Hello again! We’re back for the monthly devlog; this time focusing on the art of ‘Oops! You’re the Hero!’. Last month was all about the music, so this time we get to focus all on the visuals of the game. But first, let’s start with our housekeeping. 

I hope everyone is doing well! I know I’ve certainly been busy. A couple big things happened last month! First, a sound designer has been added to the team to work on the sound effects for the rest of the game! This is exciting, obviously, getting the chance to work with someone new to bring their skills to the project. The past couple weeks have been getting documentation up to speed and making sure everything was good for them to start! Which, if you weren’t too familiar, is like 85% of game designing as a whole: literally just making documents. That aside, I am very excited to move forward! 

And moving forward comes with building the rest of the game. For all of July, in-engine work focused on two things. First, there’s a new patch coming out in the coming weeks! A couple bug fixes and additional QOL features, the demo will be sitting pretty after this next update. I will more than likely go back and do a few more tweaks, but that won’t be my main focus. Second! I’m working on the rest of the game. I believe I mentioned it before, but July was spent almost completely focused on putting Level 2 together. The layout and a few enemy abilities are put in place, with Level 3 soon to be started as this month starts. A couple teasers have already been posted to Artificium and my’s pages, and it’s good to see it all come together. 

With the new level comes new monsters, and the search for a new animator as well! Towards the end of July, Artificium had posted on Work With Indies about a contract position for a 3D animator who specialized in creatures. There have been quite a number of applications for it, so it’s been a process going through each resume and portfolio to find the right one, especially by myself. It’s a bit disheartening, those who work in games have been seeing the number of layoffs just increasing week after week without end. Being on the other side of it now, receiving so many talented and amazing artist portfolios, it’s a reminder that things have to change for the better. What’s happening in the industry isn’t sustainable, with both veterans and newcomers losing their livelihoods and their passions all because of greed, and I believe we have to be the ones to change it.

Revolutions aside though, I get to dive into emails while doing the patches and next levels. Hooray!

Talking about the animator is actually a nice segment into what the focus of this devlog is supposed to be. I wanted to speak to the art of ‘Oops!’, mainly where it is now and how it started out! I think it’s good to look back sometimes and see how far a project has come. It helps put into perspective how much work has actually been done, how much progress and learning has been accomplished. 

When I originally started working on ‘Oops!’, I was much younger! It must’ve been over five years ago now when I first came up with the idea and wrote out the script and designs for it. I think I’ve mentioned it before (maybe not here but I believe in interviews), that ‘Oops!’ was originally going to look, and play, much much differently. It was going to be much more RPG-esque, like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, where the player had a couple different actions to choose from, and success was based on an equation. I believe the player had a choice to Attack, Defend, Taunt, or Flee from an enemy, and there would be more chances to get into combat rather than the focus on boss fights that are in the game now. The game’s art style was going to be more of older Pokemon games, with the top-down, pixel look to it. The engine itself was going to be RPG Maker! So that’s where a lot of this was based out of. As the years went on, and I got a bit more experience under my belt, that’s when it changed to what it is now! I decided I wanted it to be 3D, keeping the top-down, chibi-eqsue look to it.

And I’d say it’s really worked out! A lot of praise has been directed towards the art style. The 3D modeler for the characters, Pedro, has been fantastic to work with. He was able to take my silly little sketches of the characters and has been turning them into the amazing models you see on the screen. Just a little while ago, I posted a comparison of one of the first versions I drew of the Thief (2D), and how he looks now as a 3D model! Watching it all come to life, I can hardly put it into words. And it is thanks to the people who have dedicated their time and skill to it. Pedro has been so gracious to not only do the human models, but the bosses as well! And what he’s already sent has looked so cool, I can’t wait to do teasers for them and to get them set up in-engine. 

The process of communication to create the models has been a bit like how the music tracks as well. I created documentation for both the human characters and the monsters, and broke it into a few different descriptors: 

• Their name 
• Their outfit description 
• Where they were to be used 
• A silly little drawing I did 

The boss documentation varied slightly, with the additions of what kind of attacks they would be able to do so those appendages could be added. The rigs are created along with the models, so it’s important to have that all laid out before any sort of model is created, at least in my mind. I’m very excited to see them come to life, both in model and in animation! 

And that’s what’s been happening over the past month! Busy, busy time for sure. I’m also working on a pitch deck for the game, but that’s a separate project that I get the delight of doing for this month. All in all though, I think there’s a lot of good stuff happening right now! 

I’m going to link the artist’s portfolio here, so please check him out! 

The links!

Me: https://linktr.ee/katiea_athanatosdev

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

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