''Bad Hotel'' is a

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a Video game genre, subgenre of Strategy video game, strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usual ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed and published by Lucky Frame. It was released on August 14, 2012 for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and in 2013 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. The game received positive reviews from critics, who cited its quirky musical and visual aesthetic.

Gameplay

The player is put in charge of defending a small

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

, as enemies go towards it and attempt to destroy it. The player can fend them off by attaching rooms to their hotel, which contain gun turrets, cannons and mortars, as well as support rooms that can heal or house people for money to fund the player's construction. The game's soundtrack is

procedurally-generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

based on the defenses and various rooms the player has placed on their hotel, becoming more developed the more rooms the player has built. The game's artwork and theme is done in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

manner.

Plot

The game's main character is a budding entrepreneur who wants to build a hotel, but a

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

mogul named Tarnation Tadstock wants to drive them out by using an army of monsters such as seagulls, rats and

yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...

Reception

The iOS version received "favorable" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Mark Brown of ''

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website and former print magazine that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. It was launched in 2005 by Steel Media Limited. The publication covers portable and mobile gaming formats, including iPhone, ...

'' called it "something special", saying that it was "brimming with style", including its "bold art-deco visuals" and "humorous dialogue". He also said it was "lovingly crafted", and stated that its challenge was "finely-tuned". However, the game's PC release was panned, with reviewers citing the fact that it was barely changed at all in the transition from iOS to PC, resulting in the lack of some features typical to the PC platform such as widescreen support. The iOS version won a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

Award for "Best Game" in 2012, was a finalist for a 2012 TIGA Award, and was a finalist in the 2013

IGF Awards The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

References

External links

* {{moby game, id=/bad-hotel 2012 video games Indie games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Single-player video games Tower defense video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games