Domina

[Unagi]

I've been having a lot of fun with this new gladiator rogue-like.

Domina (on Steam)

Take charge of a ludus, acquire, train and upgrade gladiators, and pit them against your opponents in bloody arena battles.
Use strategic political wranglings to win favor from powerful Romans to increase the odds of victory in the arena and elevate your family name, all while trying to keep a group of brutish warriors focused, alive, and victorious.
Domina is a pixel-art strategy simulation vaguely based on Roman gladiator schools of antiquity.

It's alpha. Running a full game from start to the inevitable ending 365 days later takes 2-4 hours ~ and there is No Save feature yet...That being said. It's a lot of fun; not too hard (on easy), but can be very brutal (on hard) so one can find their comfort zone.
IMO, the music and animation art are perfect.
There are lions.
$10

[Archinerd]

I think the animations for that game are beautiful, but the lack of a save feature is a deal breaker. I expect it get patched in a some point in the future. If and when that happens I would be interested.

[Baroquen]

I'm of the same mind. Looks interesting - definitely something I'll keep an eye on, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. Save feature is a must though.

[Sepiche]

Don't have the game to double check, but looks like they added save on exit to the last patch.

[ColdSteel]

new gladiator rogue-like

All that needed to be said to get this on my wishlist.

[Unagi]

Don't have the game to double check, but looks like they added save on exit to the last patch.

Confirmed!

Patch Notes:

A Mysterious Life Event Has Appeared
You use Save & Quit
It's super effective.

[Unagi]

Some tips... if needed...

Spoiler:

First - you are the Lanista, that's the woman in the middle of this picture who runs the ludus (the gladiatorial training school).


As soon as the game first begins, find the Doctore (guy with the whip), and click on him

Doctore
- Turn on "Enable Automatic Gladiator Training"
- Start the Doctore researching Humility (with Mind Control being next)

Click on the table on the far right to open the City Marketplace, and inside there Hire Employees

- Hire an Architect and have him build a Palus, (next Gather Stones, and eventually Dig Hot Coals). Doing this ASAP is advantageous.
- Hire a Faber and Select the option under him to "Auto Repair", and get him started on researching Automatic Upgrades and click that when you get it
- Hire an Educator and have him research Focus (and then others as you see fit)

On your first fight (and likely second), it's important to realize you do not control your Gladiator. That comes with the above mentioned "Mind Control" skill.
If you are lucky enough to win - Always remember, after the fight, to hit the 'Heal' button on your Gladiator to get him healing.

[Paingod]

I have really enjoyed this game for a few hours so far, and look forward to more gore and glory for a few nights more at least.

• I haven't figured out Mind Control yet, but apparently it's something you can either toggle with "Tab" or setup before a fight by clicking the Gladiator of your choice. It's probably a little late in the game to start using it (everything is fast and furious), so I may only toy with it and try harder on my next campaign.
• It annoys me that the bonuses for rounds start high and rapidly drop to zero - but even if I click quickly to select and accept, I still get the worst "City Host" rewards. I haven't figured out how to get "Legate" or "Magistrate" combat rewards yet, only getting the "City Host" rewards. This may have something to do with not yet using the Sponsorship from either.
• Some of the "Rogue-Like" choice elements just stink. Hmmm... Let in the Magistrate's son or not? If I don't, the Magistrate will get angry. If I do, one of my Gladiators may slit the son's throat and escape, also angering the Magistrate. Decisions, decisions...
• Until you've seen some s**t, some elements will be startling - like my first Exhibition where my 8 best Gladiators were massacred by 8 well trained, well equipped Gladiators on the opposing side. I won, thanks to my best 2 fighters and one straggler surrendered - but ouch.
• I didn't realize the standard campaign has a time limit. I'm currently farting around and have 87 days left with only two good fighters in my roster (one of them has 500+ health and hits for 200+ damage).
• As I haven't used Mind Control yet, my AI has been in complete control. Fights often seem to come down to luck, and sometimes whether or not my opponent has a spear (lethal). My best fighter has been with me since the beginning and seems unbeatable, even wiping the floor with a Regional Champ.
• I've read that the more you win, the harder it gets. Equally - the more you lose, the easier it gets. This means that using my first-rate Gladiator constantly will lead to all of my others being completely outclassed in every fight. This might be why that first (and only) Exhibition was a complete slaughter.

