Early versions of the game were compared to Transport Tycoon by the developer, with the game later shifting to resemble a social simulation game like the Animal Crossing series as development progressed. Unity was used as a game engine. In 2020 it was announced that Team17 would publish the game. On June 2, 2021 Hokko Life was published as an early access title on Steam At the start of the early access period Kotaku Australia claimed that the game was too buggy to be playable though by launch PC Gamer only noted graphical issues with the UI.
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