The day/night cycle is the
single most crucial aspect of the game. Virtual Families plays out in
real-time, meaning life will go on in your house even when your close the
game or turn your computer off. The game also mimics your own day/night
cycle. If you open the game at 8pm for instance, it will be dark outside of
your family’s home. More importantly, your virtual people need their sleep
at night! Literally.
If you do not close your game
at night your little persons will be constantly exhausted and will not want
to work. You won’t be able to play much with them. For the best game
experience, you should close the game for roughly 8 consecutive hours. Do
not pause your game. Do not check on you’re family while they are sleeping
because they won’t be able to fully rest.
If you respect their routine,
your family members should be energetic all day long. However, they tend to
get tired as the evening progresses, and they won’t want to work that
much. If you play only in the evenings and at night, you have the option of
switching day and night (options menu of the main menu screen). We strongly
recommend you try it, otherwise you might find your family tired all the
time when you play. If you open your game at 5pm, will be 5am for your
virtual family and they will be full energy. You should let them sleep
during the day though.
Another option is to create
several families and have them on different day/night cycles. You’ll then
be able to play with your “day families” during the day, and with the
others in the evenings.
Tip: When your
start a new game, your adoptee will not be fully rested, so they could get
tired quickly. Don’t get discouraged. If you make them sleep by closing
the game for the night, they will find them energized and running around the
house the next morning.
Other
general tips
Exploring the house for the
first time : there are a number of areas your virtual person can interact
with. Just pick the person up and carry them around the house and yard. When
he sees an area of interest, you will be told what is in the dark blue
bar at the bottom of the screen. Note that all areas of interest will not be
necessarily be pointed out to you though. If you drop your person on these
areas, that may trigger actions and behaviors. Feel free to explore! You
will also encounter puzzles, some of which you won’t be able to solve
until later. That often explains why your persons say they are
“confused”. (Puzzles spoilers below).
Pausing the game: do not pause
the game unless you are going away for two days or more. Your people will be
fine even if you check on them only once a day. They will continue to make
money and thrive as long as there is food in the fridge. Pausing would also
prevent your family members from sleeping and replenishing their energy.
Playing with several families
at the time: you have to wait before an action has been completed before you
switch between game slots, including making a baby. Otherwise it will not be
completed. If you’re switching while your family is eating for instance,
you will find that their fed bar didn’t go up when you come back to check
on them.
Picking
your first adoptee
You are now ready to start your
first family, repair and upgrade your house, and then pass it on to a new
generation. You’ll be presented with several adoption candidates. Note
that when you reject one, you won’t be able to see them again.
Age: the
adoption candidates will typically be between 24 and 29 years of age.
Profession: each
adoptee already has a job. It could be a cooking, office or workshop-related
job. Jobs have different starting salaries, almost all of them ranging from
$15 to $105/day. Some will be already at level 2 in their career (novice).
Your adoption candidate also has some money in the bank, typically from $50
to $190.
A person’s salary will go up
as they get work and get promoted. You should also know that jobs have
different pay curves though and some might even evolve in unexpected ways.
If you creating your very first
family, you may want to pick an adoptee that has a decent starting salary,
such as $60 per day and over $100 in the bank. That way you will not be too
tight on money. Later in the game, you should consider the lower paying
jobs, as some of them end up with the highest salaries down the road.
Desire to have kids:
the adoption candidates differ in their desire to have children. Here’s
how adoptee could feel about children:
No way
Not really
Maybe
Would be nice
Definitely
It is very important to
understand that people who do not want children can still have them. One of
our “not really” couples had four while our “would be nice” couple
had only 1. These desires are more of an indication of how happy the parents
will get when they have children (or how unhappy they will be if they
don’t). It’s also more relevant to matchmaking later on.
Likes & dislikes: Most
do not have a big impact in the game, either positively nor negatively, so
don’t worry too much about them. For instance, a person who disliked
plants would happily pick weeds in the garden anyways. You might want to
keep the likes & dislikes in mind when choosing the right spouse for
your adoptee, though.
In the unlikely event you
should choose an adoptee with a dislike that is detrimental to your game,
there’s a desensitization kit available in the store from time to time. It
will cure your person of one dislike.
Tip: you will
probably love to adopt a person who likes running, but stay away from one
who dislikes jumping.
First
steps in your new house
Cleaning the house
You should not wait too long to
dispose of all the wrappers on the floors and weeds in the garden, or your
new adoptee’s happiness will decrease quite rapidly. Keeping the house
clean and the lawn free of weeds is important to keep your virtual family
happy.
Taking a shower
Your adoptee’s status bar
will soon be indicating “not feeling fresh”. That means they need a
shower (some other bathroom activities will remedy that status also, but
taking a shower is most convenient and effective). If you don’t like
seeing that status message from time to time, praise your family members
when they take a shower. They might go by themselves next time they need
one.
Buying food
Keeping food in the fridge at
all times is very important otherwise your family’s health will suffer
greatly. You will find some in the store screen.
There are two kinds of
groceries. The top row is regular and the bottom row is organics.
Regular food gets you 150 units
of food. Organics are more expensive but a bit healthier and they get you
250 units of food. You won’t be able to afford organics at first. Do not
worry, you’re family will be perfectly fine eating regular food until you
can afford organics.
More importantly, you should
feed your virtual family all four food groups. Try to achieve that within 24
hours. As you get more money, you can start buying one or two kinds of the
cheaper organics and work your way up to an all organics diet.
Tips:
Click on the fridge to see
how much food there is left in the house
You will need about 200
units of food per person per day (24 hours). Try to buy more to be on
the safe side and also because having little food on fridge will lower
your family’s happiness.
There’s some kind of food
on special every day, so you might want to take advantage of a sale and
buy one extra, especially when it’s an expensive item on sale
Food related actions such
as making meals, throwing food away or feeding the birds will not
deplete the amount of food you have in the fridge
About the store
Every item available in the
store is described at length when you click on them.
Tips:
The varied item section of
the store will be restocked every 4 hours. Some items necessary to solve
puzzles will eventually show up there.
You can’t return
groceries, home improvements and career upgrades once you buy them.
Everything else is refundable
You don’t absolutely need
the home improvement items (radio, pool, etc..) when starting the game
to make your family happy and healthy.
Putting your new adoptee to work – the basics
After buying some food, you
should be putting your adoptee to work (and eventually their spouse too).
You will need to earn some money to feed your family, buy medicine, repair
the house and buy upgrades. Your virtual adoptees will either be working in
the workshop, in the kitchen, or in the office. A few job titles are
ambiguous. If you’re not sure where your adoptee is supposed to work, just
try dropping your adopting in the different working areas.
Working is one of the most
tiring activity you can make a virtual person do. You will have to find a
balance between work and play if you want to keep him happy and energized
all day long. However, some players train at least one of their persons to
be workaholics. They barely do anything but work and eventually rest. How
you balance their activities should depend on the way you like to play the
game. Just know that you will be able to afford upgrades and home
improvements even if you don’t have a workaholic in your family.
To show your adoptee how much
you want him to work, you should praise him when he does. Praising him (and
eventually his spouse) 4 times for working on his career seems to be a
minimum when you start a new game. When you open the game the next day your
adoptee should at least have gotten a promotion. If he didn’t and is not
sick that means he is not working enough. If he gets really tired early in
the day despite having had a good night’s sleep, that means he is working
too much or does not relax enough. Check his energy levels, make adjustments
or start experimenting from there.
Tip: Your adoptee doesn’t
start the game fully rested, so don’t worry if he has low energy on the
first day, and especially in the evening. Things will be a lot better after
he gets his first good night’s sleep.
Praising and scolding
Tips:
Be selective when praising.
If you praise a lot of behaviors, your family members won’t know what
to do.
If you praise a virtual
person more than two times in a row for the same behavior, they will
run away. They feel that you are nagging them. When they run away just
pick them up, return them to work (or whatever behavior you want) and
praise them again. They will then accept it.
Candy from the store will
have a stronger praising effect than the green glove. When given candy,
a person will not feel you are nagging them.
Scolding does not
necessarily stop a person from doing something. They will just do it
less frequently. For instance, scolding once a person that is working to
much will not stop them from working, it will just make that person work
a little less often
Salty candy from the store
will have a stronger scolding effect than the red glove
Praising children for
studying will not affect their future professional life.
