sandbox – Gaming with Noobs

Hey everyone hows it going Happy New Years and welcome to 2026, today I wanna thank Ancient Forge, for sending me a copy of there awesome game Hotel Galactic so let’s dive in and talk about it.

So Hotel Galactic is a hotel builder game with a great story and draws inspiration from Studio Ghibli which is very obvious in both the art style and characters in the game.

So you the player are what’s called a pilgrim a spirit that comes upon the Hotel in ruins and its staff super upset as they failed to make an impact. so there’s a bit of a 4th wall break with the way they interact with you which I think is very cool and actually makes me feel like its more then just a game. The crew basically gives you control of the hotel and grounds and its up to you to give it life again and guess what, life we shall give it.

So in story mode your following everything at a set pace to start out with you slowly start fixing the hotel and bringing it back once the hotel is done you work on the landing pad which is where flying ships will land and let people off so they can stay at your hotel, yes your read that right flying ships you see this is where the galactic part in the name shines as your hotel is on a floating island out in space surrounded by other planets but you learn that when you open the games map and check it out.

So the first person you meet after the hotel opens is the most important character in the game Captain Pouncy Paws after some talking she agrees to help you and she will be the ship that brings people to your hotel.

After the great Captain is the merchant ship Captained by Silver who will make it obvious right from the get go all he wants is money but he does start by helping you out with some great stuff and then gives you a summon icon where you can summon him when you need it but you gotta wait 8 hours for him to show up thankfully time goes by very fast in the game.
Then soon after another captain shows up by the name of mogumo and hes just as important as he brings new workers your way yes you do have to pay to hire them but they each have talents and specialty so knowing what you need is a good way of knowing who to hire.

The game offers a variety of species of personal all of which are adorable in there own way you have the pington race which are a short species that have a trumpet horn for a nose and enjoy music which they will let you know so you can make there stay that more enjoyable, after you have the toravis which remind me of horses with there appearance they to will tell you what they like and there focus is on tranquility and peace also showers they love a good shower then the 3rd race you come across is the derret which are tall ferret looking creatures but since you have 2 of them as workers you see them right from the start.

The story follows Gustav the ghost and former owner of the hotel who lives his days in regrets over how bad he did running the hotel but thanks to some awesome friends and you the player you show him the beauty of the hotel as your transform it and grow it.

This game offers a story mode and sandbox mode and honestly my opinion is do the story mode first you wont regret it one bit, its enjoyable and will make you smile even though ive already come across some people that I despise with a burning passion im sure you will to once you meet them.

For a hotel management game its fun ive lost track of time playing this game and all I wanna do is play more I really would like to see some new species added to the game maybe more story in the form of DLC.

Now the early game is slow and sometimes a bit stressful until your able to hire more workers your stuck with 3 employees which feels like a strain when you start getting busy between crafting the stuff you need making food for guest and just surviving the game feels like you need a lot of workers from the start but soon things get easier and enjoyable.

The game has what you would call a skill tree where you unlock upgrades for new tools and more decorations for your hotel rooms which you will wanna use it helps out.

I think my favorite part is the rating system each guest rates there stay when they check out and it goes against your score so far im holding at a 4.8 score out of 5 but its a lot of work finding the balance to make everyone happy.

If you like cozy management games then this game is for you and if your a fan of studio ghibli then enjoy the game as well the inspiration is enjoyed all in all i definitely recommend this game thank you for stopping by take care and game on

First off massive thank you to Pajama Llama games for sending me a copy of the game its greatly appreciated, so let’s get into it.

Flotsam is a city builder on a boat in a world over taken by water, yes you read that right your playing a city builder on the water and at the center of it all is your tug boat I mean let’s be real if you’ve plays airborne kingdom or the wandering village this isnt a far stretch.

So thankfully the game has a tutorial and its really well done it teaches you to move and build as well as how to navigate the map and gives you quest along the way so your not bored its really well done and I enjoyed my time with the tutorial. So my first run or my tutorial run to better put it I played 5.5 hours into it and I managed to do a lot until it all crashed and burned let’s dive into more of the game.

The world is over literally the oceans have risen and your boat is your life line so you travel around in search of materials to use and forage the main one being plastic and wood you see the plastic is used to make what’s called floaters which are basically jugs that wont sink and everything in this game takes plastics which sucks cause in my run there was times I couldn’t find any plastic at all, then there’s wood which you will find floating in the ocean or on little islands where you can cut the trees down and use them to make planks or firewood which sadly both are used alot so the struggle is real so you always gotta think about how to spend your wood as it is very valuable.

Then there’s food I mean let’s be real you just survived the end of the world you gotta eat right so let’s find some food thankfully the food variety is plenty as the first you find is seaweed which is turned into a salad or rope but then you move up to the next tier which is fish and around the world there’s plenty of fish I think there’s 3 different types of fish for you to find and cook. Then there’s the next tier which you find old abandoned super markets and grab food there finally the last tier are the farms where you will find potatoes, corn, wheat and more which I haven’t gotten that far yet. So food is solid lots of great options just gotta find it.

The next problem you’ll encounter is storage and housing which you will need lots of both the houses thankfully help with another aspect of the game.

That aspect Morale every survival has a morale compass basically and the happier they are the more productive there gonna be which there’s a lot to learn with the characters you see they level up but they also have there favorite things to do so its good to make sure you have the right people working in the right spots it helps things go smoother.

Now this is where things started going bad for me I had 9 residents and was working on getting electricity going to make some things easier for my people boy was that a bad idea you see the power grid is very volatile if you dont prepare enough for it you see as your town gets bigger it gets heavier making your main vessel waste electricity faster making it harder to find stuff and progress so you gotta build batteries that help you store more energy but thats not the only problem you see there’s buildings that waste the electricity and they drain it faster then you can make it go figure the game does have a few options to produce energy a bike generator a wood burning generator and oil burner and finally solar panels. But again you gotta know how to balance it so you dont screw yourself over.

This game focuses hugely on production and balance one item feeds into several others and so forth. My next run was much better I had less people so food and water could last longer but with less people production is slower cause you need those people to do everything from gathering to crafting to researching so needing more people is a must but again balance is needed.

My play time isnt a huge amount clocking in just over 12 hours ive come to learn that this city builder really pushes your thinking skills to some im sure it will be a cake walk to others they might crash and burn a few times but not once did I rage quit or get angry at the game I wanted more to keep building and finding stuff to make my characters better and give them the home they so desperately want during these trying times, Flotsam takes a page out of other city builders but keeps it going in an original formula a floating city during the end of the world the games graphics are also very relaxed and colorful nothing to over powering or demanding.

There are a few things I would love to see added maybe a way to make our own plastics also I would love to be able to zoom out more and look at the whole map and not just be limited to a certain area also when your not in the tutorial it feels like you struggle a bit finding people and getting the story going I dont know if thats a user error or if its designed that way.

All in all flotsam is a very solid game and you can easily lose yourself playing it easily sinking hours into it so if your looking for a cozy city builder check out flotsam on steam its worth it thank you for stopping by take care and as always game on.