Alpha Program
What is the Alpha Program?
The Alpha Program is where you, as die-hard fans and early adopters of Battle for Sularia, get to play brand new cards as soon as we release them from our in-house playtesting team. Instead of seeing spoilers for new cards and having to wait weeks or months to play them like other card games, you get to play with new Battle for Sularia alpha cards immediately after they have been spoiled on our website! While these cards will have been moderately playtested by our in-house team, alpha players will be able to provide key feedback during an Alpha Program release cycle and in turn have direct input in shaping the future of Battle for Sularia!
You can expect Alpha Program cards to be released on a monthly schedule and immediately legal in casual play and alpha tournament formats. The Alpha Program begins with the Protoan and Exsularian faction packs. These cards will be available through a free print-and-play download, by simply requesting them from our website through an online sign-up form. By mid-2018, we plan on integrating a deck builder directly into our website, which we hope alpha players will find helpful in crafting their own play decks.
What can players expect to see on the Alpha Cards?
Alpha Program cards will have all the graphic design and text found on retail cards, but typically won’t have the illustration yet. Instead of an illustration, they will just have a watermark of the Battle for Sularia logo. While alpha cards will be mechanically functional, they may not be fully dialed-in when you get them. In other words, some alpha cards may perform higher or lower than our own in-house results. This is where your feedback and support of the alpha program will ensure the highest quality game at the Omega (retail) level.
The Alpha Program is no mere test program, but instead, it is a robust community engagement opportunity! For example, if you provide feedback through our online form during a given alpha release cycle, you will be able to earn exclusive rewards only available to Alpha Program players. The current list of rewards includes, but is not limited to, access to monochromatic full-art promo cards, discount codes on a variety of Battle for Sularia products, and more prizes to be announced soon. These exclusive alpha-only promo cards will be based on the current retail cards. In addition to player exclusives, we intend to get retailers in on the action with providing them access to their own alpha promo cards and play mats, which they can use to host alpha tournaments and expand their local Sularia community!
The exact details of the Alpha Program will be laid out in greater detail soon, but this has been generating a lot of buzz around here over the last few weeks and in the spirit of giving this holiday, we wanted to share as much as we could with our fans right now!
Other Things You can Expect in the Alpha Program
Tabletop Simulator Monthly Tournament!
This tournament will allow alpha players to test their latest deck builds, earn bragging rights, and access to cool swag just for playing the game. In order to play though, you will need a copy of Tabletop Simulator installed on your computer. While it does cost a few bucks to download, they run discounts for it all the time. Not to mention, in between games of Battle for Sularia, there are a ton of other games that can be played with Tabletop Simulator, which is why we think it’s a pretty cool thing to have.
In addition, while participating as an alpha player, you will get direct access to other Battle for Sularia alpha players and its developers. With any luck, the first alpha tournament should happen in February and it will feature the Protoan and Exsularian factions. We’ll also have more details in the coming weeks about how to sign up for a tournament and the different formats.
Discounts on Omega Products
While the exact discount is yet to be determined, simply by participating as a Battle for Sularia alpha player—either in the online tournament or at your local game store—and providing feedback through our online form, you will receive monthly promo codes to be used in our web store for discounts on certain products. Please note, this is only scratching at the surface. As the program grows, we have milestones set in place to add even more reward content!
Hopefully, this sounds awesome and you might be thinking, OK Jesse, got it… so, what about the Omega Program?
What is the Omega Program?
If we are looking at Sularia today, then the Omega Program would include The Battle Begins, and Blood, Profit, and Glory. In other words, our retail released products. The Omega Program will add the Protoan and Exsularian faction packs to that list in 2018. Moving beyond 2018, the Omega Program will include the first packs in our upcoming card cycle—codenamed CP1.
The Omega Program cards are the finalized versions that get through the Alpha Program and will be released for sale on a monthly schedule—based on the time it takes our artists to complete their illustrations. The anticipated release of the new CP1 omega cards is after the full release of the Protoan and Exsularian faction packs starting in January of 2019. These cards will continue our tradition of an expandable card game/non-randomized pack format. They will be listed in our web store, once per month, with an estimated price of $5.99. As soon as the omega booster packs are available in our web store, they will be made immediately legal in the omega tournament formats.
