u/stickmanSF

For an arcade bar, Killer Queen is a must. It sells beer, but it does take some marketing effort to make a Facebook group and having some tournaments/events. People will yell and scream, and people will come back for this game.

Here is a marketing/testimonial video.

Most of the locations that have Killer Queen are arcade bars, so you could do some recon by checking out the locations map.

BumbleBear rep here. Just wanted to let people know we are doing a sale on Killer Queen and Black Emperor. Hopefully I'm not breaking any subreddit rules, but you can see links for details. In short, KQ games are slightly used, $9,999 (compared to $14,995), and there's only a few left in stock. More details in the link on condition of machines, limited warranty, and shipping. Happy to answer any questions.

I ship Killer Queens, 2 very large cabs regularly with LTL. They are professionally packed and palletized/crated.

For what you are doing, I would also suggest Michelle with Beltmann. If you pallet them with LTL, there is a huge risk of damage and you can't really control how it's packaged. A few minor dings with white glove is much better than a fork through your game, or a tipped game, or the game getting clipped on a truck door on load in/out. Cross country means more transition points with LTL, and each point increases that risk. I've had very few problems with Beltmann and highly recommend.

Someone above mentioned getting additional charges after shipping; this is likely because of freight density. For arcade, freight class is 125 or 250. The magic density number is 4, so if you use a calculator and it's less than 4, you're in 250 class and shipping is much more expensive. For large machines this is usually the case. Even if it's not large and you're using a standard 40x48 pallet you're also going to have low density. So believe it or not, sometimes you want a heavier shipment.

Killer Queen Black Beta Images/Videos are not allowed. Production is very nice though.

Killer Queen Black Beta Images/Videos are not allowed.

added basic post flairs. i'm not a visual person so didn't go too crazy with it. open to suggestions

Thanks, taken off. Lmk if needs more update

done

have you reached out to Pure Storage yet? They've had a cab in their office for a while now, and iirc they want to get better and need more people to play with to do it.

Also-- looked at some photos of Quarters. Do you have spectator screens set up? That is more important than league structure imo. People will be able to explain the game to new players while waiting to play.

With the whiteboard, I say no prizes. It's too hard to track-- people who take it seriously will be upset when others leave the bar. Maybe some drink specials on league night is a better option

We basically start the whiteboard once people start queuing up. So once you have like 7 people waiting to play, start the whiteboard. And then tell gold they have three games and they rotate. The whiteboard system is great because there's no set start/end time. Way more casual and inviting. And, if people do want set teams, they just have to sign up together on the white board and self-organize for games.

If you really have such a big demand for a structured league this early on, I would say throw a tournament soon. You need at least 3 weeks of advertising with posters near cabs/facebook event/social media/word of mouth from staff/community. It might be a good exercise for owners/staff to get an idea of what it takes to run, what to expect, etc.

Overall I say don't try to force it too hard, but make it known that Killer Queen players are meeting on certain days for those who want to play good games. Get players to follow the social media, join FB group or whatever they use to get info.

Starting out, pretty much everyone will be new/casual. Even your competitive try-hards will need some time before the skill gap becomes alienating. So I wouldn't try to separate the groups until you notice people avoiding gameplay a lot.

When you start out, I would suggest having casual meet-up days on weekends during the day. Maybe for the first 1-4 months. Adjust for demand. Either twice a month or every week for weekend play. Once it starts getting too crowded move league nights to weekday only, and let your filthy casuals own weekends.

Avoid structured league nights until at least after your first tournament. Keep it casual and fun for as long as you can. By structured, I mean avoid forcing "same-team-all-night" type of events. Let people get used to the game, the format, making friends, and being as accepting as possible. Also avoid "winner stays" rotation rules- these rules alienate new players. A common social barrier is "Oh, I don't want to lose the whole game for my team." White board sign ups seem to work well as a semi-structured league night. In SF, we put up the white board and people can sign up as individuals or teams. It helps with understanding a queue as well, otherwise queuing up to play requires actively asking people to leave and can be stressful.

Whiteboard format: Blue team pays for 3 games. After three games, blue team moves to gold side. New blue team pays for next 3 games. After three games, gold team steps off, new blue team moves to gold. However, this can make the wait really long if you have a queue of 6+ teams that know how to bring a game to famine. We will switch to a strict 3 games on-3 games off format in that case.

As for tournaments, I say wait 6 weeks before your first one. Best of 5 double elimination is most popular. I also suggest 6 weeks in between to avoid burnout. Some venues hold monthly but IMO it's too frequent for players to recover, come back, and train up again. Maybe once-a-month round robin on league nights to appease the real try-hards.

Normally we ask the bar to give out some prizes. Gift certs/pitchers. But now more venues have been getting sponsors from local breweries. Having a house KQ trophy/cup/belt for photo ops is also great.

We use challonge.com for brackets, but if you want to charge entry fees smash.gg is good but more complicated to use. In SF we don't charge entry fee.

Other tips: Being a community organizer and/or tournament organizer is a big job. It will be a lot to ask from your staff. Community will have lots of demands/expectations, and day-of tournament running will take multiple hands. Most locations let the community players take charge of this. In fact, they usually ask for it. IMO it's better to have your players run as much as possible to give it the grassroots control/feel. Players are more understanding of hiccups and will not blame the bar for inevitable tournament complaints. (It will happen, people take the game seriously). I suggest a guiding-hand approach at the beginning. Have some staff running events so you understand the needs challenges, but when players want to be more involved you should communicate and pass off that responsibility to how you see fit. Also try to appoint community leaders that are respectable and responsible.

Finally, you should have a code of conduct posted somewhere publicly. You are operating a bar (so lots of drunk people), the game is competitive, players will be invested in the game and community. You will have players that exhibit unsportsmanlike and/or toxic behavior. Have clear reporting instructions on that code of conduct, with explicit actions that may be taken. But also be reasonable with enforcement. Minority/underrepresented groups need to feel welcome. In particular, women receive the highest volume of toxic behavior in gaming communities. Killer Queen is one of the most accepting gaming communities I've ever been a part of, and I attribute that to strong women and allies in the community.

Edit- Links for you:

Here is a diagram on player breakdown.

Here is a video made by some ladies in PDX

Here is player interview that touches on being a female in KQ, but also is just really great for all the topics it touches on. 45 min long, but my fave interview so far

Happy Gaming!

--Brian

Tony the popoff god

sorry, that's a regional term I suppose.

It's the three-tap stick while standing at particular areas. Day/night maps re-use the same distance from ground to ceiling in a lot of different areas (example: floor-to-ceiling distance in hive and left/right gates). In the clip in above post- after gold queen j dive's through the vertical wrap, she lands on the platform near mid gate, and immediately short sticks into enemy warrior killing them.

Here's another clip where I (gold queen) short stick for two kills: https://clips.twitch.tv/CarelessChillyCatDuDudu

The caveat for me personally, is that I used the short stick as a crutch and still do. If people expect you to stick, they can punish you. IMO to pull off sticks well, you have to make very quick decisions to vary it, and use it sparingly to be less predictable. Ex: bounce instead of sticking, dive cancel to establish hover fast, short hop instead of sticking, immediately dive out of sticks. If you watch that entire game in my link here, I do a lot of those things. But we still lose the set 3-0. So I say that sticking is overrated compared to safe/smart queen play. For warriors it's even more situational because sticking is less powerful than for the queen.

Edit: Short sticking still works on Dusk in certain spots, but the stick lasts a shorter amount of time because the distances are a little longer.

is this on youtube yet?

i'll leave this here https://twitter.com/KillerQueenGame/status/936675065671929856

Learn to short stick first. Only use three-finger tap for short sticks, even if you tap some other way (personally I hold the third tap down out of preference but it shouldn't matter). If you are ledge guarding on day/night casuals, just short stick over and over in the hive and change up with bounces when a drone comes in (4 taps). Try to short stick immediately when you land. That muscle memory/confidence will help over time and give you a quick option in tight situations.

When you are in the lab, practice j hooks into sticks, and failed j hooks into sticks. I started on day map sticking above speed gate and j hooks below. If I failed j hooks I'd try to stick on the ceiling immediately anyway. I did the same drill on night map vert wrap (j hook through wrap, stick below side gates)

Also practice sticking from mid gate on day map. 5 taps. And then try to stick in that spot before hitting the ground. Eventually you won't need to count taps anymore.

Just keep in mind that sticks are very punishable and predictable if you over use them. If you know you are going to get punished, you can tap again to "cancel" your stick.

Anyways that's how I learned. Bonus clip from Cactus to show you night wrap j into stick kill as gold queen.

https://clips.twitch.tv/GorgeousAmericanTurnipBuddhaBar