This is the second part of a recent Pidro newsletter. It got some nice replies, and I thought it would be fun to share here.
Hello Pidro friends,
Marcel here again. Yesterday, I told you how Pidro started on a small island in Thailand with a simple idea: bring this beloved card game online so everyone could play.
Today, I want to share what happened next—the good, the bad, and why we’re more fired up than ever to make Pidro the best it can be.
When Pidro first launched, it was a hit. Players loved it. But as more and more people joined, the cracks started to show.
The codebase we bought turned out to be... let’s just say, less than ideal. Fixing it felt like trying to replace parts of a car engine while it’s speeding down the highway—every tweak risked breaking something else.
As much as we loved Pidro, the financial results weren’t what we’d hoped. With families to support and bills to pay, we switched to “firefighting mode,” patching only the most critical issues and holding the game together with duct tape.
At one point, Jocke joined the team. He brought some fresh ideas, especially on the marketing side, but it wasn’t enough to break us out of the rut we’d fallen into. There were still too many issues, and the momentum we’d built early on was slipping away.
Eventually, Tommy stepped away from the project. He’s still a great friend, but today, the team is me, Antti, Jocke, and my wife Monika, who helps with game testing and support.
It was hard. Knowing we couldn’t give Pidro the time and care it deserved was heartbreaking.
Then, last spring, we hit a turning point.
As a team, we sat down and made a decision. We could let Pidro stay as it was, or we could dig in and rebuild it, step by step.
We chose to rebuild.
Since then, we’ve focused on steady progress. Not flashy updates, but constant improvements:
- Fixing the basics.
- Improving stability.
- Listening to you, the players.
It hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t been fast. But we’ve stuck with it.
And here we are today: Antti, Jocke, Marcel, and Monika.
We’re working hard to make Pidro the game it deserves to be. Better AI players, replacing dropped players, and introducing a Pedro play mode are all on the horizon.
This amazing community makes it all worth it.
Published