Hello! Happy New Year to all who are reading this! 

This is a postmortem, kinda. The demo is 'done', but the project itself is certainly not over. 

Introductions I think are in order, given this is the first time I’m doing this. I’m Kit, the one behind ‘Oops! You’re the Hero!’, and am the founder of the studio, Artificium Games! I spent the past 10 months creating the demo, starting the studio, and finally publishing it here on itch, as well as Steam. 

It was a wild ride. 

I took a bit of time off, after releasing the first patch, to deal with the burnout, as well as figure out my next steps. But now, it’s the new year, and I’m ready to continue on with the game. ‘Oops’ was never meant to be a long game, something that a player could finish in under an hour or two. So surely, making it wouldn’t take that long, right? 

That has not been the case. 

From changing engines to self-teaching myself in what I wanted to put in, adding in contractors to work on the game, and balancing a full time job, ‘Oops’ has turned into something a little bigger than what I originally expected it to be. But that hasn’t been a bad thing! I’ve learned a lot, I’ve jumped into things I never thought possible, and I’ve met a lot of great people through it all. 

At the end of the first phase, I can stand on my own two (tired) feet and say that I’m proud of what it’s become! It went from a little, silly idea, to bringing me to my first convention and going through the steps of making my own thing official. 

So! What comes next? 

First things first (I’m the realest): ‘Oops’ will be getting an update in the coming months! When I first had the idea, I had a very focused concept that wasn’t going to branch out. The longer I worked on it, I resolved to not feature creep, but there were a few things that nagged at me that I should put in. So now, I’m going to! Updates to the levels, a few more mechanics for players to try out, more secrets that you can discover! I’m hoping this will be completed by March/April, keeping it nice and easy for everyone who is working on the updates. 

Second: I want to keep writing devlogs for the game. Each month, I would like to send one out to give updates on the game, the processes that I’ve been using, and what the next steps are. It may stay here, on itch, but I was considering moving it to a website for Artificium or for myself! Either way, consistency is what I’m going for. As long as I do that, I’ll be happy. Each subject I write about, I’ll be going into detail and how it’s been. Maybe it will help someone who’s thinking about doing the same as I do, and give some insight into it! 

Finally, the future of ‘Oops! You’re the Hero!’: This was always going to be a game that would be finished, and I intend it to be the first game for my studio. I plan on talking about it more in the next devlog (February), but the plan is for the whole game to be released by 2026. This gives me enough time to plan everything, finish the final demo version, work with the current team, as well as add new team members! 

Sounds like a lot, but it’s only three things to do, right? 

I’m extremely excited for what this new year will bring. Come hell or high waters, the game will be finished, and will be out in the world to make its mark. 

If you want to follow along the process, share your thoughts, or think you might want to work on it as well, there are ways I can be reached! 

Me: https://linktr.ee/katiea_athanatosdev

The Studio: 

https://bsky.app/profile/artificiumgames.bsky.social

https://twitter.com/ArtificiumG

And if you want to tag along, thank you <3 

Kit