You are now ready to start your new family!
(This is the end of “first
steps” tips. Now on to describing every other aspect of the game.)
Getting
married
The marriage proposals will be
arriving soon after your new adopting moves in. Those proposals will get
less frequent as years goes by, so do consider carefully the ones that do
come up.
There are three main factors to
consider when choosing a spouse for your adoptee: their starting salary, the
money in their bank accounts and their desire to have children. A nice
starting salary could be an asset when starting a game (not so important
later). Also, be on the look out for people who might have very large bank
account. We have seen some with over $400 in the bank.
You should consider their
desire to have children too. You do not need to exactly match the preference
of your virtual person with your virtual spouse’s.
When you’re new at the game
though, it’s probably best to avoid unnecessary complications. So try to
match couples the same or similar desire to have children, such as a “no
way” with a “not really”. Or a “would be nice” with a
“definitely”. But if you find a person you really want to marry your
adoptee later in the game (to get a trophy for instance), don’t be afraid
to match “maybe” father with a “no way” or “definitely” mother.
You could even match one extreme with another.
If you were to do that, one of
your spouses could be less happy than the other (but happy still), they
could have a harder time having babies, or the couple will want to wait
longer between children. But you won’t necessarily be ruining your game.
We tested a “no way” father with a “definitely” mother. They had
four children and they were both very happy despite not having a single home
improvement item in the house.
Tip: You can win trophies for
marrying someone with the same career, someone with less than $75 or more
then $200 in the bank. Be on the look out for those opportunities.
Having
children
There is room in the house for
up to 6 children. Your couple can’t have more children even after one
leaves for college.
They are not always cooperative
when you want them to have children. The secret is to be persistent. If they
just embrace or argue about the timing of the birth, you can keep trying as
they could very well change their mind. If they tell you “it’s too soon
to try to make a baby again”, you will have to wait until they are ready.
That could mean 15 minutes or a couple of hours. It is very hard to predict
when they will be ready again.
Even if they go to the bedroom,
your couple may not succeed in having a baby. Couples who are young, well
nourished, happy and healthy have obviously better chances of being
successful. Other factors come into play such as the time elapsed since they
last tried.
If your couple keeps being
unsuccessful after a couple of years, you might need a little help like in
real life. You can buy the baby boost in the medicine section of the store.
It is expensive, so you may want to get a doctor’s consultation for both
parents before making that investment. The doctor will confirm whether the
baby boost would be useful to one of the parents or both. Do not assume
getting the baby boost will make you have twins or triplets. Multiples are
largely random.
There’s also the possibility
of adopting a child. This is a random event but it is not rare.
Once a baby is born the mother
will nurse until the child is two years old, or 4 hours in real time. She
will not be able to work during this time, but can do almost any other house
chore or activity in the house.
Your child will grow up and
will eventually leave for college at some point after they turn 18. They may
write you an e-mail from time to time, but they will not see them again
until it is time for you to choose one of the children to inherit the house.
Tips:
The oldest known virtual
mother has given birth at the age of 50.
Once your child is born,
you can see right away what he will look like by going to the family
Your children’s behaviors
and interests will change as they get older.
Transitioning
to the next generation
Your virtual family members
will be aging a year every two hours (real-time). They normally will pass
away in their 60’s, occasionally in their late 50’s. That means you
could be starting a new generation every 3 or 4 days.
As soon as one of the parents
has died, you will be have the possibility to start a new generation from
the family screen. If you don’t have any children, your game will stop
right there.
You will be able to scroll
through the children and learn more about them etc., as often as you like,
so don’t be afraid to press the “try again” button. All the children
will automatically be the around the same age as their parents when they
moved in into the house.
Be aware that any parent or
sibling still living in the house will be moving out to make room for the
new family. Some players like to wait until both parents have died and/or
all children have gone to college before making the transition to a new
generation. When both parents have died, any remaining children in the house
will be fine as long as you have food in the fridge and money to buy
groceries.
Tip: If you have one upgraded
career room in the house, such as the kitchen, you could make the most of it
by picking a child who has a food career, if there are nay. You could also
try to find a spouse who is in the same line of work. They will both
progress in their careers much faster that way.
