Pollice Verso by JHax

[raw]
made by JHax for Ludum Dare 46 (JAM)

In the colosseum of Ancient Rome, gladiators fight with their lives on the line, all for the entertainment of the people.
However, it is the Emperor who decides whether the fallen shall live or die. Their judgement is cast 'pollice verso': "with a turned thumb".

polliceVerso.PNG

As Rome's mightiest gladiator, you fight not just for yourself, but for the lives of others.
Defeat your opponents without killing them, and if the Emperor is pleased, he might just spare them - and spare you from having to pay their owners the cost of a new slave...

POST JAM FIX - Fixed a game breaking bug that would crash the whole game if a speech type move was used on some levels.!

Ratings

Overall 2096th 3.065⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1904th 2.977⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 909th 3.438⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1607th 3.479⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 2168th 2.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 995th 3.045⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1996th 2.886⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 8🗨️

Feedback

misterG420
21. Apr 2020 · 08:48 UTC
Interesting interpretation of the theme, I like that! Interesting mechanics, I guess you can use it really well to scale up the game and make it even bigger? Fun stuff!
SlimBun
21. Apr 2020 · 13:04 UTC
Very hard controller. Not very good for 3 days.
drikdrok
21. Apr 2020 · 13:05 UTC
Nice game. I like the Swords and Sandals inspiration! It would have been better if you could navigate menus and buttons with the mouse though
EyesOfLamia
21. Apr 2020 · 13:10 UTC
Interesting idea! Quite different from everything else I've seen so far. Has great potential!
Haro Games
21. Apr 2020 · 13:11 UTC
Interesting game
VernalBehemoth
21. Apr 2020 · 13:12 UTC
AMAZING CONCEPT!! I really loved buying my moves and configuring other things before fighting. Well done for thinking of this and with more time and some polish this is something i would love to play.

The only issue is that I didn't need to do anything to just buy the best move and them I won every match by doing a wild swing. If it had more requirement to investigate all the things you had put into the game (by making it harder for the player to win) then this would have been awesome! Also the enemy surrendered a lot!

Great effort
Black Flag
21. Apr 2020 · 13:13 UTC
I like the turned based combat, as well as the arena graphics! Overall, this is a really good jam entry!
despdair
21. Apr 2020 · 13:13 UTC
It's too long and not competitive, player hardly loses life so there is no worries about death. Enemies should do more damage I think
Antraxxx
21. Apr 2020 · 13:14 UTC
Nice game, i liked it.
It would be great to have mouse controls and the UI is not very clear.
Hengen
21. Apr 2020 · 13:14 UTC
a Cool and accomplished game with an amazing concept! 10/10 would play again

also, Fun to see other people make a Gladiator/arena game! :D
joewolf
21. Apr 2020 · 13:15 UTC
Really good game! Some audio (crowd noises?) and animations would really liven it up, but even without it still had me invested in getting that wooden sword!
Halberd
21. Apr 2020 · 13:16 UTC
Super cool interpretation of the theme, and it's genuinely fun to play with surprisingly in depth mechanics. I think some sound effects could go a long way. Has great potential to be a full game!
simex
21. Apr 2020 · 13:17 UTC
I almost didn't play the game since I didn't realize you had to use the keyboard to navigate, so I was clicking the start button like an idiot, thought the game was just broken.
anyways, this was a really cool twist on the theme I love the idea that you just have to make the fight interesting, but not actually kill the opponent. It'd be nice to get some feedback/tutorialization for the 'prepare for fight' screen, since I didn't really understand how it worked, but I made a lot of money so I guess I did something right!

I really liked this, but if you checkout our submission you might find that I'm a little biased for gladiator themed games, ahah.
T8kk
21. Apr 2020 · 13:17 UTC
Hey I spent quite a while playing this game, nice depth you can get in to. Unfortunately I didn't quite understand the smbolism on EXC part as i did several moves and how the thumbs were indicated and to which team. Other than that nice and fresh idea with enjoyable playing, well done!
Maxathon
21. Apr 2020 · 13:18 UTC
Love this. Managing the crowd's entertainment level, your weapons, and your moveset alongside money is a great balancing act. Great work.
Arqcenick
21. Apr 2020 · 13:25 UTC
Very nice game with no bugs, very nice for a 3 day game. I'd love to have a character progression system though and permadeath.
Very clean UI as well.
dick-claus
21. Apr 2020 · 13:41 UTC
Fun game, some jokes are awesome. Gladiator theme is cool too. Well done.
Tomyomy
21. Apr 2020 · 13:57 UTC
Mechanics of the game were enjoyable, however I did find the game immensely easy. The writing for the weapons was pretty neat and the art was quite nice, I feel as if the lack of audio did make the atmosphere feel a bit empty. Still, I enjoyed the unique concepts like relying on the crowd and the Emperor's mood, and also the fact that you didn't want to kill the enemy but make them surrender. All in all, good job!
Rojola
28. Apr 2020 · 11:44 UTC
Gladiator management career mode game. Not sure if the design was lacking some challenge, or I just accidentaly was making the exact right moves all the time :D This could be expanded into full sports manager type of game! I wish there was some audio thou :(
joemid
28. Apr 2020 · 19:01 UTC
Fantastic use of theme to convey the politics of the arena! This is a propaganda tool like pro-wrestling! Amazing work for 3 days- I love gladiator games and I don't know of any game that does this quite like you do. My fav is prolly Domina, but just played this by @dummydojo (their entry for the last LD)

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/45/the-legend-of-nudacus

![retiree.jpg](///raw/684/z/33834.jpg)

Great job! I hope you put more into this!