2024 Recap: A Year of Learning and Growth at Faes AR

What a year it has been for Faes AR. As we reflect on the past 12 months, we are filled with gratitude for the candor and feedback of our community and the journey we've embarked on together. 

First and foremost, we want to thank you for your patience during our period of relative quiet this fall. Behind the scenes, we've had a lot of change—most notably, Jesse has departed from the ARaura and the Faes AR team. Jesse played a crucial role in our journey up to the Level One Kickstarter, and we're grateful for all his contributions. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors and look forward to building upon the foundation he helped create. Meanwhile, Connor and I have been extraordinarily busy with our market validation process and setting up the necessary infrastructure to relaunch Faes AR. 

This period has allowed us to rethink our approach and establish a method for gathering feedback and implementing quick iterations based on your priorities. We're now poised to work more closely with our community to shape the future of Faes AR in a way that better meets your needs and enhances your gaming experience. We are learning.

Here are some of the highlights from 2024:

**** Launch of the Alpha Version

We are thrilled to announce that we successfully completed the alpha version of Faes AR and launched it to hundreds of users. Your feedback has been invaluable, and we are committed to making the app even better as we move forward.

**** The Level One Collection Kickstarter

In an effort to expand our offerings, we launched a Kickstarter campaign for our in-house set of AR items titled "The Level One Collection." However, after careful consideration, we decided to withdraw the campaign as it did not resonate with our community as we had hoped. This experience taught us important lessons about aligning our products with your needs.

**** Market Validation and Community Engagement

Recognizing the importance of understanding our users, we joined Concordia University's innovation incubator, D3. Throughout the fall, we conducted one-on-one conversations with over 75 Game Masters and 25 players from all over the world to validate the market need for AR in online TTRPG sessions. The insights we gained were stellar and are shaping our future development. Stay tuned for a more detailed post on this topic and a heartfelt thank you to all those who took the time to talk to us.

**** Partnerships

We are excited to share that we have begun engaging in conversations with various publishers for potential partnerships. These collaborations could open up new opportunities for Faes AR and enhance your gaming experience.

**** Building on Patreon

As part of our commitment to growing alongside our community, we have started setting up our Patreon site, which will be launching soon. This platform will allow us to support a free version of the app by early January and involve you in discussions about what features to build next. We can't wait to hear your ideas!

We are now out of our crazy-busy period validating your needs and preferences with the 100 interviews; we are now ready to rejoin the world/come up for air starting with our weekend at PAXU in Philadelphia. It was so great to meet up with folks, talk to publishers and spread the word of what we are up to and make connections. The TTRPG world is inspiring and welcoming!

Thank you for your patience as we work towards relaunching Faes AR. Your support means everything to us! Looking ahead into 2025, we are excited to continue developing our studio to support the app and our new in-house 3D artist. We have big plans and can't wait to share them with you.

More updates are coming soon! Happy holidays and happy gaming to all!