PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1-

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The Penguin Hotel's 18th anniversary party. The robot mascot doesn't move at night. Probably.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam
Price: Free
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (88% of 159 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: WASD to move, mouse to look and take photos
Made by: lemorion_1224 (SETAM)
Released: 2024

What frightens Invited to a penguin-themed hotel's 18th anniversary, you are left alone in its dark checkered halls with neon-lit penguin statues and a robot mascot who is not supposed to move at night, armed only with a camera that freezes whatever it photographs.

PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1- is a free first-person horror game from the small Japanese team SETAM. Invited to the anniversary of a penguin-themed hotel, you are caught in something nobody expected, and solve its mysteries and fight its threats with a camera that traps its subject inside the picture.

About PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1-

PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1- is a free game on Steam for Windows, released on Halloween 2024 by lemorion_1224 under the name SETAM. It is the first chapter of a planned series, with Chapter 2 to come.

Many guests have been invited to celebrate the Penguin Hotel's 18th anniversary, and you are one of them. The hotel is all checkered floors, gilded mirrors and neon, with a giant penguin statue in the lobby and cardboard penguin bellhops saying welcome. Then the night comes, and no one could have predicted how it would turn out. Big Pen, one of the hotel's characters, is a robot, so, the store says, he does not move at night.

Your tool is the Freeze Camera, a wonder that traps whatever you photograph inside the picture. You use it to solve the hotel's mysteries, to deal with what comes for you in the corridors, and, the makers add, as an ordinary camera too.

The makers say they want the game to suit both players who are good at horror and those who are not, so it leans on strangeness and dread over gore. It suits players who liked Poppy Playtime or Tattletail and want a short, free mascot horror.

How to play PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1-

Download PENGUIN HOTEL -Chapter 1- free from Steam.
Explore the hotel in first person and look for clues to what happened at the party.
Use the Freeze Camera to trap objects and threats inside a photo.
Solve the hotel's mysteries with what you capture and find.
Keep an eye on the mascots, especially when the lights are low.

Screenshots

PENGUIN HOTEL screenshot: a cardboard penguin bellhop cut-out saying Welcome in a dark checkered lounge

PENGUIN HOTEL screenshot: a burst of ice crystals on the floor of a dark hotel corridor lined with empty frames

PENGUIN HOTEL screenshot: a shadowy penguin figure waits at the end of a long, dim hotel corridor

PENGUIN HOTEL title art: a wide-eyed blue penguin mascot with an orange beak waving beside the title on a dark red wall

Tips

Photograph anything that looks wrong: the camera solves problems as well as threats.
Watch the hotel's penguin figures when you turn your back on them.