Little Bear Update

Hello everyone. I’m Rareș from the Bear team and this is a little end of the year update about Bear and Breakfast and the people behind it.

We’ve been keeping quiet these past weeks and months, and like last time, I’d like to apologize for the radio silence. It’s been hard to focus on anything other than the ongoing issues we’ve been facing.

About the team:

It's been a year since we first posted about the serious health issues that our team is facing, namely our lead artist having been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. For the three of us, confronting this situation has been difficult.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a positive update to share at this time. We’re still dealing with the consequences of the disease affecting our colleague, friend and loved one as best we can while trying to keep a steady workflow and positive outlook.

About the game:

Work on Bear and Breakfast, its upcoming update, future plans for both the game and the studio as a whole have all been affected. The pace at which we’ve been able to work on the promised features has been impacted, and while we continue to push through this, the game is still being updated with fixes for bugs and issues that you've been reporting (thank you).

I wish I could offer a more in-depth update on our situation, but that’s all that I can share at the moment. Once we’re past this difficult time, I hope I’ll be able to go into more details.

Hank Hoodie!

In case you missed it, we just announced a new campaign through Makeship for the Hank Hoodie! They’ve been excellent to work with for our past Plushie campaigns, and this hoodie has been in the works for a long time. As before, the Hank hoodie will only exist if the campaign goal is reached, so grab one if you feel like having a cozy friend with you everywhere.

It’s very soft, the ears are embroidered and it has a little tail!

It’s truly the most adorable way to keep yourself cozy through the cold harshness of reality. While wearing clothes in public is optional for bears, it's unfortunately frowned upon for you, so get the next best thing to a grizzly coat of fur, the Hank Hoodie!

Grab one here! bear.game/hoodie

The Game

As before, our support team (thank you Tass) and Andu have been keeping tabs on bug reports and putting out patches semi-regularly. Recently, we’ve just pushed a big patch with all recent fixes to the Switch and Playstation versions of the game.

Your ongoing support is very valuable to us, regardless if you’re just finding the game now or have been a friend of the bear for a while, your messages and presence is felt and very appreciated.

Winter Sale

If you’re just finding out about the adorable Bear game for the first time, or have been on the fence waiting for a discount, I’m happy to report that today marks the start of our deepest discount yet, 50% off during the Steam Winter Sale as well as comparable promotions on most of our other platforms, including the Nintendo Switch!

Here’s an update to our last Frequently Asked Questions:

FAQ

When’s the game update coming?

Given the current development of our situation, we’re not comfortable making another promise for a timeline if we’re not 100% we can keep our word. It will be ready when it’s ready. We know how excited some of you are about more content and story for the game, we hope to be able to deliver this soon. Thank you for understanding.

What’s gonna be in it?

New Story Content, picking up where the original game left off
New Areas, New Hotels, New Furniture and New Characters
A new and more flexible sandbox style Game Mode
It will be available for free on all platforms where you can currently find the game

Why is it taking so long?

Small team dealing with major health issues, causing slower development.

Why not just hire more people?

That was the plan until we got the bad news.

When the game launched, our core team consisted of me (game/studio director), Ioana (art director) and Andu (lead programmer) as the three full-time employees (plus a handful of contracted members, which are invaluable to us and the game, but were not permanent team members). We were looking to expand the core team, keep updating Bear and Breakfast as well as start working on our next game in tandem.

Ioana’s diagnosis meant that both her and myself, two leads, were suddenly unavailable, or at best, unreliable. Hiring new people in this environment would be irresponsible, as well as unfair to any new team members, who would need to be onboarded and who deserve a proper manager and team to work with.

End of FAQ

Speaking frankly

Every time I’ve had to write one of these updates, I’m filled with a mix of guilt and humility. On one hand, I’m incredibly grateful for the amount of support we’ve received from all of you over the years, despite a lack of updates and communication recently. On the other hand I’m very conscious about the promises we’ve made and never wanting to let it seem like we take this support for granted. It’s through your love that we’re able to navigate this very difficult part of our life, and it’s honestly bitter-sweet.

Ioana, our lead artist, wearing the incredible Hank Hoodie!

Despite everything, we keep going because of all of you. Thank you for being here.

Thank u, love u

- Rares from the bear team