Summary of 2021

Hello everyone!

Now is the time for our annual letter, in which we recount the results of this year, as well as our plans for the next year. For all those who are interested in how we will develop further, we recommend reading it. We will also be glad to receive various suggestions and, of course, your support. As for the holiday...

We wish you a Happy New Year! Stefan, Richard and Simon wish you pleasant emotions, lots of gifts and good health!

See you in 2022, woof-woof! Awoof!
Happy New Year!!!

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Results of 2021

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Hello, everyone, Bertran here, founder of Strong & Furry.
An annual letter with the results of the year is now becoming a kind of tradition, so why not? Sit back, because it's time to summarize the 2021!

This year was very difficult for us, in the sense that we all worked really hard on the development of "Run, Kitty!" and, luckily, we've finished it. Once again, I want to congratulate everyone on the release, because this is a huge achievement. Due to how many problems there were during development (just think, you've been waiting for three years!), it's a real miracle that the game is finally out! Hooray-hooray!

We've received very warm and lovely reviews from the players - you really liked the game and it's great! Of course, since this is only the first game, there are some drawbacks - it's impossible to make everything perfect.

I understand that you wanted a longer game, more content, but the fact that the first game turned out to be so short was originally planned, and in general, everything worked out that way. This was the first experience that showed that we successfully reached the end, despite the many problems that arose in process. So all the names that you see at the end of the game in the credits - they all took part in it in some way during the three years of development.
If you tell someone how long it took, not everyone will believe it. Or many will be surprised, they'd ask, why did this happen? But the reasons have not changed, and they are still the same - budget, experience, free time.

There was a huge amount of experience this year. With such a baggage of past events, I will now be able to better plan tasks, allocate resources, and manage the budget competently. However, all the fun is yet to come!

You wanted to know our plans for the next year, right? Also, are you wondering how "Run, Kitty!" is doing in sales?
The upcoming plans can upset someone, and make someone happy, so in any case, I hope for your understanding in this matter!

Due to the fact that all efforts were thrown into the completion of the development of the game, I had no resources left for advertising component at all, so in this case I had to rely on organic traffic from Steam, ITCH, as well as your feedback and recommendations.
The game is selling well, thanks for your support! We will participate in various sales, and also soon plan to publish the game in other digital stores - Nutaku, JAST, FAKKU (we have already appeared in the latter!).

It is too early to talk about payback, but in the long run it will surely happen. Therefore, we ask your help to tell more about our game! Recommend it on Steam, repost and like us on Twitter, draw fan art and more. It will be very cool and will also help more people learn about the game.

In connection with all of the above, our priority for the next year is the development of Patreon, as well as an emphasis on the advertising campaign.

Since we already have a commercial product released, we will advertise it in a variety of ways besides your word of mouth support. Here, of course, everything depends on the budget very much, so the development of Patreon has been put as the following key point.

If you remember, we have Gumroad, where we sell all our art packs that were monthly Patreon rewards.
In the coming year, the return of the VIP-arts that we made is waiting for you. This means that we will focus on drawing hot art with your favorite boys, yes. And don't worry, Stefan will be among them too :)

You can expect the next art-pack sometime in March this year, as they also take time to create. We will be releasing them every two months starting in March 2022. At least we will try. If something changes, we will promptly notify you about it.

What about the new game, you ask?
Of course, there are ideas. And I would love to start developing it now, but there are some things worth discussing.

1. Budget
The next game is planned to be longer than the first game. There will also be only two characters to keep us within the bounds and not jump over our heads (you need to start small, do not forget - jumping right off the bat is very stupid). Nevertheless, there will be more art and more plot, and it is simply not possible to maintain the quality mark without an appropriate budget.
The development of Patreon might be one of the solutions to this problem, which includes the marketing of this very Patreon and the game. I also think about Kickstarter, which is quite a good idea! Since we already have a released project, there is also trust.

2. Planning
Before starting development, you need to plan everything correctly. This is not only the budget for the game itself, it is also content for it that needs to be done within the limited amount of time - backgrounds, music, art, code, and more. To do this, you need not only to calculate the amount of content, but also not to screw up the deadlines. This follows from working with a trusting team, which also takes time to build. Simply put, it's not that simple.
During the development of "Run, Kitty!", due to the first experience, the planning was not the best, in connection with which it was necessary to literally redo whole backgrounds for art and do some things at the last moment. Such was the coincidence that it was horrifying. But starting with the next game, I will try to prevent this from happening.

3. General feeling

This is one of the most overlooked weaknesses in indie teams. In fact, this is terrible, but it is very important. It's about morale.
I recommend that you do not engage in any business with the development of the game until you improve your physical and mental health. You can mess things up, and then it will be too late to fix anything.
I have not yet recovered my condition, and in fact, I will work on it for the next year, and will not be involved in project management. The development of Patreon and the marketing of the game are the things that I will be able to do, because they do not require as much effort as the development of the game itself and the process of its production.

Phew... Difficult, huh? That's why you should not wait for the news about the second game any time soon. Of course, there will be some concepts, but we can't talk about the production for now. It will be reckless to make the same mistake twice.

But you shouldn't worry about all of that - new wonderful and hot boys, which we'll draw with our artist, will be waiting for you :)

Finally, the content you've been waiting for, right?
So, further Patreon development in the upcoming year - is the best decision for our future development as a team.

Woof. This is the main topic I wanted to tell you. Thank you for reading this until the end. I think you understand our plans for 2022 better now. We are not leaving anywhere, we just shifter our priorities to the more important ones.
We need the time to grow into big, strong doggies. I am really determined, so watch us getting stronger, awoof~
Well, Stephan won't let us lie to you. What nice things will he bring to you as Patreon rewards, hm?

And while you fantasize, I want to wish you a Happy New Year! I wish you to be happy, healthy (especially morally) and to find a big strong boy for yourself :)

See you next year, doggies! Woof!

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For our Patreon followers: there will be no Development Blog and VIP Blog in January and February of 2022.
There will be a VIP reward waiting for you in March, so you can come back to us and support us. We will also think about what nice things we can offer you now that the game has been released. If you have the ideas of what you'd like (within reasonable limits), then don't be shy and write in the comments! Thank you!

Happy New Year, guys! Woof!