level99games

[level99games]

Sakura Arms is coming soon to Kickstarter!

Level 99 Games is proud to announce the upcoming launch of Sakura Arms on Kickstarter!

Join us on 10.27.2020 to celebrate the launch of the English edition of the game!

Follow this link to learn more about the upcoming release and to see more images of Level 99 Games’ edition of Sakura Arms.

Sakura Arms is the #1 fighting card game from Japan, and we are pleased to bring it to the English-speaking world in its entirety! Choose two patron goddesses and prepare to duel under the falling cherry blossoms!

Each Sakura Arms box contains everything you need to play, so any box is a great place to start, and the most important consideration is your favorite goddess designs.

[level99games]

July News: Charitable Giving, Temporal Odyssey, and Bullet♥︎

Mid-July News

Greetings friend,

We at Level 99 Games hope that you are staying safe and well during the current pandemic. We wanted to do a quick catch-up to let you know what's happening this month. Here's the news!

A portion of our Online Store Profits will be donated to National Hunger Nonprofits this month! Visit our online store and order (or pre-order) anything using the following code to participate and help those in need.

Even if you don't want games, we encourage you to donate directly and help those most vulnerable during the pandemic.

"GAMEONAMERICAJULY"

for $10 off any order over $20 until the end of July. All orders in the online store will contribute to our charitable giving.

Our friend Chris Solis, the designer of Temporal Odyssey, has struck out on his own and launched Solis Game Studios. You may have seen his first Kickstarter Project, Frenemy Pastry Party, last month on Kickstarter. There's still time to late-back this project if you haven't yet!

Chris has offered an exclusive discount on the few remaining copies of Temporal Odyssey and the original Terrene Odyssey. I encourage you to check out his new store and see what it's all about! You can enter the code "SOLISTEMPORAL" on his store, or use the button below to automatically apply the discount.

Last but not least, we have great news about Bullet♥︎! As of last week, Bullet is at press in our fastest post-kickstarter turnaround ever! We're very excited for this new workflow and fast turnaround, but it also means that we won't be able to keep our Pledge Manager open much longer.

The Pledge Manager is closing on July 26th

Make sure to check it out, along with discounts on just about every other game in the Level 99 Games Lineup!



Thanks so much for your support and for being a part of Level 99 Games! We are excited to be brining you so many exciting new games this season, and we look forward to more announcements and projects coming soon. Stay tuned! Happy gaming, and be safe and well,

D. Brad Talton Jr. Level 99 Games, President

[level99games]

Standing Together

Dear friends,

With the death of George Floyd and the public recognition of racial injustice that has gone unchecked for far too long in our systems of law and order, the United States faces a turning point. The courageous protests that we see in the news are indicative of a nation forced to confront truths, which some would rather continue to ignore. When the rules of the game are rigged and broken, it falls on the shoulders of each of us to demand fairness and justice. We must each stand up and say that there is no place for racism or oppression in our hobbies or our communities.

Some of our team members live in countries where they aren't able to stand up and speak about the injustices committed by their governments. In America, we are blessed with a unique opportunity, right, and thus, responsibility to individually make change. We can't merely say we stand with the movement. We each need to watch the video of George Floyd's arrest. We each need to look evil in the face, recognize it for what it is, and call it out. Then we each need to act.

As part of our ongoing commitment to charitable giving, Level 99 Games is pledging a portion of our profits in June to Black Lives Matter. We encourage you to support this organization yourself and stay informed by visiting https://blacklivesmatter.com/

In this pivotal moment, we have a unique opportunity to act out against racism and systemic injustice. Racial inequality is real, and we must speak up actively against it. We must each ask ourselves, "what can I do to help?" To guide you in asking that question for yourself, I recommend reading this essay by former President Barack Obama.

There is a crossroads here, even in something as simple as our hobby. Will we use these hobbies to escape from the world and the problems we see around us? Or will we use them to reach out and bridge divisions? 

I started Level 99 Games because I believe that fundamentally, games are about bringing people together. Face-to-face, sportsmanlike competition is a powerful force to bridge divides and break down biases. Gaming is just one way to get to know someone different, to learn their story, and to discover common ground.

So sit down and spend time with someone different than yourself, whether it's done over a coffee, a meal, or a game. It takes courage to approach someone new and to make a new connection. It's a simple everyday sort of courage—but that is the courage that will guide us towards equality and justice. As we continue our work at Level 99 Games, we remain committed to the cause of making the world better than we found it.

