Kit, a founding member of Artificium Games, developer of the upcoming game Oops! You’re The Hero! lover of reading and D&D, was kind enough to let us ask her a few questions.
What got you into indie game development?
I started in games almost 10 years ago when I attended a summer camp called Girls Make Games. It’s a camp dedicated to teaching young girls about game development and the different disciplines that are possible to go into, and I loved it. It’s part of the reason I wanted to eventually make my own studio. I went from that camp to college, where I worked with a few indie game studios as a designer for a few years. After I got hit with the layoffs, I decided now was the best time ever to start making my own studio, and now we’re here after 2 years!
Oops! You’re The Hero!
Oops! You’re The Hero! A top-down fantasy RPG puts you in the shoes of a thief who steals an artefact that accidentally makes him a hero. You’ll have to choose whether to fight or avoid the bosses who have sworn to defeat you on your accidental quest, and return the artefact before more shenanigans befall you.
Features:
- 💚Exploration of a fantasy world where YOU are the target
- ⚔️Combat with massive monsters who rule their biome and offer a challenge with their abilities
- 📖Story-rich narrative that blends humour and attitude
- 🧭Different paths that offer fights or flights, depending on your bravery
- 🔵A little dude who follows you everywhere
- 🐑 Flying sheep
What inspired you to create Oops! You’re the Hero!?
I actually started the concept after I had finished Girls Make Games in high school. I was in a mythology class at the time, and the ‘Chosen One’ trope was something we were going over. I remember wanting to make a character who rejected that notion, and their whole goal was to just get rid of the title, rather than come to the eventual ‘acceptance’ phase that most Chosen Ones go through.
The game originally was going to be more like old Pokémon games, with a top-down pixel look and turn-based combat. As the years went by and I gained more experience developing and working in-engine, I switched it over to how it plays now.
With our site having a mental health focus, I wonder what games you play to escape?
I think it depends on my mood and how I’m looking to feel while I’m playing it. If I want to be more relaxed, I play Fields of Mistria, which I’m currently obsessed with. If I want to feel clever, I jump into Arkane’s Prey for its ‘think outside the box’ mentality that you get to have in their games. But if I need a reminder of my roots, and want to feel the most like me, I go back to Metal Gear 5: Phantom Pain. That’s the game that inspired me to start making games in the first place, and really grounds me when I need an inspirational pick-me-up.
If there is one thing you could say to aspiring game developers, what would it be?
If you’re going to make something, make it unabashedly you. Make it messy, choppy,
unfinished, whatever you want to do – just make sure you’re a part of it. We live in an age of ‘products’ and consumerism where everything has to be marketed a specific way and hit specific metrics to be considered ‘successful’, but that’s not why we make games. We make them because we have some creative force inside us telling us we have to! So try crazy ideas, pick apart your favourite things and add them, even if they don’t make sense. Even if you have to go through a hundred projects to find the one that is the most ‘you’, that’s all right. A great inspiration of mine once said, ‘It’s like a journey. Sometimes you have to jump from idea to idea, just to get to that one that you really are burning to bring to life’. So don’t listen to people who say there’s only one way to do this, that you have to hit specific milestones by a certain time, and remember there’s more to you than just games. Find inspiration in other things, step away from the games and figure out who you are. Your ideas will fall into place after that.
A huge thank you to Kit and the Artificium Games team for showing us their upcoming title, Oops! You’re The Hero! If you are interested in the game and want to play the demo, you can learn more about it on Steam HERE. If you want to know more about Artificium Games, you can find them HERE. Oops! You’re The Hero! Fully releases on September 16th 2026.
