Have you ever played something and fallen in love with a small feature or mini-game within the larger game? Wishing that an entire game was based on that single part? Developers at Wonderscape Games felt the same way. Inspired by the community simulation game Hokko Life, Wonderscape Games took the decoration aspects and turned it into a cozy diorama design game called Hokko Spaces.
In this beautiful casual sandbox, Hokko Spaces, create carefully curated spaces of your own design. House lovable characters and watch them interact with the surroundings you built for them. But unlike a community simulation game, there is no resource collecting, no building items, just cozy designing.
Gameplay
There are no rules when it comes to designing in Hokko Spaces. Build cozy mini dioramas how you want, and at your own pace. Start with a premade diorama, or build your own. Use the water, concrete, sand, grass, and dirt tiles to build your area. Stack to create height, make bodies of water, or a concrete jungle the choice is up to your imagination.
Getting creative can sometimes be a stumbling block especially after a long brain day. The convenience of a few premade scenes really helps get the creative juices flowing.
After your base layer, add furniture, plants and more to create your environment. Certain items are lumped together in categories as well making it easier to spot things that fit your theme. Maybe you want a pool side retreat (like I built). Start by building a pool, surrounding it with flowers, maybe a beach chair or two. Add as much or little as you would like.
Change the weather and time of day to fit the atmosphere. A summer night filled with stars, or a windy fall day, maybe try a blustery winter day. Endless possibilities.
As you continue to build your spaces, more residents will unlock. Place them in your dioramas and watch them come to life. Residents will interact with the objects you’ve placed in the scene. And yes you can place more than one. They’ll also interact with each other.
Once you’ve perfected your scene, you can capture it by using the camera mode. Add filters, animate the characters, curate the perfect shot.
Unlocking Characters
Each adorable resident has its own unlock requirements that can easily be completed by finishing easy tasks. Tasks to unlock characters can be found by clicking the villager menu at the bottom of the screen. If a character’s silhouette is greyed out it means they haven’t been unlocked yet. You can still access the requirements even if the character is still locked.
The best way to unlock requirements is by making more dioramas. Some tasks require placing a certain amount of an object or objects of a certain material. Some on a single project, others over multiple projects over the span of your creations.
Art & Music
The art style in Hokko Spaces is so fun. Rather than a more realistic take, developers kept with a very cutesy and colorful palette, allowing for a more comfy vibe. The adorable animations just add to the overall feel.
On top of all the beautiful visual art, the music and sound design are equally delightful. Everything feels calm, soothing, and thoughtfully crafted. An atmosphere that is both relaxing and perfect for staying focused. It’s another standout feature that makes the Hokko Spaces so enjoyable. And because of these two awesome pieces, I have a few thoughts…
Those few thoughts…
As complete as Hokko Spaces is, there are some things I hope are added in future updates. Things that aren’t necessary for the integrity of the game, but more to make the game a bit more multifaceted.
I really enjoyed watching the characters interact with the scene, and along with the vibey music I really feel like it would be a great co-working tool. Including an optional timer and task list would be such a fun and convenient addition. Even different animations for finishing list items or a work session.
DLC
Hokko Spaces also released a DLC pack the same day as the base game. Lei’s Beachside pack includes a new villager and 6 new pieces of decor.
This DLC comes in at a price of $1.99 USD. As of right now, we are unsure if DLCs will be the norm of releasing new decor and content, or if developers will choose to add it directly in the base game.
While I do believe developers, especially small studios, deserve to be paid (and well) for their work in games, the continual addition of DLCs can be overwhelming for players. While you don’t NEED to add DLCs to your game, who doesn’t want more decor items to play with. Personally I would rather pay a higher initial base game price, than have to continually buy DLCs.
Conclusion
If you are a fan of the decorating and design aspect of games like Animal Crossing New Horizon, Hokko Space is so reminiscent of those vibes without the work. Easy tasks, but no pressure of resource management, or crafting. Just focusing on the cozy.
Hokko Spaces and its DLC Lei’s Beachside are now both available on Steam for PC and Steamdeck.
This game was reviewed on PC.