Thanks, as always, for being a part of Level 99 Games,

- D. Brad Talton Jr.

Level 99 Games, President

[level99games]

BattleCON Unleashed Weekly Update: Vanaah

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Keeping in line with War characters that got major updates, let's turn our attention to Vanaah!

Vanaah Changes

Vanaah's getting an update! Most of the general things are the same. She still does her Divine Rush and she's still a terrifying mid-ranger with huge damage capability. What's truly different are some of her cards.

One obvious difference comes in her "Vanaah Vortex" or Mix-up: Glorious and the newly named Avenging (formerly known as Vengeance). Rather than outright being unable to hit, Vanaah now simply deals significantly less damage. This is an overall buff to her consistency while still retaining the powerful feeling of being able to take out huge chunks of the opponent's life with a correct read on their speeds.

On the other hand, Reaping's effect has been changed. Now, instead of of simply forcing a token discard, the ability is more consistent with its effect as it always guarantees that Vanaah gets her Divine Rush back sooner (the Recycle trigger on her UA is what moves the Divine Rush through her discards). However, more than this, the new Chip effectgives Vanaah a useful tool in match-ups against heavier characters like Cadenza and Eligor (where the original token discard was useful for mitigating their defensive options) because Chip goes through their Soak (and doesn't proc their damage-based effects).

Bullet♥︎ is live now on Kickstarter! 

With our other projects now at press, it's time to look boldly into the future with promise! And on the horizon, our next game is Bullet♥︎! A fast-paced real-time puzzle game inspired by the style and action of Japanese SHMUP (shoot-em-up) games.  

I won't go into too much detail here, but if you're interested in what you see, you should take a moment to check out Bullet♥︎! You can check out the project HERE!

Bullet Kickstarter Launch Stream!

Brad and crew celebrated the launch of Bullet❤️ on Kickstarter with a stream! You can check out the project HERE!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! What do you think of the Vanaah changes? Do you have more questions? Tell me in the comments!

[level99games]

Weekly Update: Some White Proofs!

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Hey, everyone! I'm back with another update on white proofs!

What is a White Proof?

A white proof is basically a small preview of things to come. It's what the components of the game look like without any of the text or art printed on them (hence them being white). This gives us an understanding of the size and material quality before proceeding to making a full-print of the game.

Below are some pictures of the white proofs we got for unleashed!

Level With Us Livecast (May 13)

Marco and Brad bring in Josh to answer all your burning questions! With the Kickstarter for Bullet just over the horizon, now's your chance to learn more! Stream starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time!

Final Words

Thanks for reading, friends! Things are progressing and I hope you're all excited, too! I might do another character analysis for next week, so feel free to request!

[level99games]

BattleCON Unleashed Weekly Update: Demitras

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Someone in the comments last update asked for some Demitras updates. We already went over them in a previous update, but we hadn't shown-off the cards! So let's look at Demitras!

Demitras Changes

For those who don't know, Demitras received a pretty decent rework in V4. His UA and a decent bit of his cards changed in order to better update him to the "modern" BattleCON climate. So let's take a look at 2 of the biggest changes to his kit (a lot of the others are minor buffs).

First off, let's talk his UA. Demitras players will know that his entire gimmick is centered around his Crescendo. He gets them when he hits you, but loses them when he gets hit. Mixed with his evasive cards, Demitras plays very much like a fencer that peppers you with a thousand cuts before finishing you off with his signature Deathblow. Much of this is preserved, but we've streamlined his UA a bit. Now, instead of each Crescendo giving +2 Power, they each give +3! As a tradeoff, Demitras can no longer ante multiple Crescendo. This gives him more consistent damage output at the cost of less tokens overall (though all his styles now naturally have -2 Power to compensate). One thing to note is that this new UA is very powerful with the new Switch Style, which every fighter has. Unlike all of his other styles, Switch has +0 Power, effectively turning it into a +3 Power attack for the cost of 1 Crescendo. Now, that's what I call VALUE!

Another exciting change is the rework to his Illusory style. What used to be a weird "gimmicky" evasion card is now a simpler, but deadlier, hit confirm card. This new Illusory is what truly compensates for the Dodge Base change. Old Demitras preyed on the ability to completely nullify opposing Dashes by outspeeding them. With Dodge's effect being turned into a Start, this is no longer true, making Deathblow "counterable" by Dodge AND Burst. New Illusory alleviates this by giving Demitras a tool to deal with the Burst half of the mix-up. So long as he has enough Crescendo, there's no getting away from him!

More Bullet Bosses!

Marco and Brad join forces again to try and beat another one of Bullet's dangerous bosses! Will friendship prevail? The show starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Set that reminder!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! For the next one, I'll show you all some of the physical white proofs! Have a good week and stay safe!

[level99games]

BattleCON Unleashed Weekly Update: Amon

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

This time isn't a feint. Amon's changes are here for you to see!

Amon Changes

Since Amon came in Trials, he's not actually that far from being fine. More than anything, he needed some updates to his Danger Levels. It's quite similar to the Magdelina Levels. The Danger Levels were, for all intents and purposes, Form Cards with various parts. The most important change here is the fact that we've decided to actually make it clear what "Level" each of them is (for the purposes of Amon's cards that give him effects based on his Danger Levels).

As for more specific cards, we've had to make changes to one of his Styles to make it function better in V4 of BattleCON. Containment's old effect was not very clear and often led to some shenanigans with other movement effects. The new effect is simpler and much easier to understand. If the opponent would end up Advancing or Retreating 2 or more spaces, they Advance or Retreat 1 instead!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! Amon was fun to talk about. Interested in other characters? Tell me in the comments!

[level99games]

BattleCON Unleashed Weekly Update: Kallistar

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

I'm on fire? Nope! I'm Marco and I'm here with another Unleashed Update for you all!

Kallistar Changes

Quite honestly the answer to how Kallistar has changed is a tricky one. On one end, many fans might think that she's changed quite a lot. On the other, some will think she has not changed at all. This is because Kallistar is one of the characters that is playable in BattleCON Online. In her time there, she's actually undergone quite a few changes, including number tweaks and effect restructures. In a way, you could (sort of) say that BCO Kallistar had already been rebalanced and changed before Unleashed was even in full swing! Rather than go over all her changes, let's just look at 2 really exciting ones:

Supernova and Chain of Destruction are Kallistar's Finishers and keen-eyed fans will notice something: they no longer have Form requirements. Kallistar is now free to use either Finisher whether she's in Human or Elemental Form! This offers her a better flexibility in her ability to use them.

Supernova is pretty much the same, but now has higher base stats, making it worth its terrifying End effect that straight-up loses Kallistar the game. Chain of Destruction, on the other hand, is no longer a repeating attack, but now serves as a long-ranged execution Finisher. Set-up properly, Kallistar can burn her opponent out from far away, which is usually one of her weaknesses.

Level With Us Livecast (April 22)

Marco and Brad will work TOGETHER to take-on one of Bullet's terrifying bosses! Let's see if we can come out on top! The show starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Set that reminder!

Bullet is our upcoming SHMUP-inspired puzzle action game with variable player powers and many game modes! You can try it out for yourself on our Discord Server!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! Which other BattleCON characters are you interested in? Tell me in the comments! Kallistar's a pretty fun one. :)

[level99games]

Announcing Bullet♥︎ — A Shoot-em-up Puzzle Action Game!

After a long wait, Level 99 Games is excited to announce our next upcoming project, Bullet♥︎!

Bullet♥︎ is a Shoot-em-up (SHMUP) puzzle action tabletop game, inspired by series like Touhou Project, Ikaruga, Deathsmiles, The Hurricane of the Varstray, Ether Vapor, and Acceleration of Suguri, to name a few.

Players take on the role of heroines in a far-flung future earth, and use their incredible powers to defend the earth from evil!... as well as from one another. Each heroine's powers manifest in a different form—control sound, paper, technology, gravity, triangles, and more!

Bullet♥︎ has been designed over 2 years by Joshua Van Laningham, developed alongside the Level 99 Games team, and illustrated by Usanekorin of Collateral Damage Studios.

The game is fast and accessible. 1–4 players can complete a game of Bullet♥︎ in under 20 minutes. With 8 characters to play and 4 game modes, you’ll be able to play multiple matches and modes in a single sitting.

Game Modes

There are 4 ways to play Bullet♥︎:

Battle Royale Mode: 2–4 players can duel in a free-for-all puzzle battle that plays in real-time!

Co-op Boss Mode: 1–4 players can combine forces to survive against a single boss. There are 8 bosses—one corresponding to each heroine.

