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We made a reservation at Ancient Forge's booth, as their game was nominated for the DevGAMM Awards. Breakfast was not included, but we got a full menu of details about their fantasy simulation title, which is more complex than it would seem from its Booking page.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is DevGAMM day 1 in Lisbon and I'm here joined by Ida, who's telling me a little bit more about the, you know, this game, they told me I should have checked it out the first game today, but I didn't find it and now I found you."
"And what is this about? The art is very important, there is some hotel management I guess to it, there's a story to be told, so which would be the elevator pitch here?
Ok, so the Hotel Galactic is very complex game, we have the management part, because it's a hotel, so we need to accommodate our guests to their needs, we have a lot of different type of guests, so it's very important to take care of them very specifically, but it's not the only part of the game, we also have our workers, so it gives you a little bit challenge to also remember to take care of them and to give them tasks that will match to their skills and to their preferred tasks."
"And like you said, we have also the story, and story gives you more view of the whole world that the hotel is happening, so you have the villain, you have the merchants, you have the nice characters, you need to help them, you need to learn more about them to develop the story, because the island that you work on, you go with your hotel, it's not only about making profit, it's to make it welcoming and to decorate and take care of it the way you would want to actually create your own world."
"And there is some fantasy to it, it's not realistic in any way, right?
So there is some magic and some fantasy to it, I've seen some special characters, so what can you tell me about the more dreamlike or fantasy side of the lore to it?
Of course, yes, it's true, it's Hotel Galactic, we are in a space, we don't need to keep the earth rules here, and also the game is inspired in Ghibli art style, but we also are fans of Ghibli, and we like the easiness of it, the imagination just can flow around, and we want to also put it in a game that you feel like, oh, that might not work, and you see that, oh, it's worked perfectly, because the creatures that we have in the game make it work, and they have very specific characters that let you put your imaginary flow, literally, if you're like, oh, this looks like a pepper, oh, wait, no, it's a mushroom, okay, go with it, and it's a special make for people to feel actually welcoming to imagine and interpret this game how they want to, make some traits for the characters, like, oh, this guy looks like he's funny, and he likes to come down in a garden, and you look at this character, how it behaves in a hotel, and you make your own story of it, and that's what we want to achieve."
"Okay, okay, but let's get back to the management side of things, what are we going to do here?
Tell me what's going on in a day, I guess you go by days, so what do you do in a day?
You start your day, and then you start checking these checklists, and employees, and what do you do, actually?
Okay, that's a good question, because we actually have a day and night cycle in the game, so in the morning, actually, our guests are going to sleep, because they are tired of the whole night of enjoying the hotel attractions, like they were in the bar, they were at the spa, they eat at the restaurant for the whole night, so they got a little tired during the day, and they go to sleep, and this is the time for our hotel staff to expand the hotel, then you can start building new rooms, you can craft new furniture, prepare for the next guest that will arrive in the evening, so the whole day is for your staff, and to prepare the kitchen ingredients to have what's served in the restaurant, so it's preparation, and during the night, then it starts the party, the new ship arrived with the guests, you need to accommodate to the room, you need to check what they need, bring them to the restaurant, then take orders, if they want to go to the spa, you need to check if your worker is available, to give them massage or some special treatments, so the whole cycle is closing during the morning, when the guests are ending their stay, they go to the reception, and they give you a review of their stay, and this review praises you for your hard work, and gives you great feedback, but also gives you a heads up what you can improve."
"In the Galactic Trip Advisor or something like that, they give you a review.
Ok, and tell me something that can happen with the employees, can they go wrong, can they get mad at you, can you fire them if they don't deliver?
Well, we want to see the employees as our family, Sounds like a CEO talking."
"Yeah, this is often a joke for us, that we hire employees, and we say like, oh, they're sleeping with us, but do this, do that, clean that, bring this, and we are only task givers in the game, but the whole impression of the workers is that they stay with you, they learn skills, and they actually grow old with you."
"So, when they grow old, you can give them retirement, but what's good to use this time when they are older as employees to actually start mentoring program.
You can hire a new employee that has zero skill set, and you send them on the mentoring adventure, literally, when they get up more skills with the older employee to keep your hotel in a good level of production."
"Yeah, performance.
Yeah, exactly.
Nice, nice.
So, this is the whole cycle of employee, it's pretty long, it's not like your employees get old in a week, you need to stay them, train them, and then let them know, pass the knowledge to the next generation of the hotel staff."
"There are employees in real life that get old in a week, but this is nice.
Okay, so what can you tell me about the status of the project, when are you going to release, and the background of the studio in Poland?
Okay, so, we are Ancient Forge, and we work remote in Poland, and right now our game is in early access, we go in early access this summer, and at this moment we are collecting the feedback, we are checking how it's seen by the players, our game, and we already know where is the place to improve, and we are taking it very seriously."
"Right now we are working on rework that will make the gameplay smooth, of course debugging of the whole game, but also extending the content to deliver more gameplay to our players.
So, right now we have tons of work, there is a rework going on, and we are planning to finish it in December this year."
"So, in a few days.
Yeah, honestly, this is so much pressure, but we are so happy, because...
Sorry to say that.
But we know that this game is great, and we want to prove it and show it to everyone."
"So, right now we have tons of work, December is one of our goals to show the players the improvement that we made from the early access, and honestly the next step is to start thinking about full release next year.
Do you have a publisher?
No, we are self-published right now."
"You are talking or trying to find one publisher?
Right now we are open for communication, also about porting.
I guess it makes sense with consoles and the Switch.
Yes, right now we are only on Steam, and on Steam Deck also, we are available on Steam Deck."
"I see it right here.
Exactly, but we are also thinking to go to other platforms.
Okay, thank you so much for your time.
I would love to spend a night or some days at the Hotel Galactic."
"You tell me how to get a ticket to fly up to this...
Oh, we have keys, literally keys.
Yes?
I would love to show you.
Key cards or keys?
I would love to show you in a moment, you will see it on the video."
"Great keys.
Okay.
And yeah, you are welcome to stay, and I really encourage you to check out the game during the December sale."
"I will.
Thank you so much, Ida.
Thank you too.
Enjoy the show.
Oh, this is the key."