The Omega Program will also include bigger tournaments that are officially sanctioned and supported by Punch-It Entertainment. For now, this is limited to our National Tournament Series held in Lincoln, Neb. In time, we hope to get retailers to participate with regular in-store omega tournaments with traditional prize kits—promo cards, tokens, deck boxes, play mats, and more—available for purchase directly from Punch-It Entertainment. Furthermore, we will be moving our 2018 National Qualifiers and 2018 National Championship from the summer time to the fall and early winter. With appropriate participation, we hope to continue to offer unique promos inside of the National Tournament Series scene as well as cash prizes.
The Omega Program cards will be produced using a print-on-demand service, which will be necessary as we continue to grow Battle for Sularia.Once demand has increased appropriately, Omega Program cards will be produced using traditional mass production we’ve used in the past. We have tested multiple print-on-demand services for quality and consistency. We are confident that our new partner in this venture will maintain our established card quality and consistency that you have come to expect from us. You can anticipate that Omega Program cards will open up pre-orders about 60 days before the street date and users can purchase cards from us, or we will work directly with your favorite retailers.
This is a fundamental change in so much that we will not be supplying omega format booster packs through distribution channels unless growth and demand allow for us to return to traditional mass production models.
One thing we want to make very clear to our friends across the pond is we are working on relationships that would allow us to ship and fulfill from within the EU and keep the costs down to a minimum from a shipping perspective. We are also looking at the potential drawbacks and challenges from shipping these small packs directly from the States in a padded envelope. Our European friends can rest assured we want you to have all the same content that is being released inside of North America. If you are a European customer of ours, we want to figure out the absolute best model for the distribution of these products into the EU and globally. If you have any suggestions, please be sure to let us know!
Alpha Program Sign Up Form
Please Note:
Your privacy is important to us and we will not share this information. Your information is solely for validating your download and for future special offers and announcements. Please provide us with your preferred local gaming store to host future Alpha Program events. We greatly appreciate your effort on filling out the store address information. However, it will not affect your download if you cannot fill this out completely.
Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
Alpha Program Feedback Form
We Value Your Feedback!
The feedback we receive from our fans during the Alpha Program of each card cycle release, we believe, is critical to the success of the final Omega Program release of the cards—and ultimately—the success of the game overall. Please use the form to submit any issues or concerns with any of the new cards or game mechanics added during an Alpha Program card release cycle.
Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
Key Features
Becoming an Alpha Program member is easy. Download a FREE Alpha Program product, fill out the form below, and provide some feedback about your experience within the month of that product’s release.
Alpha Program members get a HUGE discount on all Alpha Program exclusive promo cards. A new card is released every month. After that month, it’s gone forever!
Starting in February 2018, the Alpha Program will see the release of four NEW cards in a Command Pack every month for FREE download—ten months out of the year.
Starting in 2019, pre-orders will begin for the Omega Program release of the Command Pack Series 1 cards that were released through our Alpha Program in 2018.
A NEW Alpha Program Tabletop Simulator Tournament every month.
Coming soon… A NEW Alpha Program retailer exclusive promo card, to be used as Alpha Program tournament prize support.
Coming soon… A NEW Alpha Program retailer exclusive play mat, to be used as Alpha Program tournament prize support.
Coming soon… A completely updated organized play prize support kit for the Omega Program.
Reminders
Check out our store for the full line of available Alpha Program products.
Mostly importantly… don’t forget to fill out the Alpha Program signup below.
In addition to the Alpha Program signup form, we have a feedback form that can be used to provide us feedback for each Command Pack Series release.
Ambassador Program
What's a Battle for Sularia Ambassador?
Since day one, we've wanted to make sure we had a card game that looked as good as it played. These full-art promo cards I think really take it up a notch. I can't wait to get these out to all the players that have really championed Battle for Sularia in their local gaming communities!