Score Attack Mode: A lone player can play for a high score.

Team Battle Mode: Two teams of two players battle it out! The last team standing wins.

Bullet♥︎ is planned for Kickstarter this summer!

Stay tuned to our weekly blogs to learn more about the development, gameplay, and aesthetics of this exciting new project!

Bullet♥︎ is planned for Kickstarter this summer! See you there!

[level99games]

BattleCON Unleashed Weekly Update: Hepzibah

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Hey, everyone! Marco back with another update. People asked for Hepzibah, so I'm here to deliver!

Hepzibah Changes

Hepzibah is a name that is often met with much love and disdain. Many players enjoy her "life for power" gameplay, but it's no secret that this Vivimancer is one of the game's stronger characters. She received quite a few changes, but I feel that going over two of the major ones is a better way to frame how she's changed.

One thing that's been a huge problem with Hepzibah is safety. As a "high risk, high reward" character, she should see herself taking some risks in order to get her payouts. However, that is often not the case. Thanks to her powerful stats and amazing safety cards, the ability to react to Hepzibah's moves is often almost 0.

To remedy this, her Corruption pact has received a major change. Rather than giving Hepzibah Ignore Guard, this Pact now gives her a Hit: Chip 1. Many players will rightfully see this as a major nerf. Hepzibah can no longer completely invalidate slow defensive characters with a single Pact. However, slow defensive characters are actually one of Hepzibah's weakest match-ups (assuming she doesn't get to spam Ignore Guard every turn). By giving her a Chip effect, she now has a way to deal even more damage since she can stack it on top of her Power Pact, giving her an effective +3 Power to get those slow defensive fighters low on life. As an added bonus, Chip is unaffected by Armor, giving her another tool to deal with the slow defensive characters.

On the other hand, her Accursed style was reworked to be a bit more risky. Rather than just straight-up giving her a style that provides Stun Immunity if she antes pacts, Accursed now provides Stun immunity AND Armor despite having no pacts anted. While this may sound safer, the When effect makes this style truly risky: if you are hit, you lose a Pact FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. That's right. Accursed is now significantly more useful without the need to use Pacts, but it now "costs" a Pact to play. This should make Hepzibah think twice about using this Style, incentivizing her to find opportunities for creative plays (as opposed to just playing a bunch of big stat attacks every turn).

Level With Us Livecast (April 15)

Join Brad (and Marco on chat) to see where Third Cross has come so far! Third Cross is just a roguelike dungeon exploration game that Brad's working on in his off-time. Come and see what the design/development process is like! Stream starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update! Keep requesting characters to learn about! I'll do my best to get to them soon! :)

[level99games]

Level 99 Experience

One thing we always say at Level 99 is that a game is incomplete until it's played. That's right—you're the final component that turns all the paper and plastic in this box into a game! Without you, a game is nothing at all. 

When we build a new game, we do it in the hope of bringing people together and increasing happiness and joy in the world. Especially in these difficult times, a heartwarming experience can make all the difference, both to our team and to our fans around the world. With these thoughts in mind, we would like to invite you to share your experience with our games with us, so that we can share them with others! If you’re interested in participating, just send us an email with the button below and include:

a short video of you and your friends playing or talking about your experience with a Level 99 game, or;

a photo of you at the table with a Level 99 game and a few words of review. Ideally, we’d love to see your face!

... and we'll also give you $25 off of your next purchase from Level 99 Games!

If you’d prefer to share your opinions less directly, we constantly review comments about our games on BoardGameGeek, and we would love to read your opinions there too! Rate our games and help us become the world’s #1 Tabletop Publisher!

Disclaimer: We may use any submitted video, photos, or words as testimonials on our product pages or advertising. By submitting a testimonial, you agree to the use of your name and likeness for these purposes. We respect your privacy and will not publish your full name, contact, or other personal information.

I’d also like to share two experiences that we’ve received from fans around the world so far!

Thanks again for taking the time to check out these experiences! Hopefully, they’ve inspired you to create one of your own and share with us. Nothing brightens our team’s day better than a few words of encouragement, and the knowledge that our work is helping to bring friends and families closer together.

We look forward to hearing about your experience with Level 99 Games soon!

[level99games]

Weekly Update - Digital Proofing

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Hey, friends! Marco here again with another update. This one is a bit short and sweet, so let's get to it!

