Business Model

Descendent Studios strives to build a game that is sustainable over many years. To this end, they are exploring a number of potential revenue streams in Descent: Underground.

The Descent Intellectual Property
During the development of Ships That Fight Underground, Interplay contacted Descendent Studios to see if they wanted to brand it as a Descent game, to which they agreed. Their license allows them to make derivitive works of Descent, but cannot use any Descent assets.

Wingman has stressed that they had nothing to do with the Cease and Desist against the Sol Contingency project, and that he was still with Cloud Imperium Games at the time of the legal action.

Purchasing the Game
Descent: Underground must be purchased as a full game to play it. There is no free to play option.

Purchasing Currency
Purchasing Pallesite gems, or "pals", was rumored to be optional before fans protested and the developers removed that concept from the design. The initial reasoning was meant to serve two purposes. One, it would allow those players who do not have the time to invest in the game to obtain items in the game, and two, it would support future game development. It is rumored that some items will be available with "pals" only, however at this point the developers have explicitly stated that is not the case.

The game is not pay to win. If you purchase currency, you are not buying anything in game that will change the balance of the game.

Map Packs
Community created content is something that Wingman wants Descent: Underground to support. He sees there being community made map packs that can be submitted to Descendent Studios. If a pack passes QA, then it will be sold in the game for a "couple bucks". Descendent Studios would take a cut, while the rest would go to the map authors. It is currently unclear if you can use pallasite gems to pay for them, or if you have to use real money to buy the map packs like DLC.

Community-Built Maps
The fan community is currently at liberty to submit as many maps as they want for developers to consider for "beautification" and official entry into the game, provided they follow submission guidelines on the official Descendent Studios forums. A number of fan-made maps have already made it into the official builds, with developers creating the final art assets and map refinements.

Subscriptions
There is an optional subscription to the forums called "Underground" that gives its users access to a subscribers page. Cost is estimated to be $10 a month, and there may be annual and semi-annual options. This page will include a private subscribers forum, and Descendent Studios will also give private Underground members access to periodical design meetings and the test builds of the Proving Grounds. Design meetings are now regularly scheduled since the Kickstarter has completed successfully. Wingman has declared any Single Player information revealed in the Underground will have to be kept secret to the public. Underground membership is still open and inviting to new members.

A higher level subscription, offered during the Kickstarter campaign, allowed for high level backers to join the Advisory Board and meet with developers to directly offer ideas and help with the earliest newest builds. Advisory Board member status is now closed to new members, except through a high level option in the Descendent Studios store.