Indie developer Robert Tatnell has unveiled his casual life-sim Hokko Life. The game is sporting some very obvious influence from Nintendo’s cult Animal Crossing series and aims to come out for PC sometime this year. Check out the announcement trailer below!
The trend of ambitious small developers trying to bring over iconic console exclusives to the PC continues with Hokko Life. After the recent successful launch of Temtem – which is pretty much a Pokemon game on PC – we are now being greeted by an Animal Crossing clone. And going by the footage and game description, it’s not even a jab towards the indie dev. Quite the contrary. Trying to recreate their own take on the AC formula is a tall order for a small indie dev.
Step off the train into the town of Hokko and get settled into your new home!
This quiet village needs your help to turn it into the charming rural town everyone loves. With hammer and paints in hand it’s up to you to design, build and decorate homes for all of your new friends!
Will you design an urban-industrial furniture collection or maybe a bright flowery wallpaper set? With all of the workshop at your disposal, you’ll have complete freedom to design a town your villagers will absolutely love.
Still, by clearly gunning for the Animal Crossing-experience Hokko Life will end up being compared to the original. At least, there is precedence that similar games have not only reached the same heights as their influences but even surpassed them. Temtem put the venerable Pokemon franchise on alert with its production quality and content, while the excellent Stardew Valley long has established itself as the best Harvest Moon, period.
With Hokko Life being essentially a one-man project, there’s enough work cut out for Tatnell. The tentative release window of 2020 hopefully leaves enough time for it to line itself next to the other greats mentioned above.
