It's release time!

Hotel Demonica, a JRPG/Visual Novel hybrid set in a dark urban fantasy world, is a special project to me.

For starters, I've been working on it for a while. The core idea first came to me around 2015 or 2016: a corporate party turning deadly when interrupted by supernatural events. It was always a JRPG in my mind, something in the vein of Shin Megami Tensei If.... I started working on it in earnest in 2020, but it turns out that making a JRPG is hard! Who would have guessed? My own gamedev journey started more than 20 years ago with RPG Maker 2000, so it's always been a sore point for me that I never managed to complete a full-blown JRPG of my own. It took a lot of trial and error and failed attempts over the years to build this final version. Some cool stuff emerged during development, but some features also had to be cut. Right now it's the best I can do, but I have a feeling I can go further, either through future updates or successor projects.

Which bring me to the second reason it's so dear to me: it's a standalone story set in the Secrets of the Citadel universe. I've been building this dark urban fantasy universe for more than a decade now. I've written quite a few stories set in this alternate world where magic secretly exists, but only a few of them have seen the light, so finally publishing a new chapter of this ongoing tale is thrilling. It's also the first to be written in English! Hopefully it won't be the last and I will be able to share more of this world that fascinates me so.

So what is it about? A corporate party getting weird and deadly. A tale of revenge, botched magic rituals, witch hunts and capitalism killing people:

The only reason Lucas dragged his feet to his company's Christmas retreat is for a chance to talk to Mary, his secret crush. But the real party starts when their tropical resort is engulfed by a mysterious dimension inhabited by deadly monsters.

After a fatal encounter, Lucas awakens with mysterious magical powers. But he's not the only one: his coworkers branded Mary a witch, blamed her for everything and are readying the pitchforks.

Now Lucas' trying to understand what's going on and how to get out of Bad Oz before there's nobody left to work with on Monday.

Like all my games, it's free. You can download it right here, right now, and start playing.

I hope you will all have as much fun playing Hotel Demonica as I had writing it or making it! It's a bit of a departure from my last few action-adventure games, so I'm very open to feedback. Expect future improvements and added content. ;)