Bards Battles by wdebowicz

[raw]
made by wdebowicz for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Welcome to the Medieval Comedy Club!

You will face your friend Carl in a bards freestyle battle!

Check the painting theme, collect words and use them in your song!

logo.png

bards-battle.gif

Dev notes: - I'm sorry for the big file size [1.2GB]! game is using LLM for interactive text generation based on user input and the the model is part of the build so it can work offline. - Game is deployed to dropbox but you do not need account there to download it

Ratings

Overall 743th 2.729⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 692th 2.739⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 355th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 764th 2.543⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 696th 2.478⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 395th 3.125⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Humor 358th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 639th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

Ntimi
Oct 12th · 15:01 UTC
The premise sounds interesting, but the download size is a bit much for me - 1.2 GB isn't something that's downloaded quickly.
🎤 wdebowicz
Oct 12th · 15:10 UTC
Its bigger then I hoped. It's the size of a MML model so the game can be played offline. Uploaded to dropbox, took around 1min to download for friends who tested it.
Arnazian
Oct 12th · 19:04 UTC
Sadly it requires me to make a drop box account to download it, in the future I'd strongly recommend trying to make it work in a web player, but if for whatever reason it's not possible at least host it somewhere where people don't need to create accounts just to play the game.
🎤 wdebowicz
Oct 12th · 19:20 UTC
@arnazian you do not need dropbox account, below dropbox login popup there is a link to continue without account.


![ld.png](///raw/702/z/6f542.png)
Profugo Barbatus
Oct 12th · 21:26 UTC
1.2gb for a 2d jam game is a bit nuts for me, had to pass. But I guess something smaller on disk like TinyLlama might have struggled with the contextual elements.
Norah
Oct 13th · 13:27 UTC
The concept is so cool, love it ! :smile:
D3kryption
Oct 13th · 19:13 UTC
People saying how bad 1.2gb for a game is and I'm sat pushing Unreal games at 4GB + in previous jams lmao

The only reason its big is the LLM haha

Honestly nice work. I think you've used AI in a way that adds to the game rather than the negative aspects haha

The first few were pretty funny and you can really write anything thats what I liked. I think it needed a bit "more" like an opposing from an enemy haha but honestly it was good! Its the first game of its type I've seen.

nice job! :D
Schu
Oct 14th · 07:16 UTC
The mood is strong and it's a very charming game. I do agree the download size was a big barrier but the concept was cool enough for me to overcome that :)
HappyTrollAngus
Oct 14th · 15:17 UTC
This was a very interesting premise, and a unique way to make a game using AI.
If you're looking for detailed feedback, I'd like to see some sort of indicator when the AI is generating the next output. Right now, the screen just does nothing for a bit after you submit your words. So I ended up trying to click or push buttons randomly to try to advance the screen, then wondering if the game is just locked up.
Thank you for this, it's made me think more deeply about how to use LLMs within games
Rol
Oct 14th · 16:58 UTC
The concept is cool! But it's a bit confusing at first how to play. It will be better to have a small example or tutorial
🎤 wdebowicz
Oct 16th · 19:16 UTC
If the file is too big for you but you are still curious, here is a gameplay:

https://youtu.be/lamphPKDtRI
Pegasus
Oct 16th · 22:19 UTC
It's a really interesting concept. A lot of fun trying to see what words it thinks are allowed and aren't. I wish there was some kind of text to speak for it to sing the bars but I appreciate how much work probably went into just getting the LLM working. Great Job!
Adam Konig
Oct 16th · 22:40 UTC
![Screenshot 2025-10-16 153857.png](///raw/b97/72/z/6f6fe.png)
Very impressed technically with the LLM integration and I think you added it in a way that is interesting and unique and still provides the player with a lot of fun agency. I do wish there was "more" generally like perhaps a rival verse generated by an LLM as well that ALSO generated the terms from the image? And maybe you get to choose the image? Not sure but overall very cool concept!
darianifakina
Oct 23rd · 14:52 UTC
Super fun, love it!