{"id":1358,"date":"2025-05-02T10:26:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2025-09-20T10:04:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T10:04:36","slug":"rise-of-the-village-hero-new-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/2025\/05\/02\/rise-of-the-village-hero-new-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise of the Village Hero – New Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey everyone!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m incredibly proud to share that Rise of the Village Hero<\/em> has reached a significant milestone: 500 wishlists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a long, challenging road since launching the game in early access\u2014and often, a lonely one. Some of you might know that I had just come out of university when I released the game. I was a two-time court medalist and graduated with a first-class degree in Computer Games Development, but I was still very much a newcomer. In fact, I launched my business in November 2023 while still finishing my degree, and the game followed just two months later, in January 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post isn\u2019t a rant\u2014it\u2019s a reflection on how far things have come, and how much it took to get here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start, I tried everything to secure funding and support\u2014but doors kept closing. I even remember reaching out to a grant provider, explaining how I just needed a small amount to cover basic costs for the month. All I received were rejections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People saw me as high risk. Maybe they thought I\u2019d take the money and never finish the game? I don\u2019t know. All I\u2019ve ever wanted\u2014and still want\u2014is to support my family through my craft, to pay some bills, and build a life doing what I love. It should be simple, right? But it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no support\u2014for development, for marketing, for basic costs\u2014nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went through some tough moments, feeling completely alone, unsure how to move forward with slow sales and little outside encouragement. But I put on my big boy pants and told myself: if no one else is going to help me, I\u2019ll help myself. It\u2019s my dream, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started reaching out to people\u2014maybe even pestering a few. Brian from SGN wrote an article early on. It didn\u2019t cause a big wave, but it was something\u2014my game had been written about. Then Indie Games EU gave me feedback that was tough to hear at the time, but it gave me something to work with. I kept going, day after day, every hour I could spare. No pay. No support. Just belief in the game, in my studio, and in my vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to January 2025\u2014many months later\u2014and things started to shift. Content creators were making videos. People were enjoying the game. Some found it different, even difficult\u2014and that was okay. I can\u2019t please everyone. I learned that too. What mattered was that people were finally playing and talking about it. Maybe not in huge numbers, but it was something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I kept going. And in March 2025, I reached the finish line. Rise of the Village Hero<\/em> hit version 1.0. I told the story the way I wanted to, and I finished it to the best of my ability. It\u2019s been heartening to see little spikes of interest since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, I\u2019ll share a proper postmortem with the lessons I\u2019ve learned from this journey\u2014but for now, I just want to take a moment to be grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those who turned me away\u2014thank you. That rejection gave me the drive to keep going.
To those who believed in me\u2014thank you. Your encouragement meant the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife and son were my biggest supporters, and I love them. Without their belief in me, I may have given up.
To those who bought the game\u2014you\u2019ve given me hope that this dream is still worth chasing.
And to everyone who shared a kind word, liked a post, joined the Discord, or helped in any way\u2014you\u2019ve helped more than you realise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, my small studio has a completed commercial game, and I\u2019m hard at work on the second one: Path to Serenity<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re out there building something without a safety net\u2014keep going<\/strong>. You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you at the next post.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hey everyone! I\u2019m incredibly proud to share that Rise of the Village Hero has reached a significant milestone: 500 wishlists. It\u2019s been a long, challenging road since launching the game in early access\u2014and often, a lonely one. Some of you might know that I had just come out of university […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,25],"tags":[47,44,45,21,32],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rise-of-the-village-hero","category-studio-updates","tag-riseofthevillagehero","tag-rpgactiongame","tag-rpgtopdowngame","tag-studionews","tag-rise-of-the-village-hero-steam-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1361,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luduspaxstudios.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}