Hello all!
As you all already know, we have always wanted BitCraft Online to be a free-to-play game in the final release, in order to make it as accessible to as many people as possible.
In order to be able to launch BitCraft Online out of Beta/Steam Early Access and into a full release we need to begin selling more cosmetics and skins to test our free-to-play monetization plans for the game. Selling skins and other cosmetics is critical to the game’s long-term viability and for its continuing development. Thus far those cosmetics have been restricted solely to the empire system via the Hexite Shards (more fun stuff to come here too, I know a lot of you have been asking for things like empire banners), but we’d like to start selling character scale cosmetics as well.
In accordance with our monetization philosophy, it will still be the case that clothing, skins, decorations, pets, and other cosmetics which are earnable only through playing the game, will not be purchasable directly from our store. For example, skill outfits in BitCraft. It would be pretty lame (and defeat the purpose) if you could just buy them from us. Of course, while not all cosmetics will be items/tradeable, if an item is tradeable that doesn’t prevent you from buying it from another player for in-game currency or items.
However, we also want to sell some fun cosmetics and decorations to players so they can make their characters and settlements fit their vision for what they want in the game, while also supporting the development of the game.
We’d like to try out selling our first cosmetic in-game this Halloween, and it’s a fun one! We will shortly be introducing a new cat pet for you all! Most of the cats will be acquireable in-game, but on October 31st we are going to be selling a single-run, Pumpkin cat skin, inspired by my own orange pet cat, Pumpkin!
We will be selling Pumpkin from October 31st, 2025 - November 6th, 2025, HOWEVER we have decided to bring him back at least another time after the full-release of the game to give players who have spent their in-game shards a chance to purchase Pumpkin without needing to purchase more shards now. If you are in that situation you can either buy more shards and buy him now, or wait for full release. This ensures that anyone who purchased the beta on Steam will be able to get Pumpkin without buying more shards.
Importantly, if you buy this cosmetic he will be added to your Hub account which will persist after the wipe! All Hub account items will be granted to your character after the full-release wipe, so if he’s in your Hub account, you will get him back after the wipe!
We decided that it would be too confusing and just generally not a great experience to purchase a cosmetic for just the Beta period. Likewise, we’ve decided to disable trading for Pumpkin for the duration of the Beta, although Pumpkin will be tradeable in the full release of the game. Players will not be limited in the number of Pumpkins they can purchase, as we do not want to encourage people to create multiple accounts to buy multiple Pumpkin skins.
We thought this would be a fun way to introduce the cat pets while giving those of you who are fans of my cat Pumpkin to buy something fun and very thematic for Halloween!
Pumpkin will be 7,500 Hexite shards and will be purchasable in game on October 31st, 2025. Be sure to log in if you want the chance to buy him!
Hope you all have a spooky Halloween, and check out our Halloween event!
Sincerely,
3Blave (Tyler, Cofounder of Clockwork Labs)