Digital Proofs

We're now in the process of digital proofing. This means that the printers have received our files and have finished organizing and arranging them for printing. Josh and I have been working hard on making sure that all the cards and components are in the proofs. That involves making sure the card counts are correct, among other things!

If you're curious, here's what one of the many proofing sheets they sent us looks like (note that I've lowered the image quality to have this fit reasonably on an update).

Level With Us Livecast (April 8)

There's no specific topic for this week! Just come and spend some time with us! Let's talk about games, fun, and all things otherwise! Stream starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time! Join us and set that reminder!

If you have the time, just come by and say hi! We'd love to just chill and hang!

Final Words

That's enough for this week's update! Hopefully you're all doing ok! I'll keep you updated for the weeks to come. Happy gaming!

P.S. Do tell me what other characters you want to hear about. Maybe I can provide some more insight for you!

[level99games]

Level 99 Games — Remote Retailer Program

During the current crisis, many of our “third spaces” are having a tough time of it, as fans are stuck at home.

Level 99 Games is working together with local game stores to do some good, as well as to support our friendly local stores during a time when many aren’t allowed to operate normally. We’re calling it our Remote Retailer Program.

How goes the Remote Retailer Program Work?

Any store that wishes to get involved can reach out to us directly. Full instructions are here.

To help support stores, fans, and charities, we’re dividing up our usual 50% retailer discount 3 ways:

15% goes to fans, as a top-line discount off of their order.

25% goes to our partner store.

10% goes to a selected national hunger charity, to help those most vulnerable during the Coronavirus crisis.

Do you know a store that’s interested in taking part in this program? Send them to https://www.level99store.com/pages/remote-retailer-program and we’ll get them set up, and get you a discount on stuff from Level 99 Games!

For stores that are operating normally, we still have our regular Preferred Retailer Program. Reach out to me and we’ll get some Level 99 Games in your store!

About the Author

D. Brad Talton Jr. is the President of Level 99 Games, as well as the designer of BattleCON, Millennium Blades, Pixel Tactics, Exceed, and many more games. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife Lynda and daughter Kathryn. 

[level99games]

Weekly Update: Joal Updates!

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

In a previous update, I was asked to talk about a character that I feel was changed quite significantly. It might be my bias showing, but Joal seemed to fit that criteria very well!

Joal Changes

So, some of you may be wondering what exactly about our resident monster hunter changed. The answer is quite simple: a lot of small things. I think something that people tend to underestimate is the power small utility effects in BattleCON. While big reworks do exist, small additions can just as easily change the game feel of a character.

To illustrate this, I'll just talk about Joal's weapons. His unique bases, if you can tell, all actually retain similar stats and effects. All of them, however, now have a "Next beat" effect that's tied to a Hit. This means that hitting with one of Joal's unique bases buffs his next turn in different ways.

This is, arguably, a "minor" change. His cards still fundamentally work the same way, but those "next beat" effects truly add an extra layer to Joal's overall gameplay. For example, if you hit someone with your Binding Knife, you stop them from Advancing next beat. Then, you can use that to stop opponents from going into Hand Cannon's minimum range. Using Hand Cannon, blast the opponent into the corner. Finally, using the "Before: Advance 1-2" from Hand Cannon's Hit, play Ironstar from range 3 to confirm a hit that is nearly impossible to Dodge. Did I mention that it also gives you Armor 2 the beat after that?

In case it wasn't clear, Joal can now essentially "weapon combo" with himself, which is honestly pretty awesome and speaks to how even small "reworks" like this can drastically change how a character feels to play.

Level With Us Livecast: April Fools!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! I hope you're all holding up fine! Come hang out with us on the stream this Wednesday and we can talk bout all things Level 99 Games or otherwise!

[level99games]

April News | Level With Us Livecast (April 1)

In this 10000% serious episode, Brad and Marco make a few VERY SPECIAL announcements. We might even finally reveal Exceed Season 5! Who knows? Watch to find out! Stream starts at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. Set that reminder!

[level99games]

What you need to know to run a card gaming tournament!

Hey everyone!

In case you didn’t know me, I’m Charles Butler—also known as TaxiCAB in the Level 99 Games online community. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been running the largest Exceed tournament of all time, Matchup Madness, clocking in at 95 competitors! With the group phase of our tournament having just ended, I thought I would tune in and help some of the players at home looking to organize your own tournaments!

