- Dev Log #7: The Workshop, a Patio Out Back, and Picking Your Owner - 27 September 2026
A new build is out, v0.1.1-alpha.241. The big one this time is the Workshop, which replaces the old upgrade list, but the lounge also grows a patio and you get to choose who runs it. The Workshop The upgrade list is gone. Upgrades are now tools, 84 of them across 12 stations, and you buy them with practice points on a new workspace screen. A short note pops up the first time each one does its job. A few of them: the Precision Scale adds a live gauge to the prep board that shows how the bowl splits between flavors. Smart Ads run an ad every night and bill it by the hours you are open. The Floor Manager sends an idle hire to cover whatever job is backing up. Cleaning III adds a second basin, a small sink beside the main one, so two washers can work at once. A patio out back Lounge tier 4 takes you outside. The back wall opens onto a paved garden patio with its own door, a planter hedge, a…
- Dev Log #6: Setup Night, a Phone, and an Ending - 23 September 2026
A new build is out, v0.1.1-alpha.240. It is the largest one yet, 116 changes since the last log, and most of them are about the parts of the game that were missing a beginning or an end. Setup Night Starting a new game used to drop you into a finished lounge with a checklist. Now you arrive the night before you open, to an empty room with no stock. Adil coaches from the corner in his own voice, Amaan waits inside with his smoke, and the shop cards show you what to buy with a picture of each piece. Everything is free that night. You place your tables, your stations and your first hookah, and the night ends with Adil taking out the bin, the lights going off, and the walk home. Day 1 opens behind Amaan's gift boxes, with Adil first through the door. It plays in Spanish too, marked beta. A phone There is a phone in your pocket now. It slides in from the left and shows the time, the weather,…
- Dev Log #5: Accidents, Fire, and Goals Worth Trying - 15 September 2026
A new build is out, v0.1.1-alpha.239. The lounge can go wrong now, in ways you can plan for, and every new unlock comes with a reason to try it. Accidents and fire A busy room has risks. A hard bump into a guest, or two hires crowding the same spot, can shatter a hookah: it leaves your stock, the glass has to be cleaned up, the order goes back in the queue, and the table is not happy about the wait. Dropped coals can start a fire, and a fire now spreads if nobody deals with it. Walk over empty-handed and stomp out a smoulder before it catches. Your hires fight fires too, and extinguishers mount on the wall from the build shop. Lounge Cover and safety training Lounge Cover is an optional insurance policy, billed with the rent. When an accident costs you, it pays back part of the loss at the end of the day. On the Staff screen, a safety course lowers a hire's accident rate, so a careful c…
- Dev Log #4: Levels, and a Look at Tomorrow - 13 September 2026
A new build is out, v0.1.1-alpha.238. This one is about how the lounge grows, and about knowing what tomorrow looks like before you open the doors. Levels own the unlocks The lounge has a real progression now. Every task that gets done in the room earns XP: seating a party, taking an order, packing a bowl, delivering it, swapping coals, washing a hookah, stocking a delivery, cashing out, wiping a table, putting out a fire, buying an upgrade. Your crew's work counts too. XP climbs a 1-50 level curve with band titles along the way, and every flavor, coal, drink, upgrade and expansion now opens at a level. Milestones still pay bounties, but the level is what opens the door. Level up mid-service and a strip under the banner lists exactly what just opened. The head of the objectives card is now your level pill and XP meter. Stars own demand and tips Your listing's star average is its own num…
- Dev Log #3: A Room That Moves Like People - 10 September 2026
A new build is out. Most of it is about the people in the room, and how they move through it. A room that moves like people Guests, staff and you now slide past each other instead of shoving. A doorway that two parties want at once stops being a traffic jam. Underneath, a walker who is braking at a closed door and a walker who genuinely cannot get anywhere are treated as different things: the first is left alone, the second is recovered step by step rather than snapped back to a spawn point. A guest who drifts off their spot walks back to it. The crew arrives, and rests Hires no longer blink into existence at their counter when the doors open. They start the day outside on the pavement and walk in through the front door like anyone else. When the floor goes quiet they go and lean on a bare stretch of wall, never one you have hung something on, with three new lean idles behind it. The he…
- Dev Log #2: Hire a Crew - 4 September 2026
You've been running the whole lounge yourself. Now you can hire people. You can hire a crew Ten people are looking for work, each with their own name, face and wage. Every hire can do all ten jobs in the lounge. There are no locked roles, so what separates two people is their traits and the job board you hand them. The board lists ten jobs in the order you put them, each with an on/off switch and that person's skill in that job. You can reorder it in the middle of a rush. Telling someone to stop bussing tables and get on the register is the kind of call an owner makes with a full room, so it isn't locked behind the build phase. Skill grows per job. A hire who spends the night at the wash sink gets better at washing, not at everything. And they actually work Your crew carries bowls to the table with their hands full, hauls delivery boxes in from the van, waves when they greet a party, an…
- Dev Log #1: The Lounge Comes Alive - 31 August 2026
Hookah House's store page just got a big refresh. Here's what's new, straight from development. Watch it in motion The store page now shows four gameplay clips: lifting a glowing coal with the tongs at the coal station, the lounge furnishing itself in build mode, a packed evening of service, and the street outside at night. What we've been building lately An articulated coal-tongs close-up, with coals that light individually and glow on the burner coil A snack station stocked with baklava, lokum, dates and more Night city windows, thick-fog weather, and per-lamp light settings Shared hookahs for groups, and regulars who come back night after night The page now speaks your language The store page is now available in Turkish, Russian, German, Simplified Chinese, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Come hang out We opened a Discord. Drop in and tell us what belongs in your dream lou…
