It's about time for another update! Of course, I'm still working passionately on my game so that I can release a small demo this year. But I don't want to promise anything, I want to do it right and not quick & dirty.
In case you haven't noticed: the shop page now has new images and a brand-new cinematic teaser.
I've been focusing a lot on the characters over the last few months, both in terms of designing and writing the story and dialogue.
As with other games, you start out as a bored employee - in this case in the hotel industry - dreaming of a better life, when suddenly a job offer appears on the screen: "Hotelier Wanted".
"Why not?", you think, and apply immediately.
It's not long before a shuttle arrives to pick you up. A shuttle? Yes, and it will take you for 4 days through space to a hotel spaceship, the Lodestar Hotel.
There you are greeted by an unusual pair of twins called Paige and Paige, both androids and receptionists at the Lodestar Hotel. They explain your new duties as the hotelier and soon send you to bed.
The next day gets off to a turbulent start. Robots try to clean your room and kick you out, there's an explosion in the kitchen with casualties, guests complain about the poor state of the rooms and argue with each other. It feels like everything is going wrong. How do you cope?
You try to familiarise yourself with the technology and the administration, offer to help the guests, look after the equipment in the infirmary and then go to bed exhausted in the evening, hoping to take care of the rest tomorrow.
But when you wake up, nothing is the same as the night before. Everything starts all over again: the robots, the explosion, the unhappy guests,... It's as if yesterday never happened.
And the next day is like your first day at work again.
And the next.
And the next.
What's going on here? The Paiges can't help you, the guests don't seem to know anything. You seem to be the only person in the hotel who knows. So you try to figure out how to escape this time loop. You use the knowledge you have gained to extract information from the guests and staff and try to acquire more and more skills.
Suddenly, strange things start to happen. People, silhouettes and sounds appear to you. Guests remember conversations they had with you. Some of your actions don't undo themselves overnight. The hotel seems to have some sort of memory. Can you use this to your advantage? Can you manipulate your guests and staff to get more information? Can you save yourself and the hotel and escape this madness?
I've already introduced you to the NPCs, but there was still a lot missing to breathe life into them. These include walking and idle animations, the portraits and the dialogues. I've already finished a few things, but there's still a lot to do.
First few NPCs:
Each character has their backstory, character arc, daily routines, relationships, purpose, dialogues with different choices, etc.
The more you learn about the characters, the more additional information you can squeeze out of them. Key events unlock memory fragments so that the NPCs remember certain conversations and you again after resetting the time loop. This allows you to change the course of the day and prevent or trigger certain events.
The first dialogues are already finished and resemble a heavily branched tree :D There is so much to plan! And I love it!!! In the next update I will talk more about the dialogue system.
I hope you'll stay tuned and thank you for all the support and feedback I've received on the various platforms. I look forward to further progress and the next updates :)
Best regards,
pixlerin