Building A Dream Home, Virtually
When we consider the most important jobs in our society, we often think of the big three: doctors, teachers, and police officers.
But just as important are architects. These professionals shape our cities, our countryside, and our prized landmarks. Without architects, we wouldn’t have Buckingham Palace or the Great Pyramids. Of course, they also get blamed for creating eyesores and covering everything in glass.
But now, on your Xbox, you get the chance to go more local and become an architect yourself. In Architect Life: A House Design Simulator you get to perfect your dream house and live out your design fantasies. Let’s build.
Career or Canvas
There are two main modes in this game: Career Mode and Free Mode. Free Mode is where you have unlimited resources, allowing you to build whatever you like and whatever your mind can conjure up.
For me, as I need some structure in my gaming life and prefer rules and guidelines, I started with Career Mode. This serves as a good way to learn everything you need to know about Architect Life: A House Design Simulator.
From Client Dreams to Digital Designs
In Career Mode, you get to set up your own architectural firm, and once that is done, you are ready to take on jobs. People will come to you with their housing requests, and it’s up to you to deliver their dreams; all within the offered budget. The game then moves into its first step: the design phase.
You get to draw and design your ideas in a sort of miniature 3D doll’s house. Here, you design the foundations of the house, including its room layouts, walls, and overall shape. The controls are good on a controller, but fully enjoying the process requires getting used to how the camera works and how you are able to view the design.
You have different floor and wall colours, textures, and furniture available from a good range of choices, depending on how much you have to spend. You even handle the lighting and the exterior fixtures and fittings. For people who love focusing on the finer details, this will be like catnip.
Managing the Build
In the next stage, once you are happy with your design and it has been approved, you let the builders and contractors deal with actually constructing the building. You can visit the site to see how it’s progressing and make changes if things are not working.
At the same time, you have to manage potential disputes with the builders, money problems with the homeowners, or their sudden extra demands. It’s an engaging career mode without being too taxing. It will also be over in around five hours, so then it’s on to Free Mode, where the real designers will have fun.
Sandbox for the Soul
Free Mode is for the true sim fans, those who love spending hours on their designs and bringing them to life. As I said at the start of this review, I need structure in my games and so while I can fully appreciate this mode, and can see that it’s the real meat and gravy of this game, it’s not for me and my Luddite brain.
Visually, Architect Life: A House Design Simulator looks good, and I loved the model box environment where you design the house. The menus are crisp and clean, which is exactly what you need from a good sim game, making it easy to navigate to find what you want. I will say that, in the initial moments, the camera was a bit annoying at times, but I eventually got used to it. And whilst the audio is mainly background music and the occasional sound effect, it is just about fine for what it is. Sound is far from the USP of this designer though.
A Solid Sim for Aspiring Architects
If you are a fan of The Sims and titles like House Flipper, then you will have a blast with Architect Life: A House Design Simulator. The prospect of getting into the fundamentals of designing a home from the ground up without having to do any of the manual work is an appealing one. I did find that the controls and the camera took a while to get used to at first, but the career mode in Architect Life: A House Design Simulator is fine and serves as a good introduction.
Mostly though, it’ll be the Free Mode option that’ll be where the budding architects will truly shine.
Important Links
Architect Life: A House Design Simulator – Build Your Dream Career (and Homes!) – https://www.thexboxhub.com/architect-life-a-house-design-simulator-build-your-dream-career-and-homes/
Design Your Dream Home in Architect Life: A House Design Simulator – https://www.thexboxhub.com/design-your-dream-home-in-architect-life-a-house-design-simulator/
Buy Architect Life on the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/architect-life-a-house-design-simulator/9NB7K17WZX0L/0010
There’s a Deluxe Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/architect-life-deluxe-home-edition/9NKGKJSN96V1/0010