Managing
your virtual people: the detail screen
The detail screen is where you
can monitor each member of your virtual family. You can change their name
here.
Career information
In the detail screen you will
also see their current salary and you can monitor their career progress.
There are 8 career levels, the highest being Master. Once you reach that
stage, your person will keep working but they will not make any more
progress.
The red bar shows how close
they are to getting their next promotion. It will always take longer for a
person to reach their current level then the previous one. You can
eventually speed up their progress by buying career room upgrades. They are
expensive, but they will make your person making career progress at twice
and three times their current rate.
Tips:
It may seem to you that
your parents are making really slow progress towards their next career
level. However, they will keep working when the game is closed,
proportionally to how much they have been trained to. Your persons will
often have been promoted when you open the game in the morning,
especially at the beginning of the game
You might find magazines in
the store that will give a small boost to your person’s career.
(there’s one for each type of profession). If you are lucky to get one
when your person is still at his first career levels, they could be
worth the money
Your person might not
complete a work cycle. They will shake their head and say no in a white
cloud of smoke. It’s nothing to be worried about. If they do start
another cycle on their own, just pick them up and drop them onto their
work area. Those episodes should get less and less frequent as your
persons reach higher career levels
You might want to wait
before buying your first upgraded career room if your parents are over
55. When you know what line of work the child that inherits the house is
in, you can upgrade the appropriate room so he can make the most of it.
On the detail screen you can
also monitor each family member’s happiness, health, energy and how well
fed they are.
Happiness bar
The happiness bar of a person
entering the house (including children) will usually be 50% full. If it gets
a bit lower your person’s status will show as “a bit blue”. Do not
worry. There are a couple of events that will give a nice happiness boost to
your person: getting married, getting promoted, and having a child.
It should not be difficult to
keep your virtual family happy after that. Just make sure that:
There’s enough food in
the fridge
Money is not too tight
No one is sick
The house is clean and the
lawn is free of weeds
Couples who want children
have some
They don’t stay alone for
too long
When one of family members
dies, the others will get depressed and there’s nothing you can do to
prevent it. A depressed person will tend to be lethargic and not want to
work.
However, depression is not too
hard to cure. All you have to do is give the happiness bar an up-swing. If
there’s food in the fridge and no underlying illness, happiness will
continue to go up gradually. Just be patient and give it time. You should
see a significant improvement overnight.
To jump start the process,
having a depressive person pick up collectibles and praising them will work.
They just love that. Buying candy or fruit from the store (fruit from the
varied items, not the groceries) will give them a little boost because they
are a stronger form of praising. Just be careful what behavior you are
reinforcing when you give them candy or fruit because they will likely do it
more often afterwards!
You could also try to make your
depressed person do any activity you think would be “fun”, or making
kids spend quality time with their parents. But it’s difficult to tell
whether one activity or the other affects the happiness bar over the long
run.
Home improvements items will
help happiness over time, but do not feel obligated to buy them if you’re
just beginning the game. Some of them are expensive. Picking up collectables
and praising seem to always work. We have had several families with very
happiness bars without having bought a single home improvement or goodie for
the house.
Health bar
There are two reasons why a
virtual person would get weak: because the fridge is empty or because they
are sick. But once they have food again or they are cured of their illness,
their health bar should gradually replenish on its own.
There’s little you can do to
make the health bar go up much faster, especially at the beginning of the
game. Giving a weak person vitamins or fruits (from the varied items section
of the store, not the groceries) will help a little. But it’s debatable
whether they are worth the money. Time is really the greatest healer. You
should a significant improvement overnight, as with the happiness bar. Just
make sure your weak person doesn’t have an underlying illness. You should
investigate if they keep getting sick within an hour after they were cured
of their symptom (see then medicine and illnesses section).
Some home improvements are advertised
as helping health or reducing illness rates, but your family can
be perfectly healthy without them. Those ones are relatively cheap though.
Fed bar
The fed bar of your virtual
persons will go down fairly quickly during the day. Do not worry too much
about it. It will never get lower than 30% as long as there is food in the
fridge. If there’s food, they won’t starve and their health bar will not
be affected in any way.