Being an Ambassador requires three important things...
1. You do not talk about…er, wait…you do talk about the Ambassador Program. But more importantly, you should have a love of hobby gaming. Do you daydream about shuffling up that deck you’ve been brewing? Yes? You might have what it takes.
2. Has a passion for sharing. If you’re a guy or gal who is constantly getting your friends together for game nights, or organizing leagues at your local game store, that’s yes for #2.
3. If you think battling for supremacy on a post-apocalyptic world, where soldiers of fortune barter blood for coin, and a machine empire threatens to overwhelm an ancient civilization of Norse-inspired super-warriors (AKA, space vikings); being an ambassador is right up your alley!
Sounds like fun, what would I be doing?
Ambassadors are the figure heads of Battle for Sularia in communities like yours. As someone who represents our game, you will be:
1. Running demos to new players.
2. Organizing game nights.
3. Running tournaments.
4. Fostering a positive online community via social media; all with the help of our Organized Play staff.
Ambassadors need to be available on a weekly basis to coordinate events, interact with the player base, and represent us to the gaming community at large.
I love taking charge and making an impact, but what about perks?
Glad you asked! There are plenty of benefits to being an ambassador – like being on the inside track to what’s going on in the world of Sularia and what developments are occurring in the future of the game. We take feedback seriously and listen to the community playing our game. As an ambassador, you’ll have the unique opportunity to interact with the team that makes Sularia and ensure your’s and your gaming community’s voices are heard.
Did we mention promos?
As an official Battle for Sularia ambassador, you’ll receive special full-art promo cards that are only available to those who represent our game! These super-rare cards will be a stunning addition to your collection and really make your force stand out on the table!
Awesome, let's get started... what's the next step?
Excellent! Fill out the application, AKA the Ambassador Questionnaire, below and we’ll get back to you soon about becoming an official Battle for Sularia ambassador!
Mission 0: Ambassador Questionnaire
Playtesters Program
Want to be a Playtester?
Hi and welcome to the Punch-It Entertainment Playtester Program. Below you will find a brief form that is required in order to process your application to become a tester for Battle for Sularia. Here are a few key items to consider before making an application.
- Punch-It Entertainment is looking for dedicated players to provide valuable and necessary feedback from which meaningful information can be ascertained for the sake of improving the game play experience of each and every release for Battle for Sularia.
- Punch-It Entertainment requires each player to have a Reddit account and will be invited to join the program and use our private Reddit as a direct line of communication with the developers
- Punch-It Entertainment will credit each participant in the rules insert or rules book for any game that a tester participates in who provides a minimum of 25 games of feedback.
- Punch-It Entertainment at any point reserves the right to remove a tester from the program, if the tester is not providing valuable feedback or participating in the program. Testers accepted into the program may be removed if their behavior in official company forums such as Reddit is disruptive or detrimental to a successful testing environment.
- Participants are expected to have copies of all retail products currently released and available to the general public. If they do not they may purchase it from us at: (link here)
Testing Process
Punch-It Entertainment has a very specific testing process that collects valuable data that is used to look at Macro levels of information regarding each individual faction in Battle for Sularia. While this data is valuable to the overall experience and balancing of the meta for a given release, it cannot give us the entire picture. This is where player psychology and perception becomes very valuable for us. Punch-It’s tester feedback form allows for a very detailed response of each game that was played in both quantitative and qualitative data.
We value the qualitative or non-numerical data more so over traditional quantitative data. Because of this, each tester plays a very integral part in improving the overall quality of each release. In return for your feedback Punch-It Entertainment will make every effort to effectively communicate with our testers and provide as much data as possible. The testing process at times can be a frustrating experience, and it requires a player who is patient and able to communicate these issues back to us effectively. If you feel you are up to that challenge the reward is that you will be able to directly effect and shape the future of Battle for Sularia.
We've been really fortunate early on with the number of gamers interested in playtesting Battle for Sularia early on. That said, we're always on the lookout for new gamers who love the game and want to help continue making it the best it can be now and into the future.