Development Update | 35 000 Wishlists Reached | SECTOR ZERO Releasing Soon
Hello Everyone! It’s been a while, and I think I owe you an update! Thank you so much for your patience. I really appreciate you sticking with ARTIFICIAL all this time! The project is not abandoned.
In this update4
Full notes
Full ARTIFICIAL update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
What changed
0 fixes1 addition5 changes0 removals
Gameplay
Balance
Store
Performance
changedWhy the Long Silence?The main reason for this has been a heavy load of outsourcing work I did for other developers, along with a bit of a mental break I needed from the project. I began developing ARTIFICIAL years ago, back when my living costs were low, my experience was limited, and I seemed to have endless time on my hands. These days, my expenses are ten times higher, my responsibilities much greater, and free time and motivation aren’t exactly infinite anymore. Over the years, I’ve rebuilt large portions of the game as my skills in visuals, coding, and game design improved. That growth eventually brought me outsourcing opportunities in the industry, which is something I’m very grateful for. Thanks to those, I can pay the bills, keep my trusty 2001 VW Passat running, and, most importantly, keep making the games I love. During the heaviest outsourcing period, I realised that ARTIFICIAL was too big of a project to manage on a daily basis. To avoid running in circles, I decided to use that time to create a shorter spin-off, expanding the story of ARTIFICIAL from the perspective of The Corruption. This project became SECTOR ZERO .
addedSECTOR ZERO - Finished and PlayableYou could say that naturally, having one unfinished game, the next logical step was to have two. The good news is that SECTOR ZERO is complete and fully playable from start to finish. I am still refining some minor issues with our internal tester group and adding some quality-of-life features, but otherwise than that, the game is ready to be released. What you can expect:
changedSECTOR ZERO - Finished and Playable1 hour of core gameplay
changedSECTOR ZERO - Finished and PlayablePrice tag in the range of $2.99-$3.99
changedSECTOR ZERO - Finished and Playable[dynamiclink href=" https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352050/SECTOR_ZERO/ "]
changedARTIFICIAL - What's AheadI recently wrapped up my outsourcing work on a fantasy RTS, where I handled campaign scripting and level design. The game launched successfully, and with that behind me, I can finally dedicate much more time to my own projects. I’ll still take on some outsourcing here and there to stay afloat, but my overall workload will be 50–60% lighter. That means my main focus is now on finishing ARTIFICIAL , with a target release sometime in 2026 . One thing worth mentioning is that SECTOR ZERO and ARTIFICIAL share about 90% of their systems and codebase. So even when I wasn’t directly working on ARTIFICIAL, I was still improving it. Fixing bugs, polishing systems, and even cutting loading times by up to tenfold. If you’d like to get involved, whether it’s playtesting, speedrunning, helping with community translations, or just hanging out, join our community Discord! 🫧 - Join our Community Discord
ARTIFICIAL changes
changedThe main reason for this has been a heavy load of outsourcing work I did for other developers, along with a bit of a mental break I needed from the project. I began developing ARTIFICIAL years ago, back when my living costs were low, my experience was limited, and I seemed to have endless time on my hands. These days, my expenses are ten times higher, my responsibilities much greater, and free time and motivation aren’t exactly infinite anymore. Over the years, I’ve rebuilt large portions of the game as my skills in visuals, coding, and game design improved. That growth eventually brought me outsourcing opportunities in the industry, which is something I’m very grateful for. Thanks to those, I can pay the bills, keep my trusty 2001 VW Passat running, and, most importantly, keep making the games I love. During the heaviest outsourcing period, I realised that ARTIFICIAL was too big of a project to manage on a daily basis. To avoid running in circles, I decided to use that time to create a shorter spin-off, expanding the story of ARTIFICIAL from the perspective of The Corruption. This project became SECTOR ZERO .
addedYou could say that naturally, having one unfinished game, the next logical step was to have two. The good news is that SECTOR ZERO is complete and fully playable from start to finish. I am still refining some minor issues with our internal tester group and adding some quality-of-life features, but otherwise than that, the game is ready to be released. What you can expect:
It’s been a while, and I think I owe you an update! Thank you so much for your patience. I really appreciate you sticking with ARTIFICIAL all this time! The project is not abandoned. I had to take a short break, but I’m back to work now! In the meantime we’ve hit 35 000 Wishlists on Steam which is really crazy! ːp2cubeː To make sure you’re not bored while waiting for the final release, you’ll be getting a short story that expands the universe of ARTIFICIAL, called SECTOR ZERO, which will be releasing in the next couple of months. But first, let me explain everything in a bit more detail! Steam post image
Why the Long Silence?
The main reason for this has been a heavy load of outsourcing work I did for other developers, along with a bit of a mental break I needed from the project. I began developing ARTIFICIAL years ago, back when my living costs were low, my experience was limited, and I seemed to have endless time on my hands. These days, my expenses are ten times higher, my responsibilities much greater, and free time and motivation aren’t exactly infinite anymore. Over the years, I’ve rebuilt large portions of the game as my skills in visuals, coding, and game design improved. That growth eventually brought me outsourcing opportunities in the industry, which is something I’m very grateful for. Thanks to those, I can pay the bills, keep my trusty 2001 VW Passat running, and, most importantly, keep making the games I love. During the heaviest outsourcing period, I realised that ARTIFICIAL was too big of a project to manage on a daily basis. To avoid running in circles, I decided to use that time to create a shorter spin-off, expanding the story of ARTIFICIAL from the perspective of The Corruption. This project became SECTOR ZERO.
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SECTOR ZERO - Finished and Playable
You could say that naturally, having one unfinished game, the next logical step was to have two. The good news is that SECTOR ZERO is complete and fully playable from start to finish. I am still refining some minor issues with our internal tester group and adding some quality-of-life features, but otherwise than that, the game is ready to be released. What you can expect:
1 hour of core gameplay
2 extra hours of achievement hunting (30+ achievements)
22 minutes and 48 seconds of original soundtrack split into 7 tracks
Price tag in the range of $2.99-$3.99
There is a demo that you can play right now!
The next big milestone is Steam Next Fest in October, which will be a great opportunity for exposure. Depending on how that goes, the release window for SECTOR ZERO will be either late November 2025 or early February 2026.
I recently wrapped up my outsourcing work on a fantasy RTS, where I handled campaign scripting and level design. The game launched successfully, and with that behind me, I can finally dedicate much more time to my own projects. I’ll still take on some outsourcing here and there to stay afloat, but my overall workload will be 50–60% lighter. That means my main focus is now on finishing ARTIFICIAL, with a target release sometime in 2026. One thing worth mentioning is that SECTOR ZERO and ARTIFICIAL share about 90% of their systems and codebase. So even when I wasn’t directly working on ARTIFICIAL, I was still improving it. Fixing bugs, polishing systems, and even cutting loading times by up to tenfold. If you’d like to get involved, whether it’s playtesting, speedrunning, helping with community translations, or just hanging out, join our community Discord! 🫧 - Join our Community Discord
I’ll do my best to keep updates coming more regularly and make sure you’re in the loop as things progress. Thank you for your patience and support! it really means a lot.🙂