When running a tournament, the first thing I always ask myself is “What is the ultimate goal of this tournament?” For Matchup Madness, that goal was to bring the community together and to give newer community members the resources they need to grow and thrive. 

The groups (or as we call them ‘pools’) phase of the tournament was designed to help introduce players to both veterans in the community and each other, letting them form connections and get advice from some of the more skilled players. 

After being introduced, the bracket stage is a great follow-up as people cheer on their favorites and learn from the greatest as they throw down. But not every tournament should have this goal: sometimes you’ll want something quick and easy to run with friends and have fun on the weekend, maybe you want something like a spectator sport—designed to keep excitement running high and have things shakeup at any moment—or you might even want a ‘themed’ tournament that brings people out of their comfort zone!

Bracketeering

Once you have a goal in mind, you’ll want to make sure you pick the style of bracket that best fits what you want to do. Most people know the common ones, but I’ll share my insight into the pros and cons of what styles I’ve come across.

Round-Robin

Is the ideal competitive format. Every player gets to face each of their competitors, so no one can be put at a disadvantage by facing against the favorite to win round 1. Unfortunately, round-robin falters because of the amount of time it requires, especially in tournaments that have a sizable number of participants. With a tournament like Matchup Madness, doing round-robin would take approximately 9 and a half months, which means at our rate of 1 round every 3 days,  we wouldn’t finish until early 2021—yikes. Even with a smaller group like 8 people, it would take you 7 rounds to finish, so make sure you know you’ll have the time if you want to run this format.

Single-Elimination

The most well-known format out there. It’s easy to run, gets to the point, and gives everyone just one shot to give it their all—making every match important and exciting. However, it often comes under a lot of criticism as a competitive format, just one mistake or misplay means that your run is over, which can create a lot of stress. Additionally, being placed into a match with a stronger player often means you don’t get a chance to show what you can do, and means you can’t play any more matches until the tournament is over. If you need something quick, single-elimination is great! Otherwise, consider one of the other formats as it will often give your players a better experience.

Double-Elimination

Extremely similar to Single-elimination, but gives each player one more chance before they are knocked out. When participants lose they are sent into a separate ‘losers bracket’ where they fight for their chance to have a shot against the champion. This means that not only do players get a second chance—but that second chance will be against someone in a similar situation, making it great for newer contenders to meet each other and find a practice buddy. Double-elimination does take a few more rounds than single and is complex to bracket correctly. So if you need it done quickly or don’t have access to an online bracket manager like Challonge (https://challonge.com/) you may want to consider something else.

Swiss

Probably the most popular format for weekly events. and great for tournaments where you want to let people find new friends around their skill level. In the Swiss format, each player gets to play in every round and is matched against a player with the same win-loss record as them, so players who lose the first match will get paired with each other. As far as time goes, it’s an extremely flexible format as you can set the number of rounds to whatever fits in your schedule. What swiss doesn’t excel at, however, is determining a true ‘winner’. Often, in swiss, multiple competitors will end the tournament with the same record, so there is no single champion. If having that champion is important to you, consider one of the elimination formats instead.

Gauntlet

A bit of a weird format that thrives on the spectator experience. Used by many TV game shows like Family Feud, and more casually by fighting game players, gauntlet runs only a single match at a time—letting the winner stay in, and the loser be rotated out. Prizing for this style of tournament often scales with your win-streak, or is decided by the last man standing. For a truly competitive event, this format is horrible, as coming in early puts you at an overwhelming disadvantage. As a spectator sport, or weekly streamed feature, this format can excel at creating exciting narratives and sowing chaos as players quickly rotate in and out.

Making Fun Formats

Once you’ve decided on your style of bracket, it’s time to decide what ruleset you want to run for your group. The sky is the limit with themes and challenges you can come up with, so make your mark!

Allowing just a specific season is great for release events and giving players random characters can force them out of their comfort zone. Putting aesthetic themes like “Halloween”, “Wearing White”, or even “Final Destination, No items, Hats only” can also be great for exploring new matchups while still giving people some control over what they want to play, just make sure that everyone knows the rules before the event.

If you want to run a more competitive event, running with the standard “Bring 3, Pick 1” organized play format is a solid bet. In my local scene, we also added a ban into the mix so that players could be forced off their mains, and be encouraged to develop multiple characters.

