected houses, repair and redecorate them inside and out, tend the garden, take on cleaning and design jobs, and then either keep the result or sell it for profit. The catalog of furniture and decor is wide, the garden tools give the outdoor space real attention, and the skill system rewards time spent improving your craft.

It is free, it carries no ads, and it has a rating of 4.6 from a very large number of players. In-app purchases exist, and the latest update added new tasks and adjustable control sensitivity.

I would suggest this to players who enjoy interior design, garden planning and the slow satisfaction of turning a wreck into somewhere worth living. If you are drawn to arranging a room until it feels right, and to the idea of doing the same for a yard, this is built for exactly that.

What's new in version 2.04

Dear players! In this update, we've added lots of new tasks to make the game even more exciting and varied. We've also refined the control sensitivity settings — now you can adjust them to your liking for maximum comfort. Thank you for staying with us! Have fun playing!