Hey there Robocrafters,
We're continuing our look at the new content coming to Robocraft this month in the planned Infinity Update; today we're going to take a peek behind the curtains and talk a bit about the new Item Shop and why not everything is free in a free-to-play game like Robocraft. But before we get into the fine details of the new Item Shop, we want to talk a little bit about revenue.
Free-to-play games aren't free-to-make
Games, like books and movies, are entertainment; to many, they're distractions from the real world. To us, they're our livelihoods; they're our chosen career. Some people choose a profession in medicine, we choose to make games. This won't be a surprise to many of you, but making games costs money; and more often than not, multiplayer online games that are run as a service (like Robocraft) cost considerably more to make and maintain than say a single-player 8-bit inspired game created by one talented person in their bedroom.
Keeping the lights on
Robocraft is developed by a team of incredibly talented and hard-working individuals whom all need to be paid for their hard work - they, like many of you, have families to feed and bills to pay. So how do we keep the Robocraft lights on when it is free-to-play? With your support; through the purchase of Premium, Cosmetic Credits, and in the past, crates. We're not going to sugar-coat this, or cover anything up; crates in Robocraft kept the lights on, and without crates in the game prior to them being removed, there's a very good chance that you wouldn't be reading this now.
We're not "money hungry" or "greedy devs" as some have stated; we're keeping the game powered and alive. But things change, and your feedback regarding crates in the game combined with the attitude shift towards them in the industry resulted in them being removed back in the early part of 2018. While the removal of crates from the game was the right thing to do, it hit us hard in terms of money coming in. When one well dries up, you need to look at sourcing water from other streams to keep the hydro-powered generator running that powers Robocraft's lights.
The Item Shop
With the Infinity Update, we're looking to source water from a new stream - the Item Shop.
We're not shying away from the fact that the Robocraft Item Shop looks similar in both form and function to the shop in the incredibly popular game Fortnite. Let's be honest here, they completely nailed it and it's incredibly hard not to be inspired by it. So we're adopting a similar model; with time-based, limited availability items that are rotated on a regular basis.
The Item Shop is split into two areas:
- FEATURED - with items being rotated every 7 days
- DAILY - with items being rotated every 24 hours
We want the Item Shop to be the first place you visit when you boot up Robocraft; as some items are only there for 24 hours, you'll want to see what's there before they get swapped out. Don't worry though, as if you miss out on an item, it'll return in a later rotation.
In the Item Shop you'll be able to purchase not only cosmetic parts, flags and skins, but also you'll be able to purchase items such as Mothership Skins and a whole host of other exciting things with which to make your Robocraft unique to you. Our art team are hard at work on a number of awesome items that you'll be able to purchase from the Item Shop including special seasonal goods that will only be available for a short period of time once a year.
Remember, once you purchase something from the Item Shop, you'll have an Infinite Number to play with.
Please note that the prices in the above image are NOT FINAL and subject to change.
Robits and Cosmetic Credits
As you will see in the screenshot above, some items can be purchased with Cosmetic Credits, some with Robits, and some with Robits or Cosmetic Credits. We want to make it clear that there will always be something in the Item Shop that can be purchased with Robits on any given day. We're keen to bring you more promotional sales throughout the year and so you will find on occasions that some items are offered at a discounted price for a period of time.
Cosmetic Credit bundles can be purchased via the Store button in-game. We're also looking at ways of making the purchase of cosmetics and CC more intuitive and less 'clicky, clicky, linky, linky'.
Boost your Balance
With all parts becoming infinite, the Infinity Update will remove the recycle functionality as it will no longer be needed. So if you want to boost your Robits or Cosmetic Credits balance, we do recommend you recycle your inventory before the update to maximise your Robocraft Bank Balance. If you have five Pirate Flags, recycle four of them. Got 30 Steering Wheel Monster? Recycle five of them to take advantage of the special golden gun initiative.
Why the Infinity Update?
As developers we want to be able to deliver more cool content and fabulous features to you faster, but as we’re currently split between three very different versions of Robocraft (RC Steam/Launcher, RC Infinity on Xbox One and the F2P Robocraft Infinity in China (co-developed with Tencent)) it’s incredibly difficult for a small indie to deliver on that. So with the Infinity Update, we will be bringing all the good stuff from the Chinese version to the Steam version. This parity between the versions will allow us to deliver more new features, improvements, bug fixes and content faster.
The Infinity Update is scheduled for release in November and is Robocraft's single biggest update. As such, players should expect some issues on launch day. By working with us and reporting issues and bugs through our support system, we can fix them as quickly as possible.
Thanks as always for your continued patience and support.