Coming soon

About This Game

You don't swing the sword. You decide who holds it.

Pitborn is a gladiator-management sim. Bid for recruits at the slave market, train them, heal them, arm them and book their bouts. On games day you set their tactics, then watch from the stands as they fight on their own, shaped by your plans, their skills, their temperament and their wounds.

Fighters are people, not stat blocks

Hidden traits, grudges and ambitions surface over many weeks. Discipline, composure, ferocity and showmanship show up as behaviour in the arena, not just as numbers. A coward may find courage before a roaring crowd. A champion may start to want his freedom.

Every week is a decision

A calendar of bout offers with named opponents, stakes and scouting reports. Fight cards, prize bouts, seasonal tournaments and estate events, and never quite enough gold to do it all.

Rival houses remember

Competing lanistae outbid you at auction, put their own fighters on the same cards, and hold feuds or alliances based on how you treated them.

Defeat isn't always death, but death is permanent

Fighters surrender and are spared, survive grievous wounds with lasting scars, or die on the sand. A spared rival may owe your fighter a life. A maimed one may want revenge.

From the pit to the Colosseum

Five arenas, from a torch-lit backstreet pit to the Emperor's games, open up as your ludus gains rank and fame.

Features

• Management over reflexes: recruitment, training, equipment and tactics decide the fight

• Weapons and the forge: weapon families with their own fighting styles, favourite weapons, wear and repair, and historical gladiator kits

• Careers with an ending: veterans wear down and want freedom. Grant the wooden sword, or one last farewell bout

• Understandable uncertainty: commentary and fight reports explain why a fight turned, without ever showing the odds

• A house chronicle: your victories, deaths, rivalries and debts, recorded as the story of your ludus

• A pixel-art arena: a ringside diorama of every fight, with a reacting crowd, torches and announcers

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

Some of the game's music was generated with AI. Parts of the in-game text, the Swedish translation and the code were written with the help of an AI assistant and reviewed and edited by the developer. All gameplay content is fixed in the game; nothing is generated by AI while you play.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Pitborn depicts gladiator combat in ancient Rome. Fights show blood, wound and dismemberment in pixel art, and fighters can die permanently or carry lasting injuries.
Slavery is part of the historical setting: the player buys enslaved recruits at auction and runs a gladiator school. There is no sexual content or nudity.