Really digging the game, style, and challenge of it so far. It's deliciously brutal.

[LordMortis]

Will probably buy tonight. Blast if I said no more betas for me. I have a number of these games already and the only one that held my attention was the chariot game from several years ago, which I did not get on Steam and lost when my machine died. Gladiator games are weakness for me, even if I'm usually disappointed. I still want a full running of the Roman Empire style of game. An evolving city builder with gladiatorial games and chariot races and trading to build an economy and conquering neighboring states for the glory of Rome and competing senate families.

Avalon hill had a bookshelf game that would take forever to play that I loved to play solo.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/194168/republic-rome

I want this in a video game but with more.

And it all starts with the gladiatorial games...

I think Sega Genesis had Roman Empire game with Everything but I never owned a genesis so I don't remember the name

[Paingod]

Blast if I said no more betas for me.

You're in luck! It's not a Beta. There's a beta "patch" but it's not early release.

It's entirely about the combat. You get a raw slave without gear and can train it several different ways that will benefit it in the arena. You can choose to watch them fight or control one of them in the arena yourself. There's a smattering of "Random Choices" to make like other Rogue-Like games where something good or bad can happen. There's minimal resource management in buying water/food/wine regularly and spending same on bribes for political figures or improving morale of the fighters.

The combat is hectic, fast-paced, and bloody. Few things in the game are as satisfying as watching your prized Gladiator swing twice and defeat someone by lopping off their head in a spray of pixellated gore.

[Baroquen]

I already had this in my cart. It's only a matter of time - and I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Paingod]

How can you not love a game that has a line of text like the following:

Somewhere, the Magistrate's genitals burn and that fact has brought sunshine and happiness to your day.

[Paingod]

I'm 15 days from wrapping up my second run. Knowing what I know has made this much easier.

A few tips...

Spoiler:

• The more you win, the harder the game gets. The more you lose, the easier.
• Try and balance wins and losses to keep the difficulty where you want it. This is where you spend your excess slaves - deliberately losing. It can be crushing to lose your best Gladiators against equally challenging opponents and then have no clear path to train up new ones with everything being overpowered for the next several matches while you bleed out slaves.
• Exhibition Matches can be done as often as desired and offer little cash reward - but do give you an outlet to spend excess slaves and earn favor.
• Once you research Mind Control, you can select a gladiator to control before the round starts by clicking on them (a green controller shows up on their icon), or by pressing "Tab" during the match. Be warned, though, that once you're in control there's no way out. If you start getting your butt kicked, you better surrender (if the rules of the day allow it)!
• Rush for the dual-wielding class to get access to 2-handed weapons. The extra reach and power per swing is really helpful.
• If a Blessing card says "+35% Dual-Wield Damage" - that means your Gladiator needs to be using 2 weapons, not the single big sword at the end of the Dual-Wield line.
• For the love of Bob, make sure the options to Auto-Train, Auto-Upgrade, and Auto-Repair are checked on your employees.
• The Architect can be used to grab a number of quick Ludus upgrades and then be fired. The upgrades will stay after he's gone. In a normal game, you have enough time to upgrade every space to weapons/strength training bonuses and add in a Bath and Apothecary for faster healing - but then it's over.
• The Agent can be utilized to place bets on your own Gladiators in the Pit, earning you more money. He's very hit or miss on everything else he does and tends to die a lot while stealing gear.
• The "AI" skill should be a 100% priority for every Gladiator you're keeping. This skill directly affects how smartly a Gladiator fights, and there's a big difference between 10% AI and 100% AI. Big. So big that a 0% AI Gladiator is basically not worth using for anything except fodder.

A few glorious moments...

