Hi everyone! We spoke a few weeks ago about our commitment to not being an online casino, but we wanted to take that a bit further and talk a bit more about why we’re so against it.
In 2015, Sam was playing Mass Effect 3 with his friends, most of whom ended up joining Dogwood Gaming at some point. Mass Effect 3 had a HORRIBLE microtransaction economy. They finally added multiplayer, which was a lot of fun, but they locked so much of the content behind lootboxes in a largely single player game. That was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back where we said we were going to make our own games and we would never be that predatory.
In a game like Always Bet on Quack especially, we don’t want this to be a game that drains you. Our philosophy has always been that if you build a good game that you take care of, you’ll have a dedicated audience that will support it. There is no reason to bleed your players dry, that doesn't foster a good community.
So what expenses can you expect in Always Bet on Quack? The game will have a base cost when it comes out, but we’re aiming to keep that number so that it covers our server costs. Ultimately, the money that comes in from Always Bet on Quack will first go to paying for the servers and ensuring players can log on for the foreseeable future, after that everything goes to the developers. Which leads me to our plans for extra content. Additional content for Always Bet on Quack will always be free, once you buy the game you’ll receive all of the next updates so you’ll be able to sports bet with everyone on day one. With each major content release, we wanted to release a “Supporter Pack” which would be a couple extra special skins and artwork done by the art team working on that expansion. Our goal is to work with and highlight an artist’s work for each content release, so there will be a special pack with each one.
Even that came with a lot of discussions, was it fair? Did we exclude game changing content? We have to have this conversation because we never want to take advantage of our players (this is why duck casinos are different from normal casinos!).
Let us know what you think! This is something we’re still exploring ourselves and I hope we’ll be able to talk with all of you as development continues. If you’d like to follow along and support development, wishlisting the game on Steam is the best way to stay informed and help us reach more people! If you’d like to stay in touch with us directly, please feel free to join our Discord: