Kei trucks, the adorable super-compact commercial vehicles from Japan, are cheap to buy but a pain to own in many American states. But soon you might be able to drive one without fighting your local motor vehicle bureau in Honcho, a neat little Steam game in development where you’d drive around in and maintain a tiny Kei truck to do commercial missions in pre-1990 Japan.
It looks like game developer Greg Pryjmachuk has been promoting Honcho as a work-in-progress since at least May. Pryjmachuk, the apparent founder of British independent game development studio MinskWorks, is also behind a casual adventure driving game called Jalopy where you “build, repair, refuel and drive a dilapidated old car on a grand journey through the territories of the former Eastern bloc. Explore Germany, CSFR, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.”
I remember hearing about Jalopy but haven’t played it—good reviews, though. More recently MinskWorks turned out Landlord’s Super which is described as “a First-Person Life-Simulation set in the murky midlands of the British Isle during the polarising years of the 1980s. Build stuff, get drunk, build stuff while getting drunk.” That also has positive feedback on the Steam PC game platform.
The theme seems to be practical low-stakes scenarios wrapped in cutesy graphics with a nice dose of irreverence—sounds great.
Honcho appears to be more of a management game than a driving simulator. From the screenshots and descriptions, I’ve gathered that you buy, mod, and maintain your little truck. Then you run around and operate a vending machine business through a series of delivery and repair missions. The game is set in the Shōwa era, which refers to the years between 1926 and 1989 under the reign of Hirohito (though the description specifies ’80s Japan), and the main vehicle in the Steam page screenshots looks like an unlicensed Honda T360 tribute from the ’60s.
The screenshots posted online so far have a warm and calm feel to them. I’m looking forward to seeing this game make it to computers.
Release date and price are TBA, but if you’re interested you should check out Honcho on Steam or Patreon.