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Looking back at the board... it wasn't a natural Chance Time space, it was a Red Space that was converted with the Last 5 Rounds Event.

What I think might be happening is that after the duel, the game moves it to the next player (P4), which is just trying to roll to move forward, even though the Chance Time event still occurs. That's probably why changing P3 from CPU to Controller 1 didn't work... or why the left/right didn't (thinking it's just rolling a movement die instead).

I'll let you know if it happens again and check things more extensively.

It was the CPU's turn (P3 in case that's relevant), they rolled and landed on a Chance Time space that I was on in the third-to-last round (18/20). We did the duel, that went normal, then during Chance Time, it couldn't move the bumping fist between blocks. I tried changing the player to the P1 control, it still didn't respond for my controller either.

It happened a couple of times, back-to-back, requiring me to Reload the Turn until the duel didn't take place on Chance Time.

This game is FANTASTIC. I'm so grateful!

[0.98.4] Not sure if it's in known issues or not:

A Duel happening on a Chance Time space plays out like normal, but when Chance Time activates, the Left/Right controls don't work... so you can only bonk the first box. Minor considering you can Reload the Turn, but can be problematic with a certain Last 5 Turns modifier on and the players all clustered together.

Game is pretty fun in it's current state. I love how the map is kind of randomized each time, and sometimes this means you have to play it a bit differently each time. A Permadeath mode could add a lot to this game. About the only trouble I had, was trying to target the center of three horizontally-aligned targets from above or below; it's especially noticeable with fishing lures.

The other "maybe" thing is the spawning of resource targets. It multiples way too fast when you open up more than 4 lands, to keep up with. Often I find myself just sprawling from the center, but only really following one or two lands at a time for a long time, and the rest gets out of control - but even just trying to patrol the spawn rate causes overburdening pretty quickly. Enemy/creature spawn rate seems legit, at least; it's just the resource/obstruction spawn rate that escalates too hard, and even then, maybe just by 25% or so.

Really cool thing you got going here, and I'm looking forward to it's Steam launch!

One recommend: reduce the player's X-hitbox by 1 px on each side. Seems like a lot of movement is (+1, repeat +2) and it makes lining up with tile spacing impossible; and a lot of the harder layouts require pixel-precise positioning for navigation.

Absolutely brilliant. Can I download this? /fellow PICO-8 nerd
I'd love to pop this in my Picade, or maybe do a Zelda-like spinoff if it's cool.

Is it not implemented, or just not flagged as a feature?

I think it's really fun and a creative battle system that compels critical-enough thinking in a nice, streamlined format. It'd make an excellent tabletop game, too!

I remember playing this a lot in 2007-8; a rightly cool concept well ahead of it's time. It became hard to find, so seeing it made available here is greatly appreciated!

I do hope life gives you some time to revisit the concept at some point - I'm also being swallowed alive in a non-gamedev career right now, and it kind of sucks trying to find time to do stuff like this. Rock on, and good luck in your endeavors!

PICO-8 development got very meta, very fast!!

I saw this and immediately thought of Downwell, too! XD
I hope you get that bug squashed soon.