Spoiler:

• When I found a Cursed Blessing card early on - it prevents healing above 50% but makes every attack hit 500% harder. If you've got a high health Gladiator, this turns them into a monster of destruction. My fully equipped 2-Handed Gladiator steps out against 10 opponents and kills them all with three swings of his sword, taking no damage. Very double-digit skill gains!
• One of the "massive" bosses yields to me, and now I have a "massive" gladiator! He's plain, good fun -
  but I wish I could click to equip/heal/buff him. He's mostly just a trophy that I pull out once in a great while when his natural healing brings him back to a safe place to use.
• One of my "throwaway" slaves surprises me with his tenacity and enters the ring unarmed and naked and pulls down a moderately well equipped opponent. I honored him with cash, then made him one of my regulars.

Still probably one of my favorite $5 indie games so far. I can easily see myself moving on to the "Endless" mode and just having a good brawl now and then between other games.

[The Meal]

quill18 has begun uploading his Let's Play for this game. Intriguing.

[LordMortis]

It was a fun coupla hours and put it away game. Not horrible for four-something but not likely something I will return to unless someone here eventually posts a massive update.

I was sad the Lion and the Right Hand of Mars could not be healed.

[Z-Corn]

I bought it and returned it, my first Steam refund.

Mostly because it would crash when I launched it in full-screen mode but also because I thought I'd be OK with the pixel art style and it ended up I just can't do it. If I want to play pixel graphics I've got every game created for the Atari 2600 on my Retropie.

To quote The Hold Steady, "...I survived the '80s one time already and I don't recall it all that fondly."

[The Meal]

I purchased this and played through one time as a simulation (never researching the "tech" allowing me to control any fighters). My quick review is $4.99 is too much as the game currently stands.

There's a pretty big design decision, coupled with a current-state-of-the-game shortcoming, which makes for an unsatisfying experience. I'm going to provide two sets of spoilers for my issue (I'd double nest them, but I don't think that works in our forum software). The current-state-of-the-game shortcoming should not be a spoiler, and it's that there-isn't/I-couldn't-find a way to save a game in progress (meaning to strap in for a 3-hour soup-to-nuts game, or leave the game open in the background if you want to use your PC for something else for a time).

My design decision issue is, in general, ...

Spoiler:

...related to how information is shared with you in terms of how the end-of-game scenario plays out. You are not made aware that decisions you have made during the course of the 365-day campaign are going to affect how the final scenario end-game big battle plays out. If you wanted to replay the game, then you'd be aware of this sort of thing ahead of time, but your first play through has a big fuck-you associated with it, and coupled with the no saves makes for an unsatisfying first experience.

If the full 365-day campaign left you wanting-for-more and a follow-up play through that may be deemed acceptable, but I have to say that the last 100 days of my play through saw me stop making min/max decisions and rather sort of accelerate to the upcoming game end.

If you want additional details as to my complaint in the spoiler above, then click into this next spoiler.

Spoiler:

The end-game resolution ostensibly is a big full ludus (your gladiator school) 15-on-15 big boss battle. However, after that is resolved, there's a followup battle where your side is comprised of all the gladiators you have released from your ludus. There's no warning that you should be arming-up and then releasing gladiators who will be battling on your side after the penultimate climax battle, and it's clearly intended to be the big "twist ending" to the game. After playing for three straight hours, laying heavily on the accelerator pedal for the final 45 minutes, I was in no particular mood to take that discovery as an opportunity to fire up another game and address the true ending along the way. YMMV, but mine was not a satisfactory discovery at the end of the first play through.

The game would have been a fun diversion at the $2-3 level given the unsatisfactory shortcoming. It's entirely possible that direct controlling gladiators (an aspect I didn't try) may provide the additional few bucks of entertainment that I think the current offering lacks (for me). I didn't find there to be other simulation aspects, far afield from the decisions I chose the first time through, which would make me eager to give the game an additional play through. I haven't researched the state-of-the-game development to know whether this is still having features actively added to the base game, but if the game is considered feature complete as it currently stands, I'd certainly wait for a sub-$3 sale on this one.

[Paingod]

Personally, I got more than my $5 out of it and enjoyed it. I wouldn't spit at paying $10 for it, but probably not much more. It is a technically shallow game in terms of content, but has some new mechanics to sort out and it can be fun to watch fights play out (though I feel like they should run 50% slower than they do in the game). It is entirely possible to learn how to boil the game down to a winning algorithm, but I find that in itself fun sometimes.

