Hello Hoteliers,
This week we are launching Hotel Architect into 1.0. It has been a long, challenging and FUN journey which is why, today, we're feeling rather nostalgic and sentimental looking back on everything that has led us up to this moment.
So, we thought we'd share some highlights from the development journey, alongside early concept images and even a few bloopers, to celebrate just how far Hotel architect has come! You will notice in a few places throughout this blog that a 💡 emoji will appear next to certain features, this indicates where community feedback has helped to shape Hotel Architect!
We'd also love to know at what stage along this journey you joined us, so please let us know in the comments below!
The Early History of Hotel Architect
Pathos Interactive was founded back in 2015 by three Swedish students: brothers Christoffer and Alexander Andersson, along with their childhood friend Accel Sjöström. Everything began in a basement, specifically, at the home of the Andersson brothers' parents.
Fuelled by a shared passion for gaming, they initially dabbled in creating small video games as a hobby. It didn’t take long for them to realize the potential for something greater. The hobby turned into a full-time business in 2016 during the development of Bannermen: a fast-paced, real-time strategy game set in a fantasy medieval world. Bannermen was released on PC via Steam in 2019.
Soon thereafter, Pathos began prototyping a new game with an expanded team. This prototype evolved into what is now Hotel Architect! You can read more about the origins of Pathos Interactive and what sparked the initial ideas behind Hotel Architect in one of our earlier 'About the Dev Team' blogs here.
The First Prototype (2020 - 2021)
In 2021, Pathos Interactive presented the prototype of Hotel Architect to Wired Productions and it was mutual love at first sight! From these early concepts and the playable prototype, we (at Wired) knew that Pathos were onto something very special...
Between 2021 and 2022, the UI underwent a major transformation, evolving into something much closer to what we would recognise today. You can see some of the early concepts in the screenshots below:
Then, in 2022, we officially announced the publishing partnership between Pathos Interactive and Wired Productions alongside the reveal trailer for Hotel Architect! This teaser trailer provided the first public glimpse of gameplay for our upcoming hotel management and tycoon game, whilst also showcasing some of the locations planned for the game.
A fun trivia fact for you all is that, during our initial announcement, we actually shared screenshots of the New York and Las Vegas maps, which ended up arriving midway through the Early Access journey instead.
The Early Access Announcement, Demo's and Playtests!
Fast forward to 2024, and we were ready to announce that Hotel Architect would be coming to Early Access! In our Early Access Announcement trailer we revealed updated gameplay footage, the core features of the game and the four locations that would be arriving in Early Access: Gothenburg, Paris, St Anton and Santorini.
And yes, there was a point in time where the locations appeared in a different order to what we know today!
Before we were ready to dive into the world of Early Access, we decided to run a series of playtests and join the Steam Next Fest to get valuable player feedback.
Gamescom 2024
First, we attended Gamescom, where we showcased the very first publicly playable demo of Hotel Architect.
💡We learned a lot here, and received a lot of useful feedback, including the need for shortcuts to help make the gameplay feel faster and more intuitive.
October Playtest 2024
Then, in October we hosted our first ever digital playtest, limited to the Gothenburg map. We were blown away by the amount of feedback (and kind words) our community shared with us, as well as the quality of the hotels built!
💡During this playtest, we received a lot of feedback surrounding the critic reviews and what they meant... Since then, we've made major improvements to the critic review UI, which now provides a much clearer and deeper understanding of what the review scores really mean!
Who remembers when the critics review looked like this?!
December Playtest 2024
We quickly got to work implementing changes, fixing bugs and working through all of the feedback you had shared with us. Then, we were ready to launch our second playtest in December!
💡One feature request that stood out to us above the others throughout the October and December playtests was the demand for ghosts! So, we got straight to work to allow them to check-in to Hotel Architect.
Here's some behind the scenes of the team working on them vs what they look like now:
January Playtest 2025
With the arrival of ghosts, as well as a whole host of quality of life features, we launched the January Playtest. This playtest marked the beginning of a very big year, and the feedback from you (our community) helped us to improve and polish the game significantly ahead of the Steam next fest.
Community Highlights from the January Playtest:
February Steam Next Fest 2025
Then, we were ready to enter the February Steam Next Fest! In this demo we introduced the Santorini map to players for the first time! The new demo introduced a bigger map size with Santorini, alongside new guest types (brats and sunbathers), the bar zone, the upgrade tree, and staff moods!
