Planned Release Date: Jul 23, 2026

About This Game

A fully branching narrative Roman Gladiator RPG across 12 chapters.

Over 577 historically accurate story events and 1,800+ player choices across a complete arc: from your first day in the ludus to the final question of what remains when the games are over.

Four distinct origins, each with a different story:

• The Slave — Born in chains. The arena is just another cage.

• The Conquered — A warrior brought low by Roman iron.

• The Debtor — Sold by the courts. Survival is a transaction.

• The Volunteer — You chose this. The crowd will remember.

A stat system that reflects who you are, not just what you can do. Your character is defined across three categories of statistics:

• Combat & Physical: Body, Nerve, Discipline, Cunning, Mind, Perception

• Social: Fame, Crowd Favor, Roman Approval, Solidarity

• Soul: Defiance, Mercy, Rage, Humanity, Faith, Spirit, Cruelty, Despair, Obedience, Pride

  Stats are earned through choices, not grinding. Each stat has its own ceiling and soul stats are harder to master than combat stats. They gate story paths and determine which options are available to you, building a character that is entirely yours.

19 distinct endings across 8 major paths. Your story can end in triumph, tragedy, exile, martyrdom, escape, political compromise, rebellion, or quiet freedom. The Champion. The Martyr. The Rebel King. The Honored Exile. The Freedman. The Escaped. The Senator's Hand. The Survivor. No two playthroughs end the same way.

Pen-and-ink illustrations. Every story event and player choice is accompanied by bespoke engravings rendered in the style of Roman antiquity, including over 2,500 unique illustrations across the full game.

An original score and ambient soundscape. Each chapter has its own musical composition and environmental audio, shifting from the dusty heat of the training ground to the roar of fifty thousand Romans to the quiet of a cell the night before everything changes.

Three manual save slots plus autosave. Explore different origins and paths without losing your progress. The chapter select lets you return to any chapter you have already completed.

What Path Will Your Gladiator Take?

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Ludus: A Gladiator Story was built entirely by one first time developer. AI-assisted tools were used during development, primarily to help with learning & troubleshooting programming complexities and technical implementation, and to a lesser extent to support testing for illustration quality and connecting narrative paths. Every piece of content in the game was personally shaped, rewritten, and approved by the developer. There is no live or procedurally generated AI content in the game itself.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Ludus: A Gladiator Story is a text-based narrative game set in ancient Rome. It contains the following mature content:

Violence. The game depicts arena combat, physical injury, and death. Violence is described through prose rather than shown graphically, there are no gore animations or explicit imagery. Players make choices that can result in killing opponents, witnessing executions, and suffering serious wounds. The tone is unflinching but not gratuitous.

Slavery and dehumanisation. The game's central subject is the experience of enslaved people in Roman society. This includes depictions of forced labour, physical punishment, humiliation, and the systematic denial of personhood. These themes are treated with seriousness and are core to the story's meaning.
Political oppression and systemic cruelty. The game portrays a society in which power is used to exploit and control. Characters in positions of authority behave with cruelty, corruption, and indifference to suffering.
Grief, despair, and loss of agency. Some story paths explore themes of hopelessness, the death of loved ones, and situations where the player has no good options. These moments are intentional and serve the narrative.

Alcohol. Wine and drinking are referenced in dialogue and prose as part of the historical setting. Consumption is implied rather than depicted.

There is no sexual content, drug use, or self-harm in the game.