Cyborg Arena, by John Ayliff
The credits for Cyborg Arena include thank-yous to a large number of Patreon donors, and I can see how a game like this would be perfect for building a dedicated following on that platform: it’s got a compelling and accessible hook, clean storytelling, lots of opportunities to customize the player character’s identity and key relationships, a complex but manageable set of mechanics, and a half-hour length that’s perfect for showcasing the impact of choices without things becoming unmanageable (and also makes it possible to finish projects at a reasonable clip). Turns out this makes for a solid IF Comp entry too!
The premise here is sturdy, and well-communicated by the blurb – you guide a cyborg gladiator through a climactic fight – but everything is realized with more craft than it needs to be, from the grabby in medias res opening that starts things off with adrenaline to the embedded character-defining flashbacks that go beyond the literal nuts and bolts of your stats and armaments to get at how you navigate the dog-eat-dog social milieu of the gladiator stables. While the worldbuilding doesn’t go too far beyond what’s needed to support the big fight, there’s some plausible social satire that I thought was well handled.
All this attention to bells and whistles (oh, and on that subject, the visual design is good without being overly fussy) doesn’t come at the expense of the game’s core appeal, either. The fight involves juggling two distinct tracks – there’s a set of rock-paper-scissors combat options that depend on the stats you’ve chosen for you and your opponent, but you also need to keep the audience’s interest high, which requires not repeating the same moves too many times, requiring you to mix things up and trade off fighting effectiveness against crowd appeal. It’s not especially hard, but it’s engaging to decide on your round-by-round approach, and victory feels satisfying.
If I have a critique, it’s that the game ends rather abruptly, and while there are lots of different ways the fight can conclude based on your decision, there’s not much of a denouement laying out your character’s fate beyond the immediate events of the night. But since one of the key tenets of showmanship is to always leave the audience wanting more, it’s hard to lay too much fault here – Cyborg Arena is already much more generous than it needs to be.
Highlight : The game takes a page from modern deckbuilders by disclosing what move your opponent is going to make each turn, meaning combat isn’t a meaningless roll of the dice but requires strategic consideration of your options as you consider both short-term success and your longer-term positioning in the fight overall.
Lowlight : I mentioned the abbreviated ending above, but I especially wanted a little more closure on the legal and social changes the game briefly sketches in – again, this is efficient worldbuilding.
How I failed the author : Cyborg Arena is sufficiently short and player-friendly that I don’t think I could have messed it up if I tried.