Hi everyone, we have started to make a little game about building and managing a hotel on a distant planet: Space Hotel. 

Basic idea

The aliens who come to stay at your hotel have different needs and preferences when it comes to, e.g., facilities, food, and environmental factors like temperature. The goal of the game will be to make all of your guests as happy as possible.

Our inspiration comes from games like Theme Hospital, Pizza Connection, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and The Sims. The main game mechanics will focus on furnishing rooms, installing facilities, and hiring and managing staff.

First milestone

First things first, though! The first milestone that we are approaching now are basic hotel mechanics. Here's what we have so far:

• You can build walls and doors and place some basic furniture.
• You can hire staff.
• Guests arrive and check in (if a free bed is available).

Screenshots

Here's what the game looks like right now. (We are using the amazing asset pack "Modern Interiors" by LimeZu. Check it out!)

Development details

In order to correctly detect individual rooms that emerge from the way the walls have been placed, we use a version of the "Connected-component labeling" alorithm (Wikipedia article), also known as "blob extraction" or "region labeling". Basically, we are looking for areas of connected floor tiles, while walls count as room separators.

Each alien gets a randomized look. So far, this is limited to only a few types of clothes and hair. The goal is to give each of them a bit more of an individual look and personality by adding more optional components to the sprites (think antennae) and generating random names and properties.

Next steps

Once the basic hotel mechanics are done and polished, our next goal will be to give the staff members and guests more to do:

• More activites for the guests: after checking in, we want guests to have various plans, e.g., relaxing and eating.
• More duties for the staff: besides service at the reception, the player will also be responsible for assigning them tasks like cleaning, repairs, or watering the flowers.

We are also adding more furniture and stuff – so the hotel should already look a bit more lively the next time you see it.

For further updates, follow this devlog or follow Marta on Twitter (@martadendron).

Best,
Marta & Alexej (Gvarab Games)