Icelandic developer Porcelain Fortress' upcoming gameWalk of Lifeputs its own spin on the life sim genre, creating an interactive board game that provides plenty of fun and laughter for players along the way. Players attempt to move along the board,building the model life for themselvesas they face life’s trials and tribulations. It follows on from the concept created in the developer’s maiden title,No Time to Relax, building and expanding on all of that game’s main mechanics.
Game Rant recently caught up with Porcelain Fortress CEO Ingólfur Ævarsson and lead designer Diðrik Steinsson to discuss the concept behindWalk of Lifeand its scale compared to its predecessor,No Time to Relax. The developers talked about the thought process behind the game’s striking art style, the comparisons withpopular cartoons from the 90s, and beyond. They also touched on tapping into the streamer culture, and the boost that could give the game’s popularity.
Walk of Life’s Art Style Conveys the Game’s Humor
Porcelain Fortress had a clear vision when creatingNo Time to RelaxandWalk of Life. The team wanted to strike a balance between new and old, with a cartoon style that is somewhere between 90s nostalgic shows likeThe Flintstonesand moremodern cartoons such asRick and Morty. Steinsson explained that this was important to give the game’s humor the right look and feel:
‘‘What we wanted to do with No Time to Relax, when we were creating that, was tap into a ‘sitcom’ style vibe. Sort of like if you were thinking about something that made you really laugh, similarly to the cartoons of our youth, such as The Simpsons, The Flintstones, and similar stuff like that. We wanted something like that for Walk of Life but mixed it with the new wave of cartoons like Futurama and Rick and Morty. It’s like making a video game based on cartoon sitcoms.’’
Walk of Life Has Lots of Potential for Streamers
There’s no denying that the art style helps differentiate the game from other life sims and gives it its own unique vibe, and this is likely to attract plenty of players toWalk of Life, just as it did forNo Time to Relax. The popularity ofNo Time to Relaxreally ran away when it began being picked up by numerousTwitch streamersaround the world. The game’s party style means it is a perfect fit for friends to play together, and a lot of streamers jumped on this, givingNo Time to Relaxplenty of global coverage. Ævarsson is hopeful thatWalk of Lifetakes this even further. As he explained,
‘‘Our previous game, No Time to Relax, became really popular, and lots of streamers picked it up. We’ve had streamers across the world, Thailand, Brazil, US, Germany, all around the globe playing the game, giving it millions of views, because of how intimate and funny it is… As we interacted with our community, we realized there were just so many things that our players were asking for and wanted to do. We realized that we could expand on that gameplay further. We really wanted to kind of go back and build it again, with all of these extra possibilities to build on that gameplay, which is how we arrived atWalk of Life."
With an ambitious post-launch roadmap and potentiallysingle-player story-driven contentfor those who would prefer to play the game alone rather than with friends,Walk of Lifeis certainly looking to elevate the concept of the life sim board game to new heights. The team is confident that fans of the first game will find plenty of things to love about this new project, and they will be eager to listen to player feedback once the game drops on early access.
Walk of Lifewill be released on Steam early access in 2025.
