Everything aboutHotel Galacticis setting itself up for success. People love Studio Ghibli, a huge inspiration for the game’s art style – which is immediately apparent in its lush hand painted environment, anthropomorphised characters, hints of magical realism, and vaguely Asian aesthetics.
People also love cozy management games, and that’s here in spades, too. From what the developers present atTokyo Game Showtold me, Hotel Galactic is very ambitious and aims to give players loads of autonomy in its many different mechanics. Set on a magical island floating through the vast void of space, your job is to revive this rundown intergalactic hotel into a tourist trap that any tourism board would be proud of.
Despite the name, Hotel Galactic isn’t just a hotel management sim. You’ll have to build rooms in the hotel, catering for everything from new rooms for guests to staff toilets to keep your employees happy. you’re able to decorate each of these rooms with themed furniture, placing each lamp, bed, sink, and mirror exactly where you want it, matching these themed rooms with your guests’ preferences.
You’ll have to craft this furniture yourself, of course, with resources that you can collect on the grounds of the hotel. You can assign employees to cut down trees, mine rocks, carry resources into the hotel, craft, and assist guests as necessary. While I got the sense that I was playing a very early version of the game, I imagine that assigning employees to tasks and creating a smooth flow throughout the hotel by tweaking the layout of the building could feel very satisfying in the final product. You’ll also be able to hire employees to finely tune your workflow, though that wasn’t available in my demo.
You can also get employees to craft and research new tools, equipment, and tech for the hotel. There will be some sort of research tree as well, with branches that can be unlocked by serving different kinds of guests.
Beyond just crafting, there’s also a cooking system in the game that I find intriguing. When the guests sit down for mealtime, you enter a sort of restaurant simulator mode, where you have to take orders and fulfil them. While there isn’t much meat to this quite yet – I was mostly sitting and waiting for dishes to finish cooking while anxiously watching my guests get more and more impatient – I’m told that cooking minigames are to be added, and you’ll even be able to create your own recipes with ingredients and produce you can collect later on.
While my demo also didn’t give me much of a look at the cast of characters and their individual personalities, the game’s Steam description insists that they’ll be “quirky and endearing”. Not only can you manage your crew of aliens, but workers can pass down their knowledge and skills to new members of the team, which is a nice touch.
Everything about Hotel Galactic sounds great, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see exactly how all those mechanics manifest and work together. In the meantime, you canwishlist it on Steam.
Hotel Galactic
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Hotel Galactic is a cozy management game where you transform a rundown intergalactic hotel into a thriving tourist destination. Inspired by the enchanting worlds of Studio Ghibli, Hotel Galactic blends wholesome nostalgia with modern fairy tale magic, ushering you into a new era of simulation games crafted by Ancient Forge.Express your creative vision as you design and customize every aspect of your hotel. Use modular building mechanics to construct unique and dream-like structures. Renovate rooms, match furniture with your guests’ taste, and build the most beautiful retreat in the galaxy. Take care of all the elements, from the layout of rooms to the choice of the tiniest of decorations.Optimize your hotel layout for the best flow, ensuring that both guests and staff get to their destination efficiently. Experienced players can strategically pick and choose the right items and decorations to meet the ever-evolving demands of a growing pool of visitors, constantly updating the hotel to stay ahead of trends and preferences. Set deliberate action priorities, create new tasks, drag n’ drop your peeps where you need them, and enjoy the show!
