Dushan Chaciej, CEO of Ancient Forge — Interview Series

To celebrate developer Ancient Forge receiving the support of thousands of fans and the funding needed to create its upcoming cozy management sim, Hotel Galactic, we decided to reach out to the team to talk about its plans for the future.

Hi, Dushan! Thanks for taking the time out of your day to speak with us. Please could you introduce yourself to our readers?

Dushan: Hey there, Jord! I’m Dushan Chaciej and I’m the CEO and Creative Director of Ancient Forge. I’ve been making games for basically my entire life, starting with card and board games in the earliest years.

Ancient Forge — what’s the story behind the studio’s inception? How did it all begin, and what are some of the core values that you share as a team?

Dushan: Together with Maksymilian, the other co-founder, we wanted to create perfect working conditions for enabling the most talented people to do their best. From the get go, we wanted to have as little overhead as possible, as to not hinder the creative members of AF. With that, for example we never had an office, the whole studio is working fully remotely.

We work on games that can be played for dozens or even hundreds of hours, that allow our players to adjust the gameplay to their preferences. If you like a more laid-back experience, you shall have it!

Congratulations on exceeding the funding goal for your upcoming game, Hotel Galactic! Tell us, what will the future hold now that you’ve surpassed the threshold?

Dushan: The Kickstarter campaign for Hotel Galactic was surely a wild ride, but in the end we managed to surpass the initial target and even tackled the additional stretch goal. We’re very excited to start working with our newly found community, although we have our eyes set on the upcoming Gamescom and Tokyo Games Show events.

After that’s done, we’ll probably have thousands of various tickets on our todo list based on the feedback we’ll gather. Implementing the most important takeaways will be key before releasing Hotel Galactic’s demo builds into the public. We also have an interesting mini-project related to the main game, but it’ll take some more time before we’re ready to reveal more info on that.

Could you tell us a bit more about Hotel Galactic? What sort of game is it, and how will we, as players, be involved in the narrative?

Dushan: Hotel Galactic is a game about creating a cozy and welcoming environment to both your employees (which may be considered more akin to your family) and guests of the hotel. You can do that in a variety of ways, depending on what aspects of the game speak to you the most.

For example, some players may focus on their hotel restaurant, making it into the go-to destination for food lovers across the galaxy. With that in mind, they will probably want to invest more time and effort into the Farming Island, so each dish is made with the best home-grown ingredients. Other players perhaps will try to create the most attractive entertainment options for their guests. Some will even just drill the island through and through after unlocking the Mining feature, forgetting all about the guest ship altogether.

So, where did the inspiration for the game come from? Are we right in thinking that Studio Ghibli is a source of inspiration for the art style?

Dushan: Oh, definitely, but in general we wanted to achieve this pre-2000s old-school anime look that we haven’t seen attempted much. Most games nowadays aiming for the anime art style go for the more modern looks, with glossy cartoony shaders and thick, black outlines.

We spent about two years in the pre-production, studying our references, competition and experimenting with various approaches and solutions. There are of course some slight changes that we will be introducing and trying out, but for now I’m happy to say that we’re really satisfied with how it all came out in the end. We managed to combine the cute, animated characters with more painterly-like backgrounds and environments. We go as far as to artificially limit the number of frames in our facial dialogue animations to recreate that retro aesthetic.

Of course, we’re still a fair ways off from seeing Hotel Galactic launch on its chosen platforms. However, do you have any words of advice for those who are looking to embark on their own adventures come launch day?

Dushan: Hotel Galactic is all about taking your time to observe, learn and experiment with the game, its world and its characters. You don’t need to have the agility or response time of a pro e-sports player to enjoy and thrive in Hotel Galactic. Even though there’s little in terms of tutorials or intrusive user interface in the game, the core mechanics are very simple to use and we aim to make them as intuitive as possible.

So as for the advice, try out different things, watch how your guests and the hotel crew react, learn the strong and weak points of the alien races coming to your island and adjust the hotel based on your findings. There’s no wrong way to play Hotel Galactic.

💊 @HotelGalactic info pill:
🏮 Our cozy #indiegame
🍲 Manage & build a dreamy inn
🐭 ..in a wholesome Ghibli-inspired world
🖥️ PC/Xbox/PlayStation/Switch
🫂 Join us! 👇

🎮️https://t.co/5dJBDc81mt
💚 https://t.co/ZBUXa9AtZx
💌 https://t.co/OWlgQlyjts
💬 https://t.co/LRDKPkL8zL pic.twitter.com/rwYth5dUMZ

— Ancient Forge (@afs_studio) June 10, 2024

How’s the fourth quarter looking for the team at Ancient Forge? Are there any milestones that you’re currently working towards, or any other projects that you’re interested in exploring, perhaps?

Dushan: We’re actually working towards finalizing our giant 1.0 update for Glorious Companions, our turn-based fantasy title that’s been sitting in Early Access for quite a few years already. The development has progressed really nicely in the recent months, so we’re hoping to launch the Full Release before this year ends. If everything goes according to plan we should also have the demo for Glorious Companions as both a part of the late September Steam’s “Turn-based RPG Fest” and a teaser for what’s coming in the full version.

We’d love to be able to stay up to date with the work that you’re doing at Ancient Forge! Are we able to share any social channels, streams, or newsletters with our readers?

Dushan: To stay up to date with our game endeavors, follow our developer profile on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/developer/ancientforge), but we do also have a website, a newsletter, as well as Facebook and X profiles.

Is there anything you would like to add before we close the book?

Dushan: Thank you for the chance to speak with you and your readers! I have to admit I still haven’t quite caught up with the amazing reactions Hotel Galactic has been getting since our world announcement back in June. It’s a pleasure to interact with such a supportive community and I feel that with such support, we’ll create something truly outstanding.

It has been a pleasure, Dushan — thank you!

For more information on Ancient Forge’s upcoming Ghibli-inspired management sim, be sure to check in with the team over on their official social handle here. Alternatively, you can visit the website for additional details here.