A brutal arena battle royale where glory means survival, the crowd is your judge and every duel is a fight for redemption beneath a dying empire.

Project Overview

Originally a game jam winner, Gladius: Arena of the Forsaken was later expanded into a fully featured gladiator arena battle royale with unique mechanics blending ancient Rome’s bloodsport spectacle with modern short-session PvE design. The game thrives on fast-paced replayability, tactical crowd-driven dynamics and the constant tension of collapsing arenas. It became one of my most experimental designs, proving how jam-born ideas can evolve into scalable systems

  • Engine: Unreal Engine 5
  • Tools: Blueprints, Sequencers , Figma, Lyra Framework (Only)
  • Perspective: Third-Person Combat
  • Platforms: PC
  • Team Size: Solo Project
  • Developed by: Ibad Ur Rehman
  • Role: Game Developer, Designer and Producer
  • Duration: 1 Week for Game Jam, Later Developed for 7 Weeks

Gameplay

Responsibilities

  • Built the hybrid melee-ranged system with weapon pickups, durability and parries.
  • Designed the Fame Meter, where crowd reactions actively impact gameplay (bonuses, punishments, event triggers).
  • Created shrinking zones, traps, collapsing floors, fire pits, and modular hazards to force dynamic player movement.
  • Balanced matches to last 5–10 minutes, ensuring quick rounds but high replayability.
  • Designed distinct arenas (catacombs, collapsing temple, balcony duel) that each introduced a new tactical twist.
  • Took a jam prototype and systematically rebuilt it into a scalable modular framework with replay depth

Game Narrative

Set in the dying days of Rome, the Forsaken Arena exists beneath the Colosseum, where disgraced warriors fight not for honor, but for redemption. Stripped of identity, every fighter must earn survival through the crowd’s favor. There is no glory outside the sand only the legend you carve in blood and fleeting applause.

A Short Narrative Revolves around impressing the top gladiator of the arena so he might redeem you as his next champion, However things could take a turn for the worse when you do not comply with the rules of the arena.

What I Learned

“You are nameless, forgotten , just another soul in the sand. But win the crowd, survive the blood, and you may rise a legend of the Forsaken Arena!”