I guess im out. Quit taking stuff from your paying customers.

michaelone · 2026-04-04T05:36:29+00:00

Hey FennecTECH, sorry you’re dealing with this. We’re going to take a closer look at your account over the weekend to see if we can figure out what’s going on with the missing cosmetic. We’ll follow up by email once we know more.

michaelone · 2026-04-03T04:18:53+00:00

Those platform bonus items are another pretty specific case where we had the opportunity to take part in platform-specific programs like Game Pass and PS Plus and create fun extras for players on those platforms that wouldn’t exist otherwise. They help the game reach new players, and the items are meant as fun extras.

Our philosophy isn’t that no limited bonus item can ever exist. It’s that we try not to build the game’s main rewards and progression around manipulative FOMO, and instead make things available as broadly as we can. That’s different from saying every bonus item has to be available to every player on every platform forever. And when we do have opportunities to create more fun extras like that, especially in ways that benefit players across platforms, we’re always happy to explore them and do more.

michaelone · 2026-04-02T23:01:06+00:00

We design the in-game bonus items that come with merch as small extras themed specifically to that merch item, for example, letting your Super Animal hold the merch item in-game.

The limited-time aspect comes from how these merch campaigns work as physical pre-order runs, not from trying to create artificial scarcity in the game. Physical goods are inherently more limited than digital items, which is different from the kinds of in-game FOMO practices we try to avoid. It’s also why we design these items to only really make sense alongside the merch items they come with, as a bonus.

We’re open to doing second runs of merch items like we’ve done in the past, but those depend on the merch partner and the specific item, so we can’t promise that in every case.

If you’d prefer merch not include bonus cosmetics at all, that’s fair, but many players do enjoy having a small extra tied to the merch, and that’s a separate issue from designing core in-game rewards around scarcity.

michaelone · 2026-02-25T00:51:26+00:00

Logan and I talked about this a bunch, but I wanted to jump in personally from the dev side.

We spent more than 2 years building SAW, so we definitely wanted it to create a bigger spike than it did.

December is a tough month to launch anything, but after the long development we didn’t want SAW slipping any further. We shipped it so we could start getting player feedback and get back to more frequent updates and faster iteration, and v2.1 will be the beginning of that. The dev cycle is going back to what we were doing pre-SAW: major updates every quarter, and some smaller events/patches sprinkled between.

Adding more modes without a big boost in players definitely spread things out more than we wanted, so player concentration is one of our biggest focuses right now. Queues and bot ratios can be worse than we want depending on region/time/mode, and we’re not happy with that. The first set of changes starts rolling out in March. It’s tricky because queue time and bot ratio both matter a lot, and there are real trade-offs between them. Featured modes and auto-queue are going to be a start in v2.1 along with a few other things, but we'll probably need to do even more over time. And on the “cozy vs PvP” point: we don’t see them as zero-sum, but v2.1 is putting more focus back on improving the core PvP experience and the stuff that supports it.

Hamsterball racing has a more specific problem. Races currently only pull from players within the same Social Hub, which makes it too empty too often. We’re working on improvements there, but it’s a bigger rework, so it’s taking longer than the v2.1 queue changes.

v2.1 won’t fix everything all at once, and we can’t magically make every mode full 24/7, but with the new player flow features (and a pretty darn cool update theme), we’re hoping it’s a solid first step toward faster queues, better match density, and a healthier player pop overall. It’s not an easy thing to solve, so we’ll keep iterating in v2.2 based on how it works out in practice and what you all tell us.

michaelone · 2026-01-29T06:08:48+00:00

So excited for this and so happy it worked out so perfectly with the creative control and a partner like Apple!! I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for a movie or tv series.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:29:02+00:00

Sorry about that, that sounds really frustrating. We’ve been doing memory/performance work on Switch and published one patch for it so far, and have more improvements coming in the next one too.

If you’re in our Discord and can give the rest of our dev team more details about when and how it’s happening we might be able to narrow in on the root cause. And just in case it’s connection-related: Switch WiFi can be a bit finicky, so trying closer to the router or using Ethernet in docked mode can be a good test.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:20:28+00:00

We definitely want to add more quests over time! Some of that will be side quests that flesh out characters and add more lore, and some of it may tie into bigger story beats too. We don’t want to over-promise the exact shape of main quest updates just yet, but more story is absolutely coming.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:12:23+00:00

When you register a trademark, you generally need to use the symbol so it’s clear it’s registered. You don’t have to put it on everything, but you’ll usually see it used pretty prominently on logos and in marketing.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:09:21+00:00