I remember when games were $50 new, in boxes, on shelves, and everything was expected to be Triple-A quality with no refunds. I think saying a game is worth it for $2 but not $5 is pretty darn absurd; the difference of two bottles of soda. I don't think I'll ever (ever) be able to think "Man, I spent $5 on this - but I regret those last $3. It was only worth $2."

[Matrix]

Fun game, saw someone mentioned it on summer sale and i got it on a whim. Well worth 5$.

I had a few run throughs and it has been super fun. I tend to let Ai to the fighting, unless it is 0 ai.
Very good game, different and fun.

[Isgrimnur]

On sale today, last patched in early November.

[Smoove_B]

Always nice to see this in the patch notes:

"​​TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS," the patch notes say between legitimate patch updates. "Next time you're at the grocery store, try showing a woman your face. Be confident, unafraid of the LIES - you might get a girlfriend. Women like confidence. Women don't like dudes who cover their faces in fear. What are you afraid of? Getting laid? Grow up."

Reported here.

[Max Peck]

The dev was also going off the deep end on his Twitter account as well.



For some reason, I suspect that his girlfriend lives in Canada.

[Isgrimnur]

Removed from my wishlist

[Rumpy]

The sweet irony would be is if this girlfriend would dump him over this.

[Max Peck]

I'm pretty sure I'd have bounced off the weird cringe the developer was projecting in the Steam marketing blurbs even without all the drama.

A Spectacle of Violence and Greed - DOMINA is the Finest Gladiator Management Simulator in the World. Fortified with Chariot Racing and Twitch Integration! Do not trust the weak imposters - there is no competition - only DOMINA will make you STRONG.

The developers describe the content like this:

Pixelated/low-resolution/cartoon violence and comedic amounts of blood. (ie: spraying )

Story events contain mature themes that invite the player to make ethical decisions with regards: slavery, injustice, and occasionally normal and abnormal human sexuality.

[Blackhawk]

So, a Spartacus tie=in?

[Smoove_B]

The sweet irony would be is if this girlfriend would dump him over this.

Close. Over the weekend Steam banned him from his own game forum.

"This is the second time that one of your posts violates our discussion rules and guidelines, specifically insulting or flaming another user.

"We're also noticing a trend with abusive messages sent when banning players from your hub. When posting any content in the Community or communicating with your players, please make sure it adheres to the guidelines."

That's not all, either. As PC Gamer notes, the developer is also in hot water for the way it responds to negative reviews on Steam, many of which reference their extreme views on transgender people and toxic masculinity.

"We also want to make it clear that you should not reverse Steam moderator decisions or enable rule violations on your hub," it added. "Future disregard for our rules and guidelines could jeopardise our business relationship."

The developer can, reportedly, still post patch notes, although DBI recently stated: "At this point, it is doubtful that [its Gladiator game] will receive future updates on Steam".

[Smoove_B]

Did anyone think this would end any other way?

On August 31, the developer behind the gladiator game Domina posted patch notes that included a transphobic screed attacking trans streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti. Yesterday evening, some Twitter users discovered that Domina had been removed from Steam, with a notice indicating this action had been taken “at the request of the publisher.” However, the developer confirmed that Valve chose to delist the developer from its platform.

[LordMortis]

Domina’s developer says that Steam will lose ‘millions’ for ‘canceling’ the studio

They might. They might also lose millions for knowingly giving a platform to someone who wants to behave like a jackass. They chose wisely, IMO.

[Skinypupy]

Domina’s developer says that Steam will lose ‘millions’ for ‘canceling’ the studio

They might. They might also lose millions for knowingly giving a platform to someone who wants to behave like a jackass. They chose wisely, IMO.

I'm confused. In what scenario would Steam lose "millions" by delisting a niche pixel art game about gladiator management?

[LawBeefaroni]

Domina’s developer says that Steam will lose ‘millions’ for ‘canceling’ the studio

They might. They might also lose millions for knowingly giving a platform to someone who wants to behave like a jackass. They chose wisely, IMO.

I'm confused. In what scenario would Steam lose "millions" by delisting a niche pixel art game about gladiator management?

Is there a scenario where the millions is something other than dollars? Yen maybe?

[Freyland]

Domina’s developer says that Steam will lose ‘millions’ for ‘canceling’ the studio

They might. They might also lose millions for knowingly giving a platform to someone who wants to behave like a jackass. They chose wisely, IMO.

I'm confused. In what scenario would Steam lose "millions" by delisting a niche pixel art game about gladiator management?

Is there a scenario where the millions is something other than dollars? Yen maybe?

Rupees.

[The Meal]

Wonder why they'd delist the game?

[LawBeefaroni]

Wonder why they'd delist the game?

It was actually worse than that:

Domina, a small indie game on Steam about managing gladiators has recently begun trending online, but not because it’s a really good game or it just got a cool update or anything like that. No, instead, the developer behind the game has included a wild and shitty rant about trans political commentator and streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti inside the patch notes for Domina’s latest update. And weirdly, this isn’t the first time this developer has shoved bizarre and awful political rants into the patch notes for Domina.

...

To recap: On August 5, Sorrenti was the target of a swatting attack that led to London, Ontario police wrongfully arresting her, and repeatedly using her deadname while sticking a rifle in her face. After describing the attack in a YouTube video a few days later, Sorrenti and her fiancé relocated to a hotel that was thought to be safe. But members of the violently transphobic hate-speech forum Kiwi Farms have continued stalking and harassing Sorrenti as she fought back and tried to force server hosting and security company Cloudflare to stop supporting the site and its dangerous users.

The pressure to drop the forum continues as of this writing, with Cloudflare recently stating that it had no plans to drop KiwiFarms, with the company’s CEO stating in an August 31 blog that “Just as the telephone company doesn’t terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things, we have concluded in consultation with politicians, policy makers, and experts that turning off security services because we think what you publish is despicable is the wrong policy.”

For some reason, the dev behind the unrelated Steam game Domina decided to share their thoughts and shitty opinions on Sorrenti, trans people, and more in a totally unrelated video game. In the patch notes for the August 31 update to the game, the developer included an unhinged and barely cohesive rant claiming that the name of the game was being changed and referring to the old name as its deadname over and over. We are pointing it out here less because it deserves any attention at all, and more because it is absurd that such a thing can be uploaded to an official, professional storefront.

Spoiler:

deadname: domina. Please don’t mention it any more. We only mention it here to say: don’t mention it any more. It’s totally normal to change the sex of a video game and NOT CONFUSING TO ANYBODY. Please do not be a bigot. If you are confused, please simply stop being confused and remember that DOMINA doesn’t exist and never did, but DOMINUS does exist, and always has, you just didn’t know you were playing a man, who was dressed as a woman, but now that we reveal it to you, you have NO RIGHT to feel deceived, the same way the poor drunk dudes who transvestites like Keffals had sexual intercourse with, without disclosing that they were a man, have no right to feel wronged and you’re a bigot for being confused or even mentioning something like that happening, let alone having an opinion about it.

[LawBeefaroni]

Cloudflare finally dropped Kiwi Farms.

[hepcat]

Watch for their exciting relaunch on Truth Social next week.

[LordMortis]

Cloudflare finally dropped Kiwi Farms.

Wow. It sure sounded like cloudflare refused "get into politics" and die on that hill not a week ago. Off to read that article that changed their trajectory.

[LawBeefaroni]

From DKF:

The CEO of Cloudflare has said that Kiwi Farms poses an “imminent and emergency threat to human life” and former assistant director of the FBI has claimed Kiwi Farms carries a “threat of domestic terror”. It has become very clear in the last week that there is no tolerance for this kind of hate, and millions of people have come together to celebrate their defeat.

Not even the Russians are having it:

After the announcement that Cloudflare would drop Kiwi Farms as a customer, the site came online again with a Russian domain and switched to DDoS-Guard. Less than 24 hours later, DDoS-Guard, a Russian company that specializes in DDoS protection, has also dropped Kiwi Farms. Their Russian domain is now offline, and Joshua Moon has stated “I do not see a situation where Kiwi Farms is simply allowed to operate. It will either become a fractured shell of itself like 8chan, or jump between hosts and domains like Daily Stormer”.