🗺️ Highrise Living Roadmap: 2025 and Beyond

Dev Diary
1

Hey hey Highrisers :snail: :eye:,

DrDropKicks here. I help with community communications for Highrise.

As we head into the final stretch of 2025, we wanted to share a peek behind the curtain at what’s already been released, what’s coming soon, and what we’re currently building for the future of Highrise.

This is a living roadmap, a way for us to be transparent about where we’re heading, what’s actively in motion, and what’s still in the early concept stages. We’ll keep sharing updates as these features evolve and take shape.

Let’s dive in.

HR Living Roadmap 2025 (1)
HR Living Roadmap 2025 (1)1000×1700 312 KB

:white_check_mark: What’s Already Done

:man_dancing: Animation Upgrades

We rebuilt the core avatar animations from the ground up, including walk, run, idle, and sit. The result is smoother, more expressive movement and a stronger animation system that sets the stage for new emotes and interactions in the future.

Why?
We wanted to modernize the look and feel of Highrise avatars. This also paves the path for new and exciting emotes and streamlines the animation development process.

:admission_tickets: Season Pass

Our next big feature, the Season Pass, introduces story-driven progression that rewards both free and premium players. With each season, we’ll release new storylines, unique cosmetics, and fun activities that connect players through shared experiences. One can imagine new seasons coming out this Halloween and Christmas…

Why?
We’ve received a lot of feedback on our monetization and divide between paid and free-to-play players. So we build the Season Pass as a core part of the game as a start to providing more accessibility and provide more reasons to enter the app that doesn’t involve spending money.

:dress: Looks

Looks is now live, giving players a permanent spotlight for fashion. Post your outfits, browse others in the new Discover tab, and save your favorite looks for inspiration. Between outfit sharing, OOTD highlights, and the “Wear It Like This” section in Marketplace, creativity has never been easier to find or show off.

Why?
One of our core identities of Highrise involves meeting and hanging out with both friends and strangers. We’ve found that over time, the communities in Highrise have wavered in their genuine interactions. As a result, we decided to build Looks as a means to bring back that interaction with others.

:butterfly: Flutter Park

Flutter Park continues to grow into a permanent world. Expect new critters as well as ways of catching them. Who knows, they may also be connected to some limited-time spooky events… :ghost:

Why?
Flutter Park is part of an ongoing effort to bring deeper levels of gameplay while encouraging a more collaborative environment. While eventing can be fun, we want to start creating spaces that also encourage socializing, similar to Boo Bash.

:brick: In Development

:label: Pet Nametags

We’re working on new pet nametags that allows players to rename their pets, being around the same price as renaming usernames. This long-requested feature won’t just release by itself though. Who knows, there might be new content to come along with the nametags. :eyes:

:fish: Fishing

As part of our expansion to Flutter Park, we’re adding fishing into the world! While small, this is the first of many updates to Flutter Park to make Worlds more rewarding.

:t_shirt: More Detailed Clothing

We’re working on a new system to allow our artists to add finer details such as gradients, fabrics, and textures that were not possible before. We’re starting with a limited rollout through HR ideas, gathering feedback and making adjustments before expanding to future grabs.

Why?
Wearing and creating fashion is the heart of what makes Highrise. While we are still working towards making User Generated Content (UGC) more accessible for both big and small time creators, we wanted to make a system that honors UGC winner’s detail of clothing. This additional detail to items, like certain hairs or clothing, will improve the quality and standard for future clothing.

:globe_showing_europe_africa: Improving Events

We’re looking into ways to improve the eventing experience for players and Crews. More to come!

We’re also developing a new Game Event Kit that optimizes classic Highrise events like Prank and Style Challenge. This unified system will makes events feel more polished, with richer visuals, smoother interactions, and deeper levels of gameplay over time.

This also allows us to create entirely new events in the future! Who knows, we might already be building out new experiences in the upcoming Seasons… :christmas_tree:

Why?
Through both player interviews and general feedback, we’ve seen a lot of comments on eventing. Whether its the repetitiveness of the games, the fast pace weekly basis, or the lack of rewards/profit at the end, these longstanding issues have amounted to long-term negativity towards the competition. So, we’re making a bigger effort to make events a more rewarding experience without sacrificing the core of what makes them fun.

:light_bulb: In Concept

:building_construction: Design Mode Improvements

We’re continuing to develop tools for builders, based on the recent Design Mode survey. Expect bigger rooms, improved placement tools, and more creative flexibility to make the perfect space.

Why?
Creative expression in Highrise isn’t just building fashion, but also building rooms. While Design Mode is accessible, there isn’t a lot of control or furniture to work with. If we want more builders, than we want to focus on providing more ways to give players the agency they need to creatively build.

:busts_in_silhouette: Crews v2

We’re exploring ways to make Crews more interactive and meaningful.

Why?
Crews is at the heart of the social experience of Highrise, and we want to update it to reflect that with more tools to collaborate, communicate, and grow together. Improving crews is another part of our efforts in bringing back spaces for spontaneous chats, voice chat hangouts, and community led events.

:slot_machine: Grab System Improvements

We’re looking into reworking the grab systems to make them fairer and more player-friendly. This includes exploring better transparency, reward structures, and ways to make collecting more exciting.

Why?
The marketplace and Gold spending have a been a longstanding point of contention with the player base. We have found that players can feel like they have spent tons of gold in a grab only to have low returns when reselling in the marketplace. This can feel hostile to both free to play and paid players, and we want to make the chase of valuable items more worth it in the long run.

:lipstick: Looks v2 + OOTD

The next phase of the Looks feature will build on player feedback by improving discoverability and adding back some of the previous posting interactions to bring the full Looks experience. OOTD has always been a popular daily ritual for many Highrisers. We want to improve the experience to make it more exciting day-to-day.

:fallen_leaf: Season Pass v2

While Season Pass received general positive reception, we have received player feedback on what we can improve upon. The next phase of the Season Pass aims to make it more accessible for free-to-play players and Daily Requests even more rewarding.

:rainbow: Looking Ahead

The past few months have been about laying the foundation for what’s next. Cleaner systems, higher-quality features, and more opportunities for creative expression are all part of the future we’re building.

As we move into Q4 and beyond, our focus is on polishing these foundations and creating a more connected, player-driven Highrise.

Thank you for helping us shape what comes next. Every Look you share, every event you join, and every suggestion you make helps make Highrise better. :yellow_heart: