A hotel management game straight out of Spirited Away. Hotel Galactic aims to earn Hayao Miyazaki's acclaim
There is such a game, about which few have heard: it is not talked about and not written about. To change things up a bit, and primarily because the game demo completely enchanted me, I decided to write about Hotel Galactic. And by the way, contact the devs.
Hotel Galactic developed by Ancient Forge is a beautifully designed game where you get to build and manage your own hotel. As soon as we start the game, we feel as if we have entered a fairy tale world. Wonderful, animated cutscenes - but also the gameplay itself - are somewhat reminiscent of the best achievements of Studio Ghibli, with Spirited Away at the forefront. Anyway, just check out this trailer:
So the whole setting, from the alien races that visit us, through the room decorations, to the beautiful cosmic sailboat that regularly docks at our hotel, looks amazing. In the era of AI, when anyone, using a simple prompt, can become an "artist," it's easy to be accused of mediocrity, fraud, and taking the easy way out. Meanwhile, when we launch Hotel Galactic, a line appears:
THIS GAME IS A PRODUCT OF ACTUAL HUMAN PASSION
NO AI WAS USED DURING THE DEVELOPMENT
I asked Kamila Zielinska, the head of marketing at Ancient Forge studio, about this. She told me that when the "Ghibli-style" AI-generated viral pictures started circulating online, it broke their heart. They had a product that was 100% based on their effort, skills, imagination, and creativity, and at the same time was supposed to be a tribute to the achievements of the iconic Japanese studio. How can we compete with a flood of beautifully looking images, created in a few seconds by AI?
We all put in a lot of work, respecting the source of inspiration and dreaming that if Hayao Miyazaki ever sees our game somewhere, he will at least nod in approval. We don't buy assets, animations, and riggings [3D skeletal animations, the initial stage of creating animations]; we create them from scratch. The game is 100% our own creation. There would be no Hotel Galactic without our artists, designers, and programmers.
Of course, it's not about arrogantly opposing progress. The developers are aware of the benefits that AI brings, for example, in the field of fast, first research. But they still assume that if the game is to be theirs, it will be made by them.
Right now, 35 people are working at Ancient Forge - they don't have an office, everyone works remotely. You might recognize this studio from the pretty successful The Tenants. Today, they have a new, great-looking game ahead of them, and in the era of the global crisis, they maintain calm and prudence. "Small team - one project at a time," Kamila Zielinska wrote to me.
Galactic Hotel, Ancient Forge, 2025.
The very concept of the game, as Kamila told me, was born, of course, out of love for Ghibli - one day, the CEO and Creative Director of the studio, Duszan Chaciej, shared his vision on Discord with the rest of the employees, and they immediately became excited about the project. Marta Krzesinska, as the Art Lead, guides the artistic direction, while Pawel Kafka, leading the animation team, brings it all into the game.
Hotel Galactic is a relaxing cozy game
Looking at the effort that Ancient Forge studio put into this game, it's hard for me to understand why there's no buzz about it. Perhaps it has to do with the genre: it's management, but cozy management, and this, despite a certain boom in recent years, is still a very specific niche. In Galactic Hotel, we'll be in charge of, well, a space hotel, where we'll be hosting all sorts of weird aliens, like little creatures with trumpets instead of noses. In the demo available during Steam Next Fest, we can play through an introductory mission that will familiarize us with the basic game systems.
So we will be building rooms - both above and below the ground - and we will be furnishing and decorating these rooms. We'll take care of the whole hotel decor and cleanliness, including changing the bedding after guests, and we'll also make sure to feed our visitors. Of course, we must remember about our staff - about their sleeping place, but also about separate bathrooms for them (otherwise they will use those for guests).
In the short demo, I was not able to test all the announced features in the game, but what I saw convinced me that it will be a great title for people who simply want to relax with an economically undemanding game. It may also appeal to kids, who will be captivated by the charming graphics.
Hotel straight from a fairy tale
Galactic Hotel, Ancient Forge, 2025.
The demo starts with an already built hotel - it's a bit neglected, so before we open it, we need to renovate some rooms and clean up the trash. We get access to the building mode in a way that resembles Spiritfarer, a great game from the Thunder Lotus Games studio. We determine the width and height of the rooms, and these adapt to those already built earlier. There are actually more references to Spiritfarer here, and if you liked that game, check out Hotel Galactic.
Once we build an empty room, it's good to put some furniture in it. So at the crafting station, we make objects. There weren't a lot of them in the demo, but we could choose from three different styles, each including beds, wardrobes, tables, decorations, dressers, rugs, lamps, and more. Once we have chosen the furniture, our employees gather materials: wood, sticks, metals, and others. Only when the furniture is assembled can we unpack it - our employee will then move the package with the furniture to the appropriate room. This is a general rule at Hotel Galactic. We don't set up walls and furniture right away - they have to be built by our workers. We're not in a rush, so we can do everything at our own pace. The truth is, the guest ship does arrive regularly, but I haven't noticed any negative consequences from turning down guests in any way.
Galactic Hotel, Ancient Forge, 2025.
Of course, in order to renovate and expand the hotel, we need to take care of the mentioned resources. We will achieve this by designating trees for cutting or rocks for crushing, located around our hotel. Later on, we won't be able to test it in the demo; we'll have access to the underground, where I think we'll be mining ore.
Hotel management involves overseeing matters that don't happen - at least initially - automatically. So we need to assign (check-in) each arriving guest to a room and each one who checks out (otherwise they will leave without paying, what manners!). When a guest sits at a table in our hotel restaurant, we need to take their order and make sure the chef is in the kitchen, not wandering around the property. The waiter will take the order slip to the kitchen and hang it on the board - only then will the work begin. It's the same with the mentioned change of bedding. The client leaves dirty sheets, and we have to request that they be changed. When the dirty linen is already in the laundry basket, we can select its washing. And when it's washed, hang it up to dry. This is how our hotel works - we replaced demanding economic systems with simple daily oversight. Of course, the full version of the game provides automation of some tasks, along with progress in the research tree (not available in the demo).
Galactic Hotel, Ancient Forge, 2025.
Management is not really a particular challenge—it's not an economic game, and I don't think there's a threat of imminent bankruptcy in the full version of the game. Cozy games are really for a specific audience who just want to relax and build colorful, magical spaces. What to do if, like me, you prefer to have the big boot of capitalism over you and a challenge ahead of you? Hotel Galactic solves this in a slightly different way. Instead of putting pressure from the start, it focuses on optimization in the later stages of the game. "Even the location of the elevator matters when you have a 40-story hotel," Kamila Zielinska told me. So, if you want to play the game and watch something on the second monitor at the same time, no problem. But if you're really into managing the hotel perfectly and earning stars (in the demo this feature was unavailable, but in the full version we'll compete for Michelin star equivalents), you'll have to pay attention to aspects like using the right ingredients for different guest races or optimizing the route that a staff member has to take from the dining room to the kitchen. However, it is not a difficult simulator and not because the "cozy" genre exists at all.
Of course, over time, we will unlock more mechanics; for example, to improve the quality of the food served in our kitchen, we will take care of growing plants in the hotel garden. With the construction of more rooms, we could use more employees, and more workers mean more beds for them. Other alien races can also be more demanding, hence we will have to take care of entertainment and generally raising the standard of our hotel.
What's interesting, the full version of the game is supposed to have a storyline that includes themes of love, peace, prosperity, as well as redemption and revenge. I wouldn't stress about this aspect too much, but I'm glad that the creators will make sure to give this world some backstory and quests. A game this beautiful and "hand-painted" practically begs for a good storyline.
Hotel Galactic in Early Access soon
It doesn't make sense to go into the flaws of the game right now, as it hasn't even debuted in early access yet (planned for July 24th this year), and any issues will surely be fixed. From my perspective, I can only say that a few quality-of-life improvements are needed. While we have a screen with a list of employees and the ability to prioritize their tasks, we can't view them on the same screen (i.e., center the camera on the character). The game is very colorful and full of details, making it difficult to quickly locate employees or guests in this array of colors. Moreover, we can't check what specific skills or traits our employees have. For example, if you want to assign a chef, first you need to find them on the map, right-click on them, check if they cook well, and then go to the employee tasks screen to assign them to cook. I also had a problem with the wheel that pops up when you right-click on an item. In this wheel, there is an option to "pack" the item back into the box, and although I'm sure I didn't click on it, I accidentally deleted my bed, wardrobe, sink, etc., about 5 or 6 times.
Galactic Hotel, Ancient Forge, 2025.
These are just little details that will probably disappear during the early access process. By the way, I asked Ancient Forge what exactly we will get on July 24th, when early access launches on Steam. So, Galactic Hotel will open up to us, giving us the whole first chapter of the game with its development mechanics, technology tree to explore, characters with their own backstory, and the first VIP guest (special guests who demand more from us). Cooking will change and we will be able to create our own recipes. A new island, Farming Island, will be added, where we will be able to build our hotel. New types of rooms and many new items will be introduced. We will also have the option to build a spa, a cinema room, or a game room in our hotel. Also in early access, we will be able to start playing in sandbox mode. With the early access release, the devs will reveal their further plans for the game, including taking care of animals and going on expeditions.
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