ooo love me some good automatic battling! I think betting as the means of interfacing with the game really strips down to what I consider to be the core skill check of the genre, evaluating board strength. When you make a decision on what upgrade to make in a game like SAP or TFT, you're essentially imagining possible different future boards and deciding which one you think is the strongest. While neither team in this game is exactly "yours", I'm still running through the same decision space of looking at each one and deciding which one I'd rather be. The art here isn't the type to blow you away at one glance, but after watching these little guys go at it for a while I actually do find them quite charming in a way. Also, as a fan of autobattlers I am, of course, also a fan of gambling and there's also still just the simple thrill of uncertainty on display here.
Viewing post in Gamblin Gladiators jam comments
The parallel to upgrading decisions is something I hadn't thought about, good point. In SAP each upgrade asks you to evaluate a relatively small delta in both board composition and strength - Gamblin Gladiators asks you to evaluate a small delta in board strength but a large delta in composition. Is 2x Swords and a Cleric going to win VS 2x Mages and a Thief? They could potentially end up in a tie depending on the details. Thanks for playing!!