Interior Design With a Heart in the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Game for Facebook

6waves Lolapps has rolled out its latest licensed title, this one based on an ABC reality series. Developed by CubeToy, Extreme Makeover: Home Editionlets players re-create the charitable home remodeling of the show on Facebook, with more than 160,000 would-be designers signing on per month so far.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition currently has 168,623 monthly active users and 13,715 daily active users.

Sticking closely to the premise of the show on which it’s based, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has players working to remodel the homes of deserving families, such as those who care for multiple foster children or people with special needs. The game presents a series of fictional families to help, but also integrates real life situations by updating each week to include the actual family that will appear on the show’s latest televised episode. No matter which one players choose to help, they start off by choosing a house style and floor plan based on the family’s needs. They then go room to room, selecting wallpaper, flooring, cabinetry, furniture and decorations, placing them until their design has met a list of requests for that particular family.

In order to buy and place items, players must assign Volunteers. Thus these virtual, unseen helpers serve as the game’s soft currency. Once a player has used up all of their allotted Volunteers, they must wait to use more. They recharge over time, or can be purchased. This works out to a game mechanic where players can choose to be more conservative with their designs and get more done, or wait and go all out. Of course, they can also opt to invest real money to make the home as extravagant as possible.

As they continue playing, more deco items unlock, with certain items being specific to certain families and their needs. There are two in-game shops: one with basic items and another “art tent” with specialty deco. Players can keep track of their progress on each home using the floor plan, even marking off when they feel a room is done. Once all of the needs of the family have been met, they can reveal the home and earn hearts depending on how good a job they did. Screenshots can be taken and stored in a scrapbook to document the entire process.

The primary social feature is using friends for currency — the more friends a player has that also play the game, the more Volunteers they have at their disposal. Other social features include sharing accomplishments via the player’s Wall, sharing scrapbook photos, and sending gifts.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is monetized through the sale of Volunteers for Facebook Credits, along with standard premium items and decorations.

The game’s developer continues to add new items, deco and even families to the game. Real-life families from the show are added on a weekly basis.

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