Hello there! Dang, May flew by so fast. This one snuck up on me a little bit, so much has been happening that one minute it was the first of the month, and now it’s June. We’re almost halfway through the year. That is crazy to me. 

So what’s been going on with you guys? Anything fun? I’m sure you’ve had some fun moments these past few weeks. I hope you’ve gotten some time to rest and eat your favorite food. 

As for me? I’ve been working! Let me tell you all about it, haha. 

First things first! [I’m the realest]. 

Second, what have I even been doing? Good question! 

It’s been broken up into two focuses so far. On one hand, I have a list of patches that I’ve been working on for the demo that was just released. Nothing too crazy, there are a couple bugs that needed to be taken care of, and some polish I figured I’d add. For example, the explosive barrels that you can use? I put a visual indicator on how far the blast radius goes. Stuff I should’ve caught, but it fell through the cracks the closer the deadline got, or I saw after publishing that could be added. 

I’m sure a couple designers would understand the feeling, sometimes you get so into making sure everything is working, you pass by the little stuff that adds to the QOL of the game. It’s a bit different when you’re in a team and you don’t have to work on everything, but such is the life when you’re making a big chunk of it all. Lucky for us, patches exist, and it’s not the end of the world if something isn’t perfect. 

On the other hand, I’ve started working on the rest of the game! That’s mainly been greyboxing the rest of the levels. Each week of May has corresponded to a level, and now we’re sitting with an incredible foundation of five greyboxed levels! It’s so good to see them starting to come to life, to understand the spacing and how everything I’ve been picturing fits in with the overall flow of the story. I can already tell there will be adjustments and plenty of additions, but they’re there now, and they exist. 

Which is good! It means we’re on track with the timeline I set up. I wanted to be able to test the finished assets I have already as soon as possible, and I can start plugging those in now. It also means I have a clearer picture of how the rest of development is going to look over the next year. It feels a bit weird if I’m being honest, having a framework for the next year in advance, but it’s good. Now, the development cycle looks something a bit like this: 

Greyboxing -> Level 2 focus -> Level 3 focus -> Level 4 focus -> Level 5 focus -> Last Scenes -> Bugs/Playtesting -> Release

That make sense? 

Not too bad, right? Takes me back to when I was interning as a producer. What an interesting experience. 

But in short, that's been my May! Now rolling into June, I should be 1.) publishing the patches and 2.) starting work on Level 2. 

Finally, there are a few showcases this year that I would love to attend, and will be applying for! One of them is MDev+ again. I had so much fun meeting new developers and experiencing running a table. I’m really hoping I get to do it again. I’ll be bringing a new build, and I have so many new ideas for the table itself. So please, everyone manifest ‘Oops!’ getting accepted again! 

I believe that is all from me for now. I’ll be posting updates on development on a few different accounts, and the new builds will ultimately land both on here and on Steam. So if you’re interested in seeing a more ‘behind the scenes’ look, go check it out! 

As always, thank you so much for reading. It means a lot, and I’m glad I started doing this. I know I say it at the end of every post, but I do mean it!

The links if you would like to stay updated!

Me: https://linktr.ee/katiea_athanatosdev

The Studio: 

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

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ArtificiumG

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

If you want to tag along, thank you <3 

• Kit