I’m not going to pretend I’m not nervous writing this. Excited too, obviously, but mostly just… a lot.

This game started as a “what if” back when I was 5 or 6. My dad’s a self-taught electrical engineer and we’ve always been into technology together, so games and tech were just part of how I grew up. Fast forward to 28, working full time as a User Researcher, and I finally decided to actually test whether I could pull off making a game myself. No team, no publisher, just me, Unreal Engine, and a lot of evenings and weekends.

The pharmacy sim loop draws inspiration from games like Arcane Library, and the pharmaceutical/health angle comes from years of research work I’ve done around digital health and health technologies in my day job. It felt like a natural thing to build a game around, even if I didn’t plan it that way at the time.

I got so deep into actually making the game that I genuinely didn’t think about sharing progress until I was nearly done. I’d just look up one day and realise, oh, I’ve actually made a game. I’m enjoying playing it. Maybe other people will too.

So here we are.

I’ll be honest, I’m going in with open eyes. This is my first release, I’m learning the Steam process as I go, and there will be bugs and rough edges I haven’t caught yet. That’s where you come in. If something feels off, unclear, or just not fun, please tell me. I read everything, and I’ll be working on fixes and improvements based on what you find.

Thank you for giving a solo dev project a chance. I hope you have fun in the pharmacy.

— Sophie, Middlewood Studio