Upstairs is out now, thank you for the amazing response

Hi everyone!

Upstairs came out two days ago, and the response has already gone way beyond my expectations. Thanks a lot to everyone who’s played it, and also to those who took the time to share their thoughts. Reading them has been both surreal and very appreciated.

I was a bit worried about the tone. The game swings between pretty dark stuff and silly comedy, and I wasn’t sure if that mix would land. Luckily, it seems like you’ve all picked up on the humor exactly as intended, which is honestly a relief.

This project started about a year ago as a continuation of Juan Miguel in the City, a small, short game I made in 2020 while learning how to make games. I eventually dropped the idea of making a direct sequel because I wanted Upstairs to be a more self-contained experience. Still, the protagonist from that game shows up at the beginning, he’s the trigger of the story, and sticks around with the Upstairs protagonist for most of the game.

I made this game mainly because of the joy of making a point-and-click adventure. I didn’t really expect to make money from it. Honestly, even if just one person had played it, I would’ve been fine with that. So seeing so many people pick it up in two days is kind of wild.

I’ve already started thinking about my next project, which will be much bigger and more ambitious science fiction story. These past couple of days have made me realize something interesting: if Upstairs turns out to be a success, that will motivate me a lot to move forward. But if it ends up falling short, that will also push me to improve on whatever didn’t work here. So either way, it’s a win-win situation.

For now, I’m not planning any patches, since the game seems to be quite stable. However, I am considering releasing some free extra content later on, like the soundtrack or some concept sketches of the environments and characters.

Thanks again for playing, and for embracing the darkness (and the bad jokes).

Jaime