In an interview in Destructoid, Rohrer discussed the problems with building a society in the game Rust, and how he planned to remedy those issues in One Hour One Life.

He argued that the occurrence of trolling and the lack of impact of death are detrimental to creating a system of justice and, by extension, building a community.

In One Hour One Life, the permadeath mechanic and the initial period of helplessness when a player spawns as a baby serve to force people to work together.

[6] An important part of the game is the idea of sustainability, which Rohrer discussed by email with Matthew Gault, writing in Vice Motherboard.

Rohrer describes this as necessitated by the game's high difficulty, which is reinforced by repeated failure: all villages will die eventually, but the societies supporting cooperation and sustainability are able to survive longer.

Over time, players have become better at continuing family lines, which Rohrer attributes to the emergence of culture, morality and taboos supporting these ideas.

In an interview with Richard Moss in Gamasutra in August 2018, Rohrer described that he deliberately had avoided putting the game on digital distribution platforms such as Steam and GOG.

Gault went on to say that while the survival gameplay is reminiscent of Don't Starve, One Hour One Life also touches on themes of "sustainability, morality, and civilization".

[11] One Hour One Life had poor sales figures at its Steam launch, selling 315 copies compared to 2400 for Rohrer's The Castle Doctrine.

[13] Developer Dual Decade runs an unofficial mobile fork of the game, titled You Are Hope, for iOS[14] and Android.

[15] It uses a fork of the One Hour One Life source code but runs on an independent server hosted by Dual Decade, and features a number of changes and additions.

Jordan Thompson, writing for TouchArcade, rated the game 4 out of 5 stars in a review, describing it as a "more mechanically deep version of Don't Starve" and praising the player interaction and the decisions of life-and-death "that will sit with you long after you play".

Maria Alexander reviewed the game for Gamezebo, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars while saying that it was "a crafter's dream" due to the many ways in which materials can be broken down and used.

[19] As a result of the public dispute, Dual Decade agreed to hard-fork the game, changing the graphics and title, and continuing development independently of Rohrer.