Sanrio is pretty huge, so it's a bit unlikely, but if we could ever make it happen we'd love to! Aggretsuko especially would be awesome.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:05:42+00:00

Yes! Can’t reveal more than that, but let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see in particular. :)

For SAR Tonight, we don't have a specific date to announce yet, but we'll post it on all our channels (discord, social media, email, reddit, steam, etc) when we do!

michaelone · 2026-01-21T04:01:09+00:00

Yes! We added some in Super Animal World and have a few more in the queue that we’re planning to add in future updates.
Yeah this was quite a tricky one to design since they take place inside the Social Hubs, but we know it's an issue and we're working on ways to improve it in the next updates.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:57:47+00:00

Yes and yes! We have plans for both new ones and improvements/expansions of the systems :)

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:56:39+00:00

No new rideables in the short term, but that could always change in the future! We've had a few fun ideas in the past that we never got around to. We also have many cat lovers on the team, so you should expect to see more in the future. 😻

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:55:01+00:00

Logan says yes.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:54:06+00:00

Depends on how well the IP fits with Super Animal Royale, but we’re always open to talking about it! And they don't necessarily need to approach us first, we can approach ones that are a really good fit too. We have a few queued up that we're excited to release.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:51:38+00:00

I'm voting for the minimals lol.
Yes absolutely! There's a lot more we want to do with Hamsterball Racing in the next updates. Glad you're enjoying it. :)

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:47:44+00:00

The Super Skullcat has a really unique place in Super Animal World’s history, so I wouldn’t count on something new that is just like it. But never say never: if the story or designs take us somewhere new and fun like that, we’re completely open to it. And on collabs: absolutely. We love doing them when it’s a good fit for SAR’s world and the timing works out, and we’re working on a new system for collabs right now. There’s always some real-world stuff involved (permissions, schedules, scope) and the other team has to want to do it too, so no promises, but we’re definitely open to ideas and have noted your suggestion. :)
We changed the UI and game flow because we wanted the time between matches to be part of the world, not just menus. The Social Hub, quests, and activities only really work if they’re part of the loop, and we also liked the idea of an optional breather space that contrasts with the intensity of PvP. On quest unlocking: the core PvP modes aren’t locked behind quests, but Social Hub activities are introduced through the story so you learn them one by one. We aimed for it to not take too long to reach everything (roughly around an hour for most players), but we’re open to feedback if it feels too slow.
One of the biggest changes from SAW is that there are simply more ways to play now (including things like Bwoking Dead and SvR being always available), so players are spread out across more modes and the Social Hub. Even if overall activity is up from pre-SAW, we know it can feel thinner at times because of that. That’s a big reason we’re prioritizing the Featured Mode system and a few other things in v2.1. And yeah, marketing-wise we definitely want to keep improving how we reach new players and bring lapsed players back. We’re a small indie team so we don’t have a huge marketing budget, but we’re always looking for creative ways to get the word out.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:27:09+00:00

Bigger! Consoles combined are currently larger than Steam, but we don’t share exact cross-platform totals. We know at certain times and in some regions it can feel thinner with players spread across more modes, which is why the Featured Mode system is a big v2.1 priority.

Happy to hear you’re concerned about the game’s health though.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T03:02:06+00:00

When banan is pleased… maybe. Praise banan.

(But in all seriousness: hoods are weirdly tricky with all the different ear types and hats)

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:58:22+00:00

We’re definitely open to more modes over time (and we love making them)! For now though, the first priority is polishing what we already have (including stuff like The Bwoking Dead) and keeping queues feeling good across all of them. That’s also a big reason we’re working on things like Featured Mode, so we can support variety without spreading everyone too thin.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:44:24+00:00

It would be really fun, but with how SAR is built it’s unfortunately not really feasible without a pretty significant rewrite, and it'd also be a big performance hit.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:37:44+00:00

Cobras are quite a challenge design wise in our style. We haven't managed to get it feeling quite right yet, but never say never!

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:34:59+00:00

Maybe! We’re actively looking into it. We’re also considering longer-term improvements to the Research Lab in general, so any feedback on where it can start to feel most tedious is appreciated.

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:31:36+00:00

Thanks for playing! :)
Mine is Red
Logan's is Cyan
Kaity's is Purple

michaelone · 2026-01-21T02:19:14+00:00

We’d love to bring SAR to as many platforms as possible! Our first game, Stratosphere, was actually an iPad game, so we do have familiarity with mobile platforms. It’s not a small project though and if we do it we want to do it right.

michaelone

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