Raptor: Heavyduty R. Evolution

Rev your engine!

The next DLC outfit is here!

And it comes with a story:

In an attempt to find out more about his past, Raptor tracked a piece of Rex Works equipment back to Citynetics, Shine City’s biggest construction company. After infiltrating the Citynetics factory with the help of Switch, he locked himself in one of the higher offices. Scrambling through some important documents, he noticed the names of the board directors. Reginald, Edgar and Xavier Saur. A loud bang erupted from the door. The guards had him cornered. Having lost his bat along the way, Raptor grabbed what gear he could find and mowed himself through the door.

As usual the pack has two variants:

  • The Heavyduty R. Evolution colorway. A bright overall with warning sign colors.
  • The Nightmare Survivalist colorway. A fever dream inspired monster look.

Get it on Steam here!

The Shadow Surge

Hellooo Mama

The Shadow Surge Update is live! Once you boot up that sweet LLB, the new character Dust & Ashes is unlocked straight away! But before you do, listen up for the latest in Shine City.

Dust & Ashes

Sentenced to death and hanged. In his final moment he was hit by lightning. The word ‘Dust’ echoed in his mind as he was thrown into a state of limbo between life and death. His shadow was split from his body and turned into an entity called Ashes. Dust carries with him a watch that stopped on the exact time of his execution.

Dust has some spicy angles, an asynchronous special using Ashes and a gameplay mechanic that allows him to float around the stage. Try holding his taunt for some slick stylo.

Special DLC outfit

We’re bringing the big guns with the first special DLC outfits ‘Master of the Mountain’ and ‘Master of the Plains’ for Dust & Ashes.

For DLC we want to do our best to create dope looks that are not out of place in the LL world, instead of your usual popular youtuber skin. If you agree and want to see more, consider dropping a dime or two to support the cause. A big thanks for playing either way!

DLContents

  • The Master of the Mountain colorway. An orange-black mountaineering inspired look with the classic red mask.
  • The Master of the Plains colorway. An off white desert nomad inspired look with a black mask.
  • A special bird-of-legend version of Ashes for both colorways

Now, on to the full changelist:

The Changelist

Main dish

  • Added Dust & Ashes – straight unlocked and ready to go!
  • Added unlockable outfits ‘Secret King – Iron Grip’ and ‘Anonymous Emperor’ for Dust & Ashes
  • Added DLC outfits ‘Master of the Mountain’ and ‘Master of the Plains’ for Dust & Ashes

Gameplay

  • Started a new Ranked season with faster ranking
  • Added in-air turning by holding up
  • Added smashing from the ground if you jump on the same frame + double jump at the first frame of smashing
  • Added a new angle to Latch’s special, down-forward to get a shallow direction
  • Allowed special buffering when hitting the ball at the very first frame of neutral/smash/spike by using the usual grab input

Various

  • Big performance optimizations in the stage backgrounds
  • Made certain outfits a bit cheaper
  • You can now scroll through outfits with your mousewheel in the lobby
  • The arcade victory picture has been updated!

Fixes

  • Fixed Switch’s flip not activating when holding down but not crouching
  • Fixed spooky grab deny after successful counter
  • Fixed Candyman not getting hit on a re-candy parry counter
  • Disallowed parry after a grab is countered (but not in Teams or Strikers modes)
  • Toxic’s graffiti doesn’t clash on the same frame with others anymore (advantage to Toxic)
  • Jet and Doombox are no longer swapped when backing out of their showcase without a mouse
  • Scoring against yourself in Lethal Volley is now reflected on the summary screen
  • You can now configure a fourth controller in input options
  • Powerups no longer move the camera out of retro stage bounds
  • Player names no longer parse markup

Smash Out 2019

Lethal League Blaze is a side tournament at the charity fighting game event Smash Out on November 16 in St. Louis. And we are donating $5 for every participant!

Jump in at: https://smash.gg/so2019

The Nintendo Switch Performance Patch Is Here!

And it has a few extra treats we have not mentioned before! Hold on tight, these will later come to all the other platforms with the Shadow Surge update as well.

  • You can now smash from the ground if you jump on the same frame
  • You can also double jump on the first frame of a smash
  • Latch’s special has an extra angle:
    hold down-forward to release the ball in a new direction
  • You no longer need to crouch for performing a grounded Switchflip,
    just hold down
  • You can now turn in the air while holding up
  • Fixed Candyman not getting hit on a re-candy parry grab
  • Disallowed parry after a grab is countered
  • Made certain outfits a bit cheaper
  • Jet and Doombox are no longer swapped
    when backing out of their showcase
  • You can now configure a fourth controller in the input options

Lethal League Blaze at Heat Wave 3

We are sponsoring the tournament at Heat Wave 3 in Arizona this weekend with $300, which brings the total pot bonus up to $400!

