Hello, everyone. This is not so much a site update as it is an update on the status of Strudel Cafe’s development.
We, the developers, strive to put out consistent updates to keep our players engaged and happy. Even during the ongoing pandemic, we have tried to keep moving with as little pause as possible. Over the years, we have adhered to strict release dates. Our members have come to expect monthly events and updates, and we have felt immense pressure to keep up with this demand. We have been so focused on plowing forward and providing a gaming experience that can bring joy to our players, that we have burnt ourselves out in the process, with no room to slow down and breathe. We have no intention of ever giving up on the website, and we are constantly planning out future features, but now more than ever, we would like to ask our players for empathy and patience.
Strudel Cafe is a passion project being created and maintained by only three self-taught developers and a handful of volunteers that help the community keep running. We are not professionals, and all of us have full-time commitments outside of the website. With the pandemic failing to slow down, our lives have been affected in numerous ways. We are struggling to keep up with the tight deadlines and deliver the best quality products while also being able to make a living off of our other jobs. We feel honored to be compared to sites as large as Subeta or Neopets, but please realize that behind those websites are entire staffs of dedicated artists and developers. Strudel Cafe operates solely off of the volunteer labor of three developers, two paid staff members, and community volunteers. It is unfortunately not as simple as adding more staff to our team. At the end of the day, Strudel Cafe is a free website that generates little to no income. We do not run ads, and hosting is covered by what little is brought in by our team’s Patreon. While we would love to bring aboard more staff members to help with our project’s development, it is simply not feasible with our budget.
We have read the messages from our members in the suggestion box and servers, and though we have not had the time to address them, we take all feedback received into consideration. As self-taught artists and coders, we rely on the feedback of our members to steer our game in the right direction. However, some of the “feedback” we have received has been neither constructive or kind. We understand that some of our members may have felt disappointed in recent events, and we regret to hear that. However, the hostility towards our team is unwarranted and unappreciated. We implore you to remember that this is a free game.
After much discussion, we have decided to shift gears. We will be focusing our priorities on lasting projects and site updates rather than one-time events. Our team will no longer be adhering to strict deadlines, or making promises as to when large updates will be released. With only three developers, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to predict how quickly we can complete larger projects (namely, Magic School and the King’s Cavern area.) We have planned out some events to get us through the remainder of the year. These will be our recurring annual events, such as Enlightened, Shipwrecked, and the Advent.
Over the past four years, we have consistently listened to the feedback of our members and strived to create a free game that can make people happy. If you would like to support the website and its developers to help us create new content, please consider supporting our Patreon. We have worked hard to introduce games and events to create a memorable experience and loving community. We hope that these past few years have earned us the trust of our players to know that we will continue to do our best for this site, even if updates are not announced with concrete deadlines.
