I've only spent a couple of hours toing and froing in town, performing chores for villagers and slowly exploring the crafting and customization options that help set Hokko Life apart, and while it's at times obvious this is the work of a solo developer - Tatnell's worked mostly on his own through Hokko Life's development, occasionally drafting in friends and with the help of the resources of publisher Team 17 - it also slowly evolves into a distinct take on a familiar formula. What it is right now is a light, scrappy little thing with a whole lot of heart. "When everything was a bit more spread out you lost that, so in realising that the camera got closer and closer and closer and I added a player character and then added more dialogue and things like that, and it morphed into what it is now." It came about by just sitting there and being like, what do I enjoy? What do I like playing? I realised over time that I had all these little villagers that lived in these towns, anq I realised over time, I was actually a lot more interested in those little villages and the towns and the connection that you get to a town as you're building it. "It was never like I'm going to take this inspiration and recreate it. You were more like this God character looking down, and you placed down train tracks and connected towns, ferrying people backwards and forwards. "Some of the people that have been around the Discord community since the beginning will remember the time when it was more like Transport Tycoon. "Hokko Life started off as something completely different," says Tatnell. You may know it as 'basically Animal Crossing for PC', a moniker that's understandably been thrown its way since it first broke cover last year, but its origins are surprising. Which is how Hokko Life, which has just launched into early access, first came to be. I want things a bit more cosy, that don't stress me as much." It sort of went from really enjoying those kinds of games to moving onto more relaxing stuff. My play style - if that's the right term - changed over that time as well. Over time I realised I don't necessarily want to be working on games where you kill things. "I've worked at a bunch of studios and on a bunch of different games, and pretty much all of them involved killing things. Stockholm's not short of video game companies itself - think of it as Guildford but better dressed - so Tatnell was able to pick up jobs here and there, all while he embarked on his own passion project. And then over time, I realised that I'd actually much rather be here - that sounds harsh, and I have some very, very happy memories from Guildford! I went not exactly for love but for friendship - which I guess is a form of love." I came and visited pretty much any chance that I had. "The projects that we were on got finished up, and over time everyone moved back to Stockholm.
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