At the time of writing, sign ups are at 33 players. That makes this the second largest local Lethal League Blaze tournament after stunfest!

If you cannot make it there yourself, the live stream is scheduled for
5 PM MST on Saturday October 19 at twitch.tv/azrivalsofaether
with Dair Productions casting it.

The Nintendo Switch patch goes live on October 16!

We have reworked all character models and stages, tweaked visuals and drove over the code with a bulldozer a couple of times to vastly improve performance on Nintendo Switch in both docked and handheld mode. A 1v1 matchmaking mode is added for the competitively minded among a myriad of other fixes. Here’s the full list:

  • Improved performance
  • Added 1v1 online mode
  • Fixed certain un-unlockable outfits
  • Fixed memory leaks
  • Higher resolution for docked mode
  • Correct system language on first start
  • Character model fixes
  • Fixed unnecessary server logouts

Tokyo Game Show trip

Part of the team just returned from a trip to Japan. Showing Blaze at Tokyo Game Show and being there while the boxed version released in stores was a blast! Turns out that the Japanese fans are just as hyped up as the fans from everywhere else. The team got showered with gifts, hosted a tournament at the Dutch Embassy, did interviews and had an idol group play our game (peak Japanese right there). We even bought our own game too!

Physical releases are still pretty relevant in the land of the rising sun and Dion has never hidden the fact that he gets a lot of inspiration from Japanese creators. For these reasons it made sense to do a Japan-exclusive special edition for Switch and PS4. However, since the language can be switched ingame and they’re both region free, you can still buy the box from abroad, get the goodies and play it as you would normally. It contains the game, a sticker, an artbooklet and a little Candyman keychain. I’d say it’s a must for collectors.

The Shadow Surge

This other upcoming uptown update will bring along the optimizations from the Nintendo Switch patch WITH of course the boyest of boys, Dust & Ashes. They will, like the rest of the cast, have alternate outfits to unlock and we’re happy to tease one of them today!

Voice Actor audition and Posters

Are you into voice acting? Do you know a cat who’s into voice acting? We’ve decided to do open auditions for the latest Blaze character, Dust. This is the chance to get involved with the Lethal League! The info to enter can be found here.

Keep in mind, you’re required to have a decent recording mic. But it IS a paid gig. So give it a shot if you have the conviction and the gear! The deadline is 5 September.

Poster Deal

We were pretty blown away at the response, turns out we sold out in 2 hours! We might have to consider a second batch if that many people missed out on it. In any case, we’re preparing to send them out so HANG TIGHT. BTW If you want to have your poster signed, send a quick DM with your info to @RemmersTim

Dust and Ashes character reveal

Well well, look who decided to show up…

Straight from the hereafter, it’s Dust & Ashes

Sentenced to death and hanged. In his final moment he was hit by lightning. The word ‘Dust’ echoed in his mind as he was thrown into a state of limbo between life and death. His shadow was split from his body and turned into an entity called Ashes. Dust carries with him a watch that stopped on the exact time of his execution.

The Shadow Surge Update

The boyos are not fully assembled yet, so you’ll have to wait for the ‘Shadow Surge’ update to drop before you can start playing with them. We’ll be showing more stuff that we’ll add in that update in the coming weeks. This will include the changes and optimizations we made for the console version of the game, which means the game will run better on Steam as well (but we have a good hunch that existing mods will break and need a workaround).

Speaking of consoles, when can they expect the Shadow Surge update? Due to the strict patching guidelines on game consoles it won’t be simultaneous. The Nintendo Switch version is still scheduled to get the optimizations patch first after all!

Poster Pack

We’re doing a limited Lethal League Poster Pack deal! We’ve got 80 of these babies lined up for you to get your dirty hands on.

Get yourself over to the shop for more info and order it right away:
https://team-reptile.com/shop/

Console Release – Poster Pack – Mystery Man

Lethal League Blaze is out on Switch, PS4 and Xbox One!

Switch users can also download a free demo on the Nintendo eShop.
Tell your Nintendo homies to check it out!

Physical Release

Japan will see a physical version for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 published by Amuzio. It supports all languages just like the digital versions and use the one from your system settings. You can get it worldwide on Amazon!

Poster Pack

You can buy a limited Lethal League Poster Pack deal starting next week!

This pack contains two Team Reptile game flyers, one A2 Lethal League poster size and one A1 Lethal League Blaze Poster, both designed by the famed illustrator Kudaman.

We will send out only 80 of these boyos internationally. Orders open up next Monday and close on September 4th, so don’t hesitate too long! Head over to The Official Discord to stay updated.

This other thing

Then there’s this other thing happening next Monday…
Coming August 19 there will emerge a shade from the dusty plains of southern Shine City. The reveal should happen at exactly 17:00 CEST. The man said he’ll do his best to be on time, it seems his watch is not working correctly anymore.

If you feel like staring at your screen for a few days,
head on over to the Reveal Countdown page.

Switch, PS4 and Xbox One Release Date

Mark that calendar! Friday the 12th of July is when Lethal League Blaze will be available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and Xbox One!

We’re looking forward to seeing you beat up your friends on the couch or on the train with your favorite street ball-game. We’ve brought in the stylin’ Kudaman again to do a celebratory mastahpiece for the release.

Witness the sickness:

Harry Damm is D Fast

Harri Dammert’s ‘Whipz’ is the track giving System’s construction project in New Rise District just the right amount of pizzazz. Hailing from Helsinki he’s been making music under the name D Fast for over two decades. We’ve done an interview to find out more.

Tell us a little something about who you are and what you do.

I’m Harri, sound nerd and games enthusiast from Helsinki. I’m currently studying game design and production full-time in a university here in Helsinki, but on the side I work on different audio related things and also design escape room games. Decided a few years ago to pursue a career in the game industry, so that’s the path I’m taking currently.

How did the name D Fast come about?

I vaguely remember the origin, it’s been quite a while! I composed my first songs around the age of 7 on the piano while doodling random lyrics on paper. Naturally this meant that I needed an artist name of some sort. At the time I was super into eurodance artists like 2 Unlimited and DJ BoBo, so in my head the word “Fast” felt somehow suitable. Then the “D” came after thinking of the name DJ Fast, soon figuring out that I wasn’t really an actual DJ but merely a beginner pianist so I just skipped the “J”. Guess I was quite a self-aware musician back then!

You’ve been crafting audio since the 90s! What tools did you start out with and what was the most significant change for your workflow and style since then?

My mom used to play the piano, so our family had an actual piano back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. I messed around with it, mostly just playing what I heard in the TV or radio. At some point my parents figured that this kid is into music, so they got me a Yamaha Clavinova digital piano. I think I made almost 50 songs with it, saving them on a floppy disk as midi data. Later on I got into very early E-Jay type of programs on my father’s computer. The big change came in ‘99 when my friend showed me this interesting floppy disk with different shareware programs. One of these was Fast Tracker 2 and kind of started it all for me. I used FT2 for around 6 years, until I found out about Renoise, which is a modern take on oldschool trackers. It just feels super natural for me to sequence vertically, although I do use Reaper every now and then, especially when working with longer audio tracks.

What are your biggest influences when creating music?

There’s no easy answer for this, but usually my music starts from an interesting sound I’ve stumbled upon. This can mean something from my vast sample library, a specific strum of an instrument or something I’ve whipped up in a synthesizer, hardware or software. I’m also very keen on drums and other percussive elements, so this is more than often a starting point when I make music. As in artistic influences, there are way too many to mention. I’m a sucker for ‘70s grooves and also the big-beat era of ‘90s, so anything from the funky Funkadelic/Parliament to Fatboy Slim is what influences me. Also I have to give a major shoutout to the demoscene and artists like Elwood, Skaven, Warder, Norfair… (I could go on and on!) These artists made me learn all sort of tracking tricks and also gave my music the initial push forward, influencing and defining my music in several ways.

‘Whipz’ came from the long unreleased concept album Bring Back the Happy of 2010. What’s the story behind that and how did the track change for Blaze?

I have a few unreleased albums/collections of tunes, that are sort of an experiment ground. BBtH was basically me imitating and giving a homage to some of my favourite artists, namely Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers (take the song Stockmarketin’ Beatz for example, title seems familiar no?) so the whole album was basically just me having fun. I shared the album with some of my friends, but mostly it was just for me. I think it was someone who had heard the album that told me I should release the songs, so I ended up putting the whole collection online.
When I was asked to license Whipz for LLB, I had to look for the raw files and then pretty much remix everything, because the song used some outdated plugins and well, it was an oldie so naturally I wanted it to represent my current touch. Then I did some minor compositional adjustments, like adding a pulsating synth and make the song loopable for the game.

How did the second track ‘Jungaaaa’ make it into the game?

I’ve been lurking and chatting in the Team Reptile discord server and I have a habit of spamming random WIPs (work in progress) and songs in the #create channel. One time I shared a one minute clip called Jungaaaa and one of the Reptilians sent me a message asking if I’d be up to finish the song and license it to the game. I think the instructions were “Make it longer”, so that’s pretty much what I did.
The original clip was all about a rapid slap bass I had sampled from my bass playing and it had quite the hasty feeling to it, so I thought maybe I’ll just think of different sections that share the same feeling, without concentrating too much on the structure. I had to do only a couple of iterations, mainly removing some rock guitars I recorded for it (there are some glimpses of those left in the song) and adjusting the mixdown. I had so much fun making the song!

Can you share what you are up to now?

I’m mostly working on my master’s thesis. On the side I do make new music and I’m planning to release a new album in 2019, mostly to celebrate my 20th year of tracker music but also because it’s been a while since I did any bigger releases, latest being from 2014. If you’re hanging in the Team Reptile’s discord server, you might’ve gotten a glimpse of the new album!
Otherwise I’m just trying to learn more about game development and designing games, hopefully nailing a job in the industry in the near future.

And lastly, what’s your favourite thing about Lethal League Blaze?

I think the team did a great job getting together a diverse group of artists, giving the game a very fresh musical tone, without making the game sound out of place. And I’ve gotta give a shoutout to all the creative people sharing their (fan) art in the Team Reptile discord, so much talent hanging around the game. I’m personally still waiting for the Switch version of the game before I dive into the gameplay.

Thank you and all the best with your master’s thesis!

Check out Harry’s latest release, Spirit:

 

 

A Fresh Blaze of Fire

Lethal League Blaze is out and banging! It reached number one best selling game on Steam during the release and it placed #7 best rated game on Steam of 2018! The game went from two week prototype, to Steam hit, to arriving on consoles and spawning a sequel that is our most successful game yet. It has seen it’s fair share of changes over the years. Of course the latest entry, Blaze, is the biggest jump. Although even the original game varied wildly over time, people tend to forget. Let’s go over some choices in Lethal League Blaze, intentional and incidental, what was and what’s to come.

Mobility

Many numbers remained the exact same coming from the original game. It was important to me that the high speed feeling of the game stayed. However, overall stage size was increased and each character was also sized up a bit. This does make the movement seem relatively slower in the end. A higher movement speed will be introduced to remedy this in the next update.

Commitment is a new concept for Blaze so to speak. You could get pretty damn far spamming in Lethal League, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Once some flexibility was sacrificed in Blaze, signs began to show that it didn’t really feel right (it did look good for that matter). I started to adopt a methodology of tech-to-circumvent where you could get more flexibility if you worked for it. This plays into the ‘easy to pick up, hard to master’ ideal, so I liked it more. From this mindset came the double jump turns and reverse aerials, the return of late turn swings and, most recently, pivoting. Swing recovery remained the same as the original however, although that’s still something interesting to tweak in the future.

The upcoming ‘pivot’ tech on the left and regular turning on the right.

Reads

For everyone not aware of all the hip fighting game speak: a read is short for predicting your opponents next move and acting upon it. You’re reading your opponents mind. Every competitive game has this in some form. It’s not a random guess, because people can fundamentally not be random. However, there’s always an however. Punishment in the game for making a wrong read, especially grabbing and parrying, is pretty much a K.O. No one in their right mind would bet their stock on a single read. The reads that did somehow go right don’t feel like something thought through. This is frustrating because you want to be beaten by someone smarter, not a clown seemingly throwing out moves. In the next update we’ll be seeing a system of non-life-or-death results from high speed grab counters and parries.

Damage

Honestly, the HP system was a huge change and the idea was that it would be tweaked more over time. Complaints about this weren’t really coming through, so it was shoved back. The public beta will next go live with an increase of minimum damage from 20% to 25% and a decrease in the speed needed to K.O. from 150 to 120. We’ll see how this will fare. More changes can happen here, but they will have to come with a split between Free For All and 1V1 or a damage scale setting in the lobby options.

Character Balance

Now character balance is a more feely subject than you would expect. It has to do with numbers, but also perception and preference. Lethal League has always had characters that were very close to each other in terms of mechanics (aside from their special moves), making tier lists not as important as you’d think. Nevertheless, we’re interested in your thoughts! You can share them with us through this google survey.

Stay tuned to the Team Reptile Twitter or Discord channel if you want to know about coming updates and other eye candy!