The reception to the Demo was fantastic, we appeared frequently in the top 50 Demo placements in the Steam Next Fest, and it was all thanks to you - our wonderful community! It actually led us to keep the demo running a little beyond the original window, so that you could all enjoy it for another week.
💡Some of the top suggestions, which later made their way into the game, included:
The Copy Room / template options
The Eye-dropper tool
A Photo Mode
A Character Creator
Early Concepts of the Character Creator:
The Final Playtest - April 2025
Ahead of the Early Access launch, we ran one final playtest giving players access to the Paris Scenario and Sandbox mode which unlocked two new guest types: Business and Upper Crust. As well as two new zones: the Conference Room and Spa.
Thanks to your rigorous testing and feedback throughout all of the playtests and demos we were then ready to launch into Early Access.
Entering Early Access
Hotel Architect launched into Early Access in May last year, with:
4 Playable Locations (Gothenburg, Santorini, Paris and St Anton) each with their own unique climates and map sizes. As well as this, each location came complete with its own scenario and sandbox modes.
6 guest types that could check-in to the hotel
6 staff types to manage
Service systems
Multiple Zones
💡The Character Creator
💡The Eye-dropper tool
And, much more!
Entering Early Access we had big plans and quickly got to work responding to your feedback, implementing changes, adding new items, and adjusting our roadmap to be led by you as a community!
Some examples of new items requested included: big windows, bedroom wall lamps, more reception desk variations, and much much more!
The New York Update - June 2025
We chose New York as the first major update for Hotel Architect because the overwhelming feedback from Early Access was that you wanted the ability to design and decorate across even more floors.
💡New York offered the ability to build up to 25 floors, which was far beyond anything the game has allow for before.
💡This also highlighted the growing need for a copy and paste room feature, which we had already been hard at work on implementing since the final playtest. So, inline with the New York update, it was added!
The Las Vegas Update - September 2025
💡Next up, we addressed the second most requested feature in our Early Access journey. You wanted casino's and we thought... well, what better way to introduce this brand-new zone other than in Las Vegas?!
This content update included:
Las Vegas (scenario and sandbox modes)
The Brand-New Casino Zone
The Croupier Staff Type
New items and decorations
💡After introducing the casino zone, we saw a lot of feedback from players regarding how they work and the challenges on gaining a profit. So, thanks to your feedback we later introduced a patch that made them smoother and more exciting to run!
Add-On Packs
Throughout Early Access we also released three content packs, themed around certain holidays including:
Halloween (introduced in October 2025)
Christmas (introduced in December 2025)
The Chinese New Year Add-on Pack (introduced in February 2026)
These content packs included various new items, surface materials, structure items and character props to celebrate the holidays. They can be turned on and off by players, who may not want them available all year round!
Bellhop & Room Service Update - December 2025
The final content update of 2025 came in the form of the bellhop and room service update, which added a brand-new staff type: Bellhops!
Bellhops would now carry guests luggage to their room and offer Room Service to guests who order it. What is unique about this staff type is that they are the only staff type that must be unlocked via the upgrade tree in order to be hireable.
The Management Update - January 2025
Our final major content update ahead of the 1.0 launch came in the form of the Management Update. This update brought a significant expansion to how you could hire, train and manage your staff - something that had been heavily requested, a much deeper level of management in-game.
The staff training feature also added the ability for maintenance staff to dispose of any of the unwanted, spookier, guests from your hotel!
Now, as you can see it has been a very long journey to get to where we are today. Just look how far we've come!
Paris Early Drawing vs Now
The Character Creator Early Drawing, Concept and How it Looks Now:
Constructing Foundations Then vs Now:
Now... Any development journey wouldn't be complete without the OCCASIONAL blooper, and these are just a few of our favourites:
They're not bugs.... just features!
And now... the 1.0 Version of Hotel Architect
When we enter 1.0 there will be two new locations (London and the Black Forest), which means that the total number has now doubled since we first launched into Early Access, what a journey!
Whilst you will have to wait until Thursday to see the full list of new features and changes, many of which have been directly influenced by our community, here's a teaser of what you can expect...
Finally, we want to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who has provided us with feedback, comments, love, reviews, or has been a part of our community in any capacity over the last few years. You have directly helped to shape what Hotel Architect has become today, and whilst writing this blog... I can honestly say how proud I am of everything this journey has achieved!
If you haven't already, be sure to join our Discord Community today: https://discord.com/invite/hotelarchitect
- The Hotel Architect Team