TinyBuild CEO on Duckside: "You decide when you win"

To carve out a niche in today's open-world survival game scene seems an almost impossible task these days, especially if the newcomer is a new IP. Titans such as Rust, DayZ or Fortnite are all over the place, but a crazy duck game has managed to steal some of the players' spoils. We are talking about Duckside, developed and published by tinyBuild. We started talking about Duckside with the publisher's CEO, Alex Nichiporchik, during our interview at DevGAMM Lisbon last weekend, which you can watch below.

Duckside launched on 25 September in Early Access on Steam, and players have been gripped by its dose of action and survival in a world of ducks armed to the teeth. What's more, it was developed in record time. Nichiporchik described it thus:

"Yes, DuckSide is our first game developed and released in less than a year, which is kind of an exciting turn for us because we now have several studios working internally, who can share technology."

"And I really like games where, you know, like MMO-style shooters, survival shooters, where there's no leveling up, where there's no XP systems, where it's all fair game.... And you, essentially your progress is your skill level, and your loot is what you can lose at any given time (...) You decide when you win."

The company's boss knew the risks involved in developing a title like this in a genre with so many releases and games in the pipeline, but believes Duckside has a unique charm and emotionality to set it apart from the rest.

"So, you know, it's a game about pain and tears disguised in a quirky duckling shooter where ducks with guns are trying to kill each other and then build bases and destroy each other's bases. So it's a very risky game that subverts your expectations and we're very happy with how people have received it."

Alex Nichiporchik is also a dedicated gamer, who knows the medium well and knows what he is looking for in each game. That's also why he's committed to publishing the recently announced Of Ash and Steel, and why he has a very particular way of playing Duckside:

"So you can go farming, you can go do PvE events, you can kill bots, you can get a bunch of loot, you can build a huge base. Or what I like to do, and I'm sorry guys for admitting it, is sit in front of your base with a shotgun, and wait for you to do all that, and when you come into your base, I'll try to kill you and take all your loot. And then we'll exchange compliments on voice chat." But he qualifies, "Just compliments, okay?"

You can find Duckside's early access on the Steam page and jump into the duck action for a reasonable price. Ready to quack?