Hungry family members will tend
to wander off and do food-related tasks in the kitchen. To keep them more
focused, feed them by preparing a meal. Just drop any family member over 14
on the kitchen table. They won’t prepare a meal if they is not enough food
available in the fridge, but your food has to be very low for that to
happen.
Once the meal is on the table,
you will need to make all your family members sit down and eat. Cleaning up
the table after the meal is an action you can’t initiate. One of your
family members will decide to do it eventually.
Tips:
Preparing a meal is tiring.
You should make a child over 14 do it (or a woman nursing). That way the
parents will have more energy to devote to working on their careers.
You can train your family
members to sit down and eat a meal. That could be especially useful when
you have many children. That way you don’t have to chase them around
the house to bring them to the table.
Even if you train someone
to prepare a meal, they don’t seem to do it when your game is closed,
only when it’s open. So you will find them a bit hungry anyways when
you open your game.
Energy bar
Energy is probably the
trickiest element of the game. The key for your people to have high energy
all day long is to let them sleep roughly 6-8 hours each day without
checking on them or pausing the game. But expect your family members to have
lower energy levels in thee evening than during the day.
An overworked person will get
tired quickly. You should try to find a good balance between work and other
activities, unless you want workaholics parents in the house. Trying to have
a baby is also very tiring, whether your couple succeeds or not.
A few activities will make your
person’s energy replenish over the course of the day and some are
available when you start the game. Napping and going to bed are the obvious
ones and are fairly effective. We found that reading a magazine and
daydreaming on the couch also work. So if you catch one of them doing those
actions, you might want to praise that behavior. When your little persons are
not working, they will be doing more of these activities and will
replenish their energy in the process.
Tips:
You will most likely see
your family members napping and going to bed when they status shows
tired or exhausted. These are behaviors that hardly can be initiated as
long as a person is energized.
The camomile drink from the
store will deplete your person’s energy and make them tired or
exhausted.
Energy drinks from the
store will give a person a temporary but spectacular boost of energy.
You don’t have to train
your people to go to bed in order for them to sleep when the game is
off. If you do, you will see the adults go to bed on their own around
10pm.
Try getting the children to
do the household chores, so the parents can stay energized and focused
on their careers. Children 14 and older can do everything their parents
do except earning money and of course having children. That includes
making meals and attending to urgent house repairs. Children under 14
will do all household chores except cooking and repairs around the
house. They can also pick up and sell collectibles on the internet.
Adults will start to slow
down as they age, noticeably when they reach 55
Your family rest best when
you close the game
Managing your
family’s finances
Do not get discouraged when you
start the game and see the price of food or upgrades. Your family can earn
money much faster than it seems at first glance. We found that the in-game
family bank account screen projections were not very useful and could not be
accurate.
Your family members earn money
in many ways.
They earn 1 % of their
daily income each time they complete a work cycle.
They receive a portion of
their daily income every hour of the day. For example, if they make
$240, they’ll get $10 every hour (even if they are not actually
working). Remember that daily income will increase as your parents get
promotions.
They get 10% interest on
their bank account which will be added to their balance in small
payments throughout the day.
Selling the collectables you
already added to you collection is a great way to supplement your family’s
income, especially when you are starting out. They are worth from $5 to $50
each, depending on how rare they are.
Some random events can also
make you some money, but they can take some away from your account also.
Tips:
You will hear the sound of
jingling coins each time money is deposited in your bank account.
If you save your money the
interest will add up quickly. One of our 1st generation families started
with average starting salaries and they ended up with $10,000 by the
time they turned 60. None of the parents were workaholics and certainly
could have worked more frequently.
You might want to be
careful with your purchases when starting a new game and only buy what
you need, which is food and maybe medicine. None of the home improvement
items are necessary to keep your family members happy and perfectly
healthy, even if they start asking for them. Home improvements are fun
to buy because they trigger new behaviors. So if you rather get some at
the beginning of the game, go ahead. It depends on your style of play.
You can always start saving later.
Illnesses
and Medicine
Your family members will get
sick from time to time. They will become lethargic, some might even sit on
the floor, and their status will say “a bit sick”. Sometimes you will
hear an audio clue about the illness. If they’re not letting you know what
their symptom is, pick up and drop the person until they tell you in their
action bar. You can then buy the appropriate medicine from the store and
cure them.
Here’s a list of the symptoms
you may encounter:
Sore throat – needs
throat lozenges
Upset stomach – needs
peptic syrup
Headache and general pain
– needs anti-inflammatory pill
Coughing – needs cough
syrup
Itchy – needs cortisone
cream
Sneezing and allergies –
needs antihistamine
Hiccups – needs to drink
a glass of water from the bathroom sink
Sometimes those symptoms will
be caused by an underlying infection that needs to be treated with
penicillin or even a stronger antibiotic. You will know your family members
have a more serious infection if they keep getting sick over and over again,
usually within an hour of apparently curing them.
Penicillin and Vancomycin are
hard on the body so it is recommended that you buy a doctor’s consultation
before using them. If you can’t afford it, try penicillin if the same
symptoms keep coming back. If a person is experiencing several different
symptoms, they could need the Vancomycin. When you cure a serious infection,
you may need to also cure their current symptom one last time.
It is important that you cure
any illness in a timely manner. It will affect the sick family member’s
health bar and make them weaker over time. Also, the longer someone is sick,
the more chances another family member will contract the same illness.
Tips:
Antibiotics and especially
Vancomycin will make your people exhausted. Use when needed only.
A sick adult won’t feel
like working so he won’t make any progress in his career (or very
little) until he is cured
Collectibles
Collectibles will keep
appearing on the lawn of your house throughout the game. If you’re not
quick enough to pick it up, they will disappear. When you drop a person on
it (including children), they will bring it to the collectable drawer in the
house. You can see your collection on the collection screen. It will take
several generations before you complete all the collections.
If you pick up a collectable
that you already have in your collection, you’re going to sell it on the
internet for some quick cash. It’s a great way to supplement your income,
especially at the beginning of the game.
Common items will be sold
for $5.
Uncommon items for $15.
Rare items for $50.
Tips:
Bugs only appear when it
rains. There are some “bottled tropical rain” you can find in the
store to make it rain outside for a few minutes. Using it doesn’t
guarantee you will actually find a bug though.
Pictures pieces will begin
to appear after you open the shed
You can zip around the lawn
looking for collectables by using your keyboard’s numeric keys (1 to
9) or your keypad. You can also hold a person at the same time, so you
will be ready to drop them on a collectable
If you are afraid a
collectable will disappear before you pick it up, you can hit the space
bar to pause the game. You can then find a family member and drop him on
it. Then hit the space bar to resume the game.
When a person has picked up
a collectable, you don’t have to wait until they get to the collection
drawer or the office. Pick up the person again and the item will
immediately be stored or sold
Your virtual persons just
love to pick up collectables and it does make them happy over time. It
will even help them recover from the loss of a family member
Trophies (tips and spoilers):
There are 100 trophies you can
win while playing Virtual Families. We suggest you go through the list at
the start of the game. You’ll know what to be on the look-out for, for
instance there are trophies relating to marriage, or buying certain items
from the store. It will take several generations before you get all the
trophies. They will not be reset when you pass the house to another
generation so you can continue to work on getting them.
Some trophies you get for
praising specific behaviors. A couple are self-exploratory, but most are
bewildering. Here are the ones that give most people trouble.
Sticky situation: removing a
cobweb
Cobwebs are like wrappers
and socks, they will appear from time to time in the house. But they are
hard to see. You will eventually find a cobweb on the mirror of the
right bathroom sink. Just drop someone on it.
Boob tube: praising someone who
turns the TV off.
You can encourage the behavior
by clicking on the TV to turn it on. But you can’t really
initiate it. You will have to wait for a family member to do it on its
own.
Sleeping dragon: praising
someone for practicing Kung Fu.
You’ll have to catch a
family member doing this eventually. They will be in the backyard not
far from the backdoor.
Everything in it’s place:
praising someone for cleaning the nightstand.
Again, you will have to
wait for a family member to clean the nightstand in the parent’s
bedroom.
Go-pher it: praising someone
for chasing gophers.
This is a child specific behavior
that cannot be initiated. Their action will actually display
as “playing on the lawn” and they will go near the fountain. A
gopher will appear and they will chase it. If you hear giggling and a
noise that sounds like kissing, that means there’s a child chasing a
gopher at that moment.