In a similar vein, Matchup Madness is running a format called ‘Semi-Conquest’ which is a spinoff of Hearthstone’s Conquest format that requires you to only win with 2 of your decks instead of all 3—which forces players into playing a variety of matchups.

Tools of the Trade

Running a tournament—especially a larger one—can quickly become an overwhelming ordeal. Luckily, TOs (Tournament Organizers) have a slew of tools at their disposal to help things run smoothly and make their job a little bit easier.

Challonge

(https://challonge.com/) - The most popular, and completely free,  bracket managing website out there. It is absolutely essential to any would-be TOs. The software allows you to create and run most types of brackets, trivializing the process of setting up Swiss or Double-Elimination tournaments. Unfortunately, Challonge isn’t great for communicating with players, so running the tournament off of a forum, or discord is your best bet to put up announcements and updates as your event progresses.

Google Drive

(https://drive.google.com) - Speaking of communication, Google Drive is also a fantastic way to communicate with your players, especially for longer announcements or rulesets that you want people to be easily able to reference back to, like this one: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n7ydfrl5YNvAfYv-xe2uQCMZamSNghWB7NA4CeQ6Rus/edit.

Google Sheets in specific is a powerful tool that lets you compile and analyze data from larger events.

For Matchup Madness, I’ve used it to record character win rates, let people see their fellow competitor’s roster, and keep a feed of every match as it's reported. You can check it out here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A5W60hMQ8YMZcArc8pWY2XarqqWPR_ry97XQH9OEy2U/edit?usp=sharing.

Discord

(https://discordapp.com/) - Is my personal favorite way to quickly message and interact with my friends and community members. Its rise in popularity in the gaming sphere means that many of you already use it—but there are a few tricks you can do to make it work for you as a TO.

Every user has something called a ‘Real ID’ that lets you quickly find and tag them regardless of if they share the same username as someone else, have it in a different language, or even if they keep changing their tag. Mine is 163739706863910912. To access it, you first need to turn Developer Mode on in your settings, under the ‘Appearance’ tab. Then you can right-click any user to ‘Copy ID’ and get their ID string. Group DMs are another powerful way to put players in contact with each other, although you will need to make sure you add them to your friend list before you can put the message channel together.

I’m looking forward to seeing how Matchup Madness ends, and to starting up a more casual weekly event on the discord as we prepare for the next big one. So stay tuned and make sure to join the Level 99 Games community discord at https://discord.gg/KQtrkGc if you haven’t already! If you have any ideas for formats you would like to see run or want any advice for setting up a tournament with your friends, feel free to contact me on discord at TaxiCAB#6036. I don’t bite, and always love to help out!

Charles Butler (aka "TaxiCAB") is a College Student and Tournament Organizer enjoying the rain up in the Pacific NorthWest. Meet him in person on the Level 99 Games Community Discord!

[level99games]

Weekly Update - You've activated my TRAP CARD!

Read the Update on Kickstarter: CLICK HERE

Hey, everyone. Marco here again with your weekly dose of updates. You already guessed it form the title, let's look at Malandrax!

Malandrax Changes

Malandrax is one of those characters where there weren't a lot of major reworks. We, obviously, updated his effects to be in-line with our updated V4 wording, but unlike the previous updates, Malandrax has actually received a few adjustments.

Precision, as you can see, has changed significantly. The old ability caused a lot of odd rules cases, especially when deciding what EXACTLY Malandrax can control (do pushes and pulls count?). Regardless, the new Precision keeps much of the old's real power: the ability to force people into your Traps. Given that it is now a Dodge counter, you can also use it to for opponents into unfavorable positions, then PUNISH them with that extra Chip 2.

Speaking of Traps, Alarm Trap has gotten a bit of a nerf. Old Alarm Trap let Malandrax retreat ANY number of spaces, letting him instantly fly to the opposite side of the board. This proved quite annoying for a lot of melee fighters to deal with, so the retreat has been toned down a bit. It now only Retreats 1-3. This should make things a bit easier for those melee fighters.

Level With Us Livecast: Ask Kier Anything!

Marco brings Kier on for a Q&A video. How do we ship our games, and how do we address concerns about missing parts? Kier can tell you! Come and hang out with us at 4:30 PM Mountain Time!

Final Words

Thanks for reading my update, everyone! I hope you're all holding up fine! Come hang out with us on the stream this Wednesday and we can talk bout all things Level 99 Games or otherwise!