Pri, here! I'm the Creative Director of Forage Friends and CEO of Pie Trap Studios. It’s been too long since we’ve touched base, and we appreciate the love and support you’ve shown us.
What have you been up to?
I believe our last big update was describing our experiences with Seattle’s Sakura Con back in Spring. We’ve met new and inspiring folks there, friends and fans that we regularly chat with on our Discord server and broke some records selling our wonderful themed tea by Friday! We are booked to come back next year and hope to see you then!
As beautiful of a time it was, we’ve faced challenges and hardships since the beginning of the year. Concerns of direction and lack of resources resulted in difficult decisions that resulted in restructuring of the team and the development process. On top of that, the looming state of the gaming industry itself had us all losing sleep. Several wonderful game studios have closed their doors, with their teams disbanded. Publishing companies and investor funding put on freeze. The future was looking very gloom and doom.
As a studio, we have lost a handful of folks along the way, but work hard to maintain the integrity of Forage Friends and Pie Trap Studios. We reduced our output and slowed down development to financially fortify the studio as we weather the storm of one of the biggest recessions in the gaming industry we’ve seen. We remind folks that Forage Friends is completely self-funded by our indie company. Until we secure additional funding from a partner we trust is aligned with our vision for Forage Friends, the development’s cadence will fluctuate as we constantly balance company stability. We thank you for your patience and understanding towards making this into the game you all deserve.
Gosh, that seems intense. How are things going now?
Pretty great, actually! Over the last few months we’ve managed to pick ourselves back up to a place of new and promising direction! We’ve hired a wonderful Senior Designer who is just as excited about making a positive impact on our player’s real world lives as we are. We’ve made some great partners helping us with organization and smoother output. We are starting to really see where we can find more narrative opportunities with our beloved characters. We’re relieved that some of the dark clouds have lifted and things are starting to get very exciting!
That’s amazing! Any updates for the future?
Glad you asked!
We are starting to prototype new features to test out in the game. These include a questing system, weather, horoscopes, companion gifting, new collectables and crafting!
We’ll be adding some fun and free content for our community, including Desmond’s cocktails, mocktails and other creative dishes from his secret recipe book!
Because of our financial situation, we’ve had to bow out of all conventions for the rest of the year. This includes GeekGirlCon, Bellingham Comicon and Grit City Comicon. However, we are still booked for Sakura Con 2025 and hopefully things will be in a better spot for us to resume the convention circuit next year!
Speaking of finances, we’ll be shopping around for funding opportunities, such as publishers or other forms of investment. Please spread the hype about our game to let them know this is something the people want!
On that note, we will also be rolling out some community options for fans that are interested in helping out. We’ll be setting up Discord tiers that will be available for those who want to subscribe for some extra perks that would include access to special channels and online events, new emojis, animated emojis, sample chapters, shop discounts and more!
We’ll be rolling out further details in the very near future, so stay tuned!
I know this was a bit of a long write up, but thanks for taking the time to read. Your support means so much to us and we will continue to work hard developing a game that represents health, well-being and friendship. Yours truly, Pri
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