Planned Release Date: Sep 4, 2026

About This Game

Executed your masters. Stole the ludus. Now, build a rebel force in secret.

Gladatora is a gritty, turn-based RPG that combines classic side-view combat with deep squad management, high stakes stealth, and open-world exploration. After orchestrating a bloody mutiny, you must run the ludus in secret, maintaining your Ludus Reputation (LR) to avoid Roman suspicion while training a rebel force right under the Empire's nose.

Your rebellion unfolds across two intertwined halves of the same world. The open world, where you recruit allies, complete quests, grind experience, and hunt for loot and hidden secrets. And in the Arena, open for roughly 8 hours of each in-game day, where your gladiators test themselves against escalating combat. Progress on one side strengthens the other, and both hide difficult, high-stakes battles of their own. You can fully focus on either path, but the deepest rewards come from weaving them together.

With systems this deep, you're never expected to master everything at once. Most players can finish the game and reach one of its multiple endings, with just a handful of fighting styles and a core squad they're comfortable with. Everything else is there for you to dive into whenever you're ready to go deeper.

Key Features

• Dynamic Combat: Master classic side-view, turn-based battles driven by row positioning, turn-order manipulation, and strategic stance switching, where line formation determines tactical advantage.

• 17+ Gladiatorial Fighting Styles: From Retiarii to Murmillones, customize your fighters with class-specific armor proficiencies (Cloth, Leather, Chain, and Plate) and asymmetric equipment layouts.

• 13 Weapon Archetypes & Deep Gearing: Outfit your squad from hundreds of unique weapons and armor pieces, using transferable Bond Items to craft unexpected party synergies.

• Secret-Filled Open World & EP Score: Inspect the environment, unearth buried treasure with shovel mechanics, and unlock missable ludus expansions. Build your Explorer Points (EP) score to earn rewards for thorough exploration, including rare gear and unique windowskins.

• Doctori Points & Permanent Growth: Earn Doctori Points (DP) daily while your doctori works during daylight hours, and spend them on a wide range of permanent upgrades for your ludus and fighters.

• High-Stakes Ludus Management: Balance Ludus Reputation (LR) to evade Roman suspicion, manage brutal combat injuries, and survive optional Permadeath and Permainjury modes where retired veterans remain in the world as lore NPCs.

• Choices That Truly Matter: Discover missable questlines and irreversible decisions that reshape your playthrough. Spare a captured criminal, turn them in for a bounty, or recruit them into your ranks, where they might return to strengthen your ludus in ways you didn't expect. Uncover a hidden chance to build a Library, unlocking an entire book-hunting and stat-boosting system found nowhere else in the game.

Master the Dust and Blood

In Gladatora, there are no magic spells or grand prophecies, only raw steel, tactical discipline, and momentum. Whether you're managing your fighters' recovery in the ludus or scouting the countryside for secret legendary gear, every decision carries weight.

Early playtesters cleared the main story in roughly 20 hours but with deep recruiting systems, team-building mechanics, and dozens of major branching choices, players have logged hundreds of hours and still found new things to uncover.

Build your rebellion. Outsmart the Empire. Claim the arena.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

This game is set in Ancient Rome and follows the lives of gladiators. Battles use side-view, turn-based RPG combat. Combat includes mild blood effects, including blood detailing on the main arena's battle backdrop where most fights take place, as well as minor blood tile decals in a couple of other locations blood is stylized and not graphic. Character death occurs only in the standard RPG sense (in battle), including an optional permadeath mode; there are also a couple of non-battle character deaths handled in typical RPG Maker style, nothing graphic. Characters consume period-accurate beverages (lora and cyser, both historical Roman drinks) in tavern scenes. An optional, easy to miss side activity lets players wager in-game currency on themselves winning their own upcoming arena battle. The story explores mature historical themes, including the Roman institution of slavery as it existed within the world of gladiatorial combat, as well as themes of mortality and the fragility of life.