The quirky simulation game House Flipper includes several secrets to reward players who search homes thoroughly with more than hidden dirt and water damage. One of the most notable easter eggs is a Van Gogh painting hidden in a home that players can buy, but the price of the home will require some work before players can afford to uncover the renowned masterwork.
A player starting a new game in House Flipper, a home renovation and resale sim, begins with a crude office building and around $30,000. After performing odd jobs to gain the use of various tools and earn some additional funds, players can begin buying and renovating their first houses. The most affordable homes, like Abandoned House and Burned House, are good opportunities to get used to making repairs and pleasing potential buyers. As the titular house flipper’s bank account balance increases, more interesting homes become affordable, such as a hacker’s residence, or a home with a bunker.
The home that hides the Van Gogh painting, unsurprisingly, is labeled as House That Is Hiding Something. That “something” is Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. This conspicuously named home sells for close to $94,000, easily achievable by players who first master the various tools the game offers, and who renovate and resell a few lower priced homes for extra cash.
Where To Find Van Gogh's Starry Night In House Flipper
The ability to demolish walls with the sledgehammer tool is required to find Van Gogh's masterpiece. After descending into the home’s basement, players can knock down a few walls, and will quickly discover a small room containing a couch and the game’s digital rendition of The Starry Night. House Flipper is not big on narrative, so it is left to the gamer’s imagination exactly why the small viewing room was sealed up in the home’s basement. Scanning the painting with the game’s resale tool reveals a price of about $55,000, far less than the value of the actual Van Gogh masterpiece, which is often considered priceless.
House Flipper is not the only recent video game to feature The Starry Night. Other games, like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, also let players purchase the painting. Blathers the owl museum curator will label the work as Twinkling Painting, and put it on display, potentially along with a second piece from the Dutch post-Impressionist, Sunflowers, dubbed Flowery Painting.
These two games do not necessarily indicate an uptick in interest in Van Gogh among game developers, however. As a particularly recognizable work, The Starry Night has inspired a number of fan art pieces through the years, so it makes sense as an obvious choice for games like House Flipper that want to showcase real-world art.