Hello, hello! Welcome back to the monthly devlog; it has been quite a month, and I have a lot to ramble about. We’re coming up towards the end of the year, and rather quickly, there hasn’t been much time to sit back. Smash Mouth really was right. So pull up a chair, put on your favorite comfy sweater, and grab your favorite warm drink as we dive into the final devlog of the year!

As always, let’s start with some housekeeping. The game is in a pretty good state, with new SFX, models, and animations being added over the past month. Alex, lemon, Pedro, and Paige are all doing amazing work, I can’t wait to show all of it to you in the released game! Being able to see all of it come together has been a great experience. I’m really proud and grateful for the talent and life they’re bringing to the game. On my end, there’s been the implementation of all of their work. Giving a little bit of a peek, a main focus has been one of the next bosses. Its Idle and Attack animations are added, with the SFX soon following, the level design is being updated to accommodate the size and range of it, and I’m creating the combat scripts for the complete fight. There are a lot of moving pieces going on during it, so I’ve had to break it apart a bit to make sure everything is accounted for. 

In the same vein of development, however, I find myself thinking about the visuals of the fights. The style of the game is cartoonish, and I’m wanting to lean into that a bit, or at the least dramatize things. I’ve been thinking of adding a dedicated VDX artist to the team as well, to really bring to life the VFX of the game. I should have an answer by the end of the year, so I may have to put on my interviewing hat again. 

But all things business-wise, things are looking solid. Artificium Games now has a dedicated website for the studio, which I’m super excited about. An introduction of the studio mission, people working on this game, and the game itself are there. I’m looking to update it soon to also include an ‘Update’ section, as well as a place for all these devlogs to live on, so there can be more than one place for my rambles to live on. All fun stuff. 

Let’s get into the meat of the devlog though: 

MDev 2025

It’s been a month since going to the showcase and bringing ‘Oops! You’re the Hero!’ to people. Let me start off by giving flowers to the people who made it all possible! The hosts of the showcase put a lot of care and work into putting it on, and it’s hard to put into words how hopeful it makes me feel seeing not only players, but developers come together and show off their love and passion for their craft. I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say the last few years, including this year especially, have felt terrible. Layoffs, criticisms, and forcing AI into a space it has no business being in has torn people up. But for a short time, you could peer past that and see what it means to be a part of something truly human. I’m sure that sounds cringey and silly, but it’s the truth. 

People coming together, celebrating their work and accomplishments, sharing struggles they had while working, listening to ways to improve, and overall enjoying being around the fun that video games offer people. All of it is so intertwined that it can’t be ignored - or taken away by those who think they can replace it for a few bucks. 

So what happened at MDev? First things [first. I’m the realest] I got to see familiar faces! Friends and fellow devs who have grown, and some even had their own booths and talks this time around. I was very proud to see how far they’ve come in a year, and I’m excited to see what comes next for them. 

I also had the pleasure of meeting new people! So many devs and players, it’s always a treat. My across-the-aisle- neighbors, Cow Town Games and Cetus Studios, had such amazing games, and were lovely to talk to. Go show them some love when you can, because they deserve it. 

I also had some rather intense moments. When attending events with something to show, there always happens to be more pressure when you can tell someone is looking super in-depth. Moments like that seem to amplify my constant imposter syndrome, and it feels so daunting. Every little mistake or bug seems to rear its frustrating head. However, I have decided to take those fears and worries, and will put them into growing and putting both this project and my skills to the test. I’m not sure if there’s another way to go about it, but we’ll find out.

So! What does this mean for Oops? 

There was an amazing amount of feedback from people. Controls, visuals, narrative, bugs I would have never even thought of testing - you name it, I put it on a big list to be updated. I currently have a checklist of what to update in the demo, which I’ve been fixing over the past month and will continue to do so. So, the plan is to release it by the New Year, and we can jump into the rest of the game with the best launchpad we can. More updates will come out with that though! 

There’s lots to plan and do in the coming months. MDev I think was a perfect opportunity to recenter myself, and served as a reminder for ‘why’ I’m doing this. And I’m hoping that comes through with the game. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this update! In non-game dev related news, go watch Predator: Badlands and Del Toro’s Frankenstein. Those movies amazed me, and it’s good to jump into other stories that can really inspire you. If I could give out homework to you readers, that would be it. 

Until next time though! I’ll be going into what the next year will look like, and what the release of the game will entail. Enjoy the holidays, get sleep, and drink a bunch of hot chocolate in my honor. 

And as always, thank you for reading! 

See you next time!

Go ahead and check out the lovely people who are doing amazing work on the game!

The development team: 

Paige: https://pnthorsen17.wixsite.com/my-site

Pedro: https://pedrofigueiredo.artstation.com/albums/2133675

Guilherme Alexander: https://www.guigagliardo.com/

lemondrop: https://www.lemondropmusic.com/

Me: https://linktr.ee/katiea_athanatosdev

The Studio: 

• Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/artificiumgames.bsky.social
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ArtificiumG
• Website: https://www.artificium.games/

The Game: 

• Itch:  https://athanatos-dev.itch.io/oops-youre-the-hero
• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3166160/Oops_Youre_the_Hero/?beta=0

Thank you so much for reading, and for tagging along on this adventure <3 

• Kit