Fancy winning yourself $2000? All you need to do is beat retro dungeon crawler indie game 99Floors, and developer Luke Powell will apparently give it to you. As of yet, nobody has beaten the “hardcore, intense dungeon crawler platformer” and all of its 99 floors over 10 stages.
99Floors released on itch.io and the game’s website on May 16, selling 1000 copies within the first three days. But nobody has been able to complete the game due to its difficulty, so developer Luke Powell started a cash prize fund using 30% of the profits made from 99Floors. That prize will be going to the first person to successfully beat the game, and while the fund currently sits at just under $2000, it’ll increase as more people buy the game.
“What’s the catch?” I hear you say, reading this on your device of choice. Well, you have to complete all 99 floors of 99Floors without using any cheats, modifications, or exploits. You also have to do it without dying and using the latest version of the game at the time of completion. As proof, you’ll need to record yourself from start to finish without any interruptions, in order to prove that you followed all of these guidelines and finished the game like a good, pure, and honest gamer.
I asked Powell about what inspired him to run the competition. “When I realized just how challenging players were finding the game. Whether it be let’s play videos, forum comments, or just emails, players were really finding the game challenging, as it should be! So I thought the competition would be a great idea to add an extra element of challenge, an incentive to defeat all the floors if you will! Also, as the prize fund comes directly out of a percentage of sales, it’s a good way to give back to all those who have supported the game.”
If you wanted to get some practice in but were worried about a time limit, then don’t worry. Powell plans on running the competition indefinitely until someone wins. “So if 99Floors remain undefeated for a while, the prize pool is likely to grow considerably!”
