Burning Sword: Death Sun, November 17, 2026

Launch day Arena Mode competition

On November 17, accepted content creators will livestream a single Arena Mode run as soon as Burning Sword: Death Sun unlocks on Steam at 15:00 UTC. The highest score of the day wins $1,000, and the Nomadic Games team will be in the chats cheering everyone on.

The competition is optional. You don't need to enter to get a review copy, and all key requests will be considered either way.

Apply through the review copy form

Tick the competition box on the form, choose your country of residence and agree to these terms. Accepted entrants get a confirmation email with their key.

Terms and conditions

By ticking the competition box on the review copy form, you confirm you are 18 or older and agree to everything on this page.

Who can enter

• Content creators and streamers, 18 or older, who applied through the review copy form, ticked the competition box, gave their country of residence, agreed to these terms and received an acceptance email from justin@risingtidepublishing.com. Only accepted entrants are scored.
• Free to enter. Nothing to buy. Your Steam key is provided.
• Staff of Nomadic Games and Rising Tide Publishing, and their immediate families, can play along but can't win.
• Open worldwide, except to residents of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, where sanctions stop us from running the competition or paying the prize.
• Also void anywhere a free skill competition like this is prohibited or restricted by local law. Entrants are responsible for making sure they can take part where they live.

When

• Launch day is Tuesday, November 17, 2026. The competition starts when Burning Sword: Death Sun unlocks on Steam at 15:00 UTC (22:00 in Bangkok). Accepted entrants get the time in their own time zone by email at least 24 hours ahead.
• Your run has to start by 16:00 UTC, within the first 60 minutes after the unlock, live on stream. That gives you time for the download and the stream setup, and keeps everyone on the same clock.
• Runs that start outside that window are welcome, and we'll cheer for them, but they're not scored.

How a run works

1. Play the Early Access build as released on Steam on November 17. No demo build, no press build, no earlier version.
2. Go live on a public stream on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Kick, Facebook or X. You gave us the channel link on your application. If you stream somewhere else, tell us before launch day.
3. Start Arena Mode. The first Arena Mode run you start on launch day is your entry. Quitting, restarting or alt-tabbing out to start over doesn't give you a new one.
4. Play it out. Your score is the Arena Mode score shown on screen when the run ends. Keep it on screen for a few seconds so it's clear in the VOD.
5. Within two hours of finishing, email justin@risingtidepublishing.com with your score, your stream link and the timestamp where the run starts. Keep the VOD public for at least 14 days.

If the game crashes before you've scored a single point, say so on stream and start again. One crash restart per entrant. A crash after scoring ends the run at the score on screen when it happened.

Keep it clean

• Keyboard and mouse or any controller. Your choice.
• Any in-game settings are fine, as long as the build is unmodified. No mods, trainers, cheats, save editing, macros, speed changes or anything that touches the game files or memory.
• Stream in one continuous take, with game video and audio, so we can verify the run end to end. Overlays, cams and commentary are all welcome.
• Follow your platform's rules and keep the stream free of harassment and hate. We can disqualify any entry at our discretion, and that decision is final.

The prize

• $1,000 USD to the highest verified single-run score. One winner.
• Ties go to whoever finished their run first, by stream timestamp.
• We verify scores against the VODs and announce the winner on the Burning Sword socials within 72 hours of launch. The winner hears from us by email first.
• Paid by PayPal or bank transfer within 30 days of verification. Any taxes or fees on the prize are the winner's. We may ask the winner to confirm their identity before paying.

Disclosure and your content

• You're playing on a free key and competing for a prize, so disclose that on stream and in any post about it, the way your platform and local advertising rules ask (for example "#ad" or "sponsored"). The FTC in the US and the ASA in the UK both treat a free game plus a prize as a material connection.
• Your stream and VOD stay yours. By entering, you let Nomadic Games and Rising Tide share clips, links and screenshots of your run on the Burning Sword channels, with credit to you.
• We use your application details only to run the competition and send your key. We don't share them.

The fine print

• If the Steam release slips or Steam itself has problems at unlock, we'll move the competition to the new unlock time and email every entrant. If it can't run, we'll say so and nobody loses anything but the day.
• We're not responsible for stream outages, platform bans, internet drops or hardware trouble on your side. If your stream dies mid-run, the run counts up to where the VOD stops.
• Organizer: Rising Tide Publishing Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand, on behalf of Nomadic Games. Questions to justin@risingtidepublishing.com.

Apply through the review copy form