I’m the developer of Bronze & Glory, a free turn-based gladiator game that runs in your browser on desktop or phone. Nothing to download, and Quick play needs no sign-up, so you can start a bout straight away.

Every attack shows its hit chance, damage range and energy cost before you commit, and your opponent telegraphs its next move. There are four classes (Sentinel, Duelist, Berserker, Arcanist), a 100-opponent campaign, and online duels against real players (those need a free account).

The problem with a small online game is that the queue is empty when you show up alone. So I’m trying a fixed slot: Arena Hour, every day 19:00–20:00 UTC (running now, and daily until 26 Oct). Come then and there’s a good chance of a live opponent; if no one else is searching, a clearly labelled Practice Bot steps in so you’re never left waiting. The home screen shows the time in your local time and has an “Add to my calendar” link: https://bronzeandglory.fun/?src=cal-ah-gamedev

For other devs, the design question behind this: with only a handful of players online, matchmaking has to decide how long to wait for a human before offering a bot. My answer so far is a Practice Bot that is always clearly labelled as a bot, and the fixed daily slot is my attempt to concentrate the few players there are into the same hour instead of spreading them across the day. If you’ve shipped a small multiplayer game, I’d like to know what you’d do differently (longer queue timeout? scheduled events? async duels?).

The bigger one is Arena Night II: Sat 24 Oct, 19:00–21:00 UTC (15:00 EDT, 20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST), two hours of live duels with whoever turns up.

Play: https://bronzeandglory.fun/?ref=r19-ah-gamedev

I’d love feedback from other devs: what would make you play a second bout?