That funky smell: praising
someone for throwing out rotten fish.
Only children over 14 and
adults will exhibit this behavior and it also cannot be initiated.
Their action will display as “checking out that strange smell” and
they will proceed to the fridge. They will then throw out a fish in the
garbage.
Lotta latte: praising someone
for making a latte. You’ll have to wait for someone to make themselves a
latte in the kitchen.
1000 strokes: praising someone
for brushing their hair.
You will eventually catch
someone brushing their hair in front of one of the bathroom sinks.
House
malfunctions (tips and spoilers)
You’ll experience a
malfunctioning plumbing fixture or an appliance fire from time to time. They
will prevent your family members from using the room it is happening in the
leaks and fires are taken care of. You’ll first need to find the right
tool.
Tip: The toolbox in the home
improvement section of the store will make your repairs last much longer and
will reduce the frequency or house malfunctions.
Hints only:
Clogged toilet or shower:
look in the laundry room
Leaking bathroom or kitchen
sins: look in the workshop
Oven or dryer fire:
there’s an extinguisher in the shed. You’ll have to find a way to
open it. It’s missing a door knob and a key.
No internet: you need to
fix the router in the office
Spoilers:
Clogged toilet or shower:
drop a person on the green bucket in the laundry room
Leaking bathroom or kitchen
sink: there’s a wrench in the workshop. You can see it in the top red
toolbox on the wall. Drop a person on it
Oven and dryer fire:
there’s an extinguisher in the shed. Open the shed by getting the door
knob in the sand box first. You will find the key under the doormat.
No internet: the router is
the black box on the desk in the office. Just drop a person on it.
House repairs puzzles (hints and spoilers)
There are many repairs to do
around the house. They involve solving a puzzle or waiting for a specific
product to appear in the store. You might need more than a generation to
complete all the house repairs.
Tip: The varied item section of the store will be restocked every 4 hours.
House repairs puzzles
hints:
The Shed: it’s missing a
door knob and a key. They are somewhere around the house.
The Hardwood Floor Damage:
to repair the floor damage, just wait for the appropriate product to
show up in the store.
The Leaky Hose: the first
step is to wait for the appropriate product to show up in the store.
The Workshop Walls: they
need plaster work. The first step is to wait for the appropriate product
in the store. You’ll need to solve the leaky hose puzzle first.
The Wilted Window Box
Flowers (living room windows): the flowers need to be watered. You will
need to solve the shed and the leaky hose puzzle first.
The Broken Birdbath: the
first step is to wait for the appropriate product to show up in the
store.
House repairs puzzles
spoilers:
The Shed: the shed door
knob is in the sandbox. Install it first. Then get the key under the
doormat.
The Hardwood Floor Damage:
buy the floor repair kit from the store and use as directed. You will
need one kit for each of the three damaged spots. One damaged spot will
take several work cycles to repair. Children 14 and older can help.
The Leaky Hose: buy the
waterproof tape from the store. Drop it near the leaking hose. You will
need to get the water pressure down before you can use it. Make someone
in the house take a shower, wash the dishes, or do any activity that
will make the water run. Meanwhile, get another person to tape the hose.
The Workshop Walls: buy the
wall compound from the store. Drop it near the bucket by the sandbox.
Drop a person on the bucket and he will mix the compound with some
water. You’ll need to solve the leaky hose puzzle before you can do
this. Once the compound is mixed, someone will bring it near the damaged
walls. You will have to repair the wall as fast as possible or the
compound will harden. Put at least two people on the job. Children 14
and over can help. Drop all your workers on the bucket and they will
start the repairs. When one tries to wander off, keep dropping them on
the bucket again until the walls are finished.
The Wilted Window Box
Flowers (living room windows): you will find a watering can in the shed
once you have opened the shed. Just drop a person on it and he will
water the flowers, but the leaky hose will have to be repaired first.
The Broken Birdbath: buy
the water pump that will show up in the store. Drop it on the floor near
the broken birdbath. The exact spot is just below and a bit the right of
the bath. It is heavy and two persons are needed to install it. Children
14 and over can help.
Please
select the first letter of the game's title below. If the word
"The" appears at the start of a title, ignore it and search for
the second word in the title:
