Our third host for the ‘South Pole Bebop at Campus’ series is ‘Level Up’, a game club at the University of Seoul, Korea. They mentioned that they do love to play newly released games on Steam, so how did they react to our game, South Pole Bebop, which will be released soon? Check out the reviews from Level Up, the club of game enthusiasts, right away.
‘Level Up’, A game club at the University of Seoul
Q. Please tell us about your club, Level Up.
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Level Up is a gaming club that was founded in March 2018 and is now in its 6th year. The club currently has about 150 members and anyone who enjoys playing games is welcome to join our club. Since we have members who enjoy a variety of games, you will be able to meet others who play the same game no matter what game you enjoy. Additionally, we aim to create a comfortable atmosphere without unnecessary formality between senior and junior members, allowing new members to quickly become accustomed to the club activities. We think this is a big advantage of being a part of Level Up.
Q. What does the club mainly do? Any events?
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Our development department has members who are passionate about game development, and we are constantly working on creating new games. We often collaborate with clubs from other schools as well. Last year, we partnered with the art team from Kaywon University of Art and Design and released a defense game called 'Iroomae Defense' featuring our school mascot on the Google Play Store. Currently, we are in the process of developing a new game with the aim of releasing it on Steam this summer.
We frequently organize and participate in game competitions, including the ‘LCU - LOL Championship UOS,’ an annual intramural game competition at the University of Seoul. And, recently, we secured second place in the campus competition LoL match at PlayX4, and we also engaged in friendly matches with game clubs from other universities, such as Kyung Hee University.
Q. Are there any special activities or events that only Level Up has?
There is a "Mentor-Mentee Program" that utilizes various game experts within the club. Mentors, who are experts in each game position, create interesting profiles similar to guest online lecturers and give lectures to newbies. This program became popular because of its entertaining and distinctive lectures. For instance, one mentor suggests tips on how to watch Netflix while playing acquiring MapleStory goods.
During the exam period, we organize events for members to confirm their study progress or scores to ensure that club activities do not disrupt the academic environment. Our biggest event is participating in G-Star, the largest game show in Korea. Last year, around 30 people went to Busan and even rented a yacht to have a fulfilling youth.
SPB League : Strategy vs. Strategy, The Winners Are…
Q. What led you to willingly take part in the event?
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We joined the event as a former alumni suggested it. When the event was proposed, the club executives held a meeting, and everyone agreed that it would be a great opportunity for club members to have fun by playing games. Many of our club members who are actively involved in game development applied to participate and a lot of production team members joined on the day of the event. Since most of our club members enjoy playing one or two new Steam games every month and like games from different genres, we thought it would be a great chance to try out some new games.
Q. After a fierce league competition with all participants, the final four were chosen. You, as the President and Vice President, were among the final four. What strategies did you employ?
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(Kim Ye Bin, the club President)
= I realized that entering the building area would be challenging, so instead of trying to destroy the building, I used a strategy that involved using zombies. The idea was to attract the zombies towards my opponent and force them to deal with the zombie attacks, allowing me to take advantage of the situation and launch my own attacks while the opponent was preoccupied with the zombies.
(Yang Ho Hyeon, the club’s Vice President)
= I felt that the building was too sturdy, so I came up with a strategy involving characters. I decided to focus on taking out one of the opponent's characters early in the game. By crashing one of the opponent's characters into the building, I was able to deal significant damage and quickly eliminate the character, giving our team a numerical advantage in the early stages.
Q. Have your opinions changed after playing the game?
When I first saw the demo version on Steam, I thought this game would be a typical mass-produced game. However, when I actually played it, my perception of the game changed 180 degrees. In particular, the addition of zombies as an unexpected variable in the PvPvE format seemed novel and attractive.
Initially, the team focused more on participating in the new event than on the game itself, but after the event, they had a heated discussion about the game for an hour. They expressed regret, saying, “If we had used this strategy, we would have won!” and shared a lot of positive feedback about the game’s unique elements.
Heated Brain Battle Scene
To minimize the element of luck and evaluate the participants' skills more fairly, we used the Swiss system* instead of the tournament format for this event. All participants had equal opportunities, and we could feel their passion increasing as the rounds went on. Their enthusiasm and reactions made the event even more exciting. *Swiss System: All participants play the same number of matches, and participants with similar performances are matched up in each round.
The journey toward our target audience will continue. In the next event, we will share news of our collaboration with SNUGDC, a game development club at Seoul National University. Please look forward to it!
Read our previous post: South Pole Bebop at Campus: SKKU 'Team Sunbi' Tournament
