As I’ve been discussing with the active community on Discord (join it if you haven’t already!), I’ve been approached by a company called OKLetsPlay who are looking for games to incorporate their LetsBet integration, which in basic terms allows players to arrange matches with others and bet on the outcome.

What’s interesting about LetsBet is how it is using skill based betting (which isn’t gambling because chance is not part of the outcome) without trying to shove it down the throats of the people who play the game. OKLP has been especially great about answering my questions, and providing all the information I can share with you guys. They are also aware that transparency is very important to an open source community like ours.

Some excerpts from their introduction email:

The integration itself is entirely on the back-end of the game: we let the Red Eclipse back-end know when there’s a match between two players and you let us know when the match is being played and who won. We don’t operate within the UI of the game and players who aren’t interested in betting don’t even need to know it’s supported.

We will be hosting tournaments, integrating with Twitch, Hitbox, and other streams, and use cross-game promotion to bring even more users into Red Eclipse.

We have no interest in buying out Red Eclipse or taking anything over. Red Eclipse will remain free, open source, and under your control. Our integration is very light! However, we can bring in additional users, keep them engaged, and provide you with a significant increase in monthly revenue.

They’ve also provided me with a developer presentation which can be shared with the public, should anyone be interested in their overall plan and reasoning: LetsBet Presentation Deck Oct 15.pdf

I know what you’re probably thinking, “Has Quin sold out?”, and I have to answer that with a profound “NO”. People who are familiar with Red Eclipse know that it has been my project for over ten years now, and I’ve never really been motivated by monetary gain. I’m happy with our game and our community, and I want to assure you that this will not impact negatively on the game you know and love. You won’t be spammed, and you won’t be lured into spending money when playing the game normally.

Money, hot topic, I know. I can disclose that I will be getting paid for my time writing the integration, and if everything works out there will be an ongoing revenue stream. From the feedback I’ve gotten so far, people seem happy for me to see some gain from this, considering my long term dedication in keeping the project fully free and open source, but it is something I want to put out there and make sure everyone is aware of.

So what’s involved? There’s some prep work I’ll have to do before starting on the integration which will mostly consist of:

• Improving the server’s ability to referee matches in order to mitigate cheating (biggest job).

• Implementing an SSO/OpenID endpoint for Red Eclipse accounts.

• Replacing randomness with more skill based elements (which I was already doing anyway).

• Preparing the master server for things like intercommunication, matchmaking, etc.

Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, concerns, and/or suggestions. If I can’t provide an answer for something I will try to get one for you if appropriate. Heck, I might even be able to rent proper servers finally.