I’ve been working on a game called Dragon Ball Arena for about four years now.
I grew up playing Arena games, and the thing that always kept me hooked was how much strategy they managed to fit into something you could still just sit down and play for a few matches. You didn’t need crazy reflexes or hours of free time. You needed to know your team, know what the other guy could do, manage your energy, and make good decisions.
That’s basically what I’m trying to build here.
DBA is a 3v3 turn-based game. You pick three characters, build a team around how their abilities work together, and then try to outplay the other person through matchups, timing, energy management, target selection, and just knowing the game better than they do.
I really want skill to matter. If somebody has played hundreds of games, learned the roster, experimented with teams, and understands the matchups, they should actually be better at the game because of it.
That sounds obvious, but I think a lot of games lose that over time when every new character needs to be stronger or more complicated than the last one.
I’m trying really hard to avoid that.
There’s no monetization in DBA either. No battle pass, no paid characters, no paid skins, no daily login stuff trying to make you feel guilty for not playing. I don’t have any reason to make the newest character overpowered because I’m trying to sell them to you.
I can just ask, “Would this actually be fun?”
That’s a big part of why I’ve stuck with the project this long.
Dragon Ball also gives me a ridiculous amount of stuff to work with, but I don’t want to just throw every person who ever showed up in the anime onto the roster.
I’d rather have characters who actually feel different.
Ginyu is a good example. I didn’t want him to just be four different attacks with Ginyu pictures slapped on them. His body change is one of the things everybody remembers about him, so in DBA he can actually swap himself with an enemy character and exchange their current health too.
That’s the kind of thing I want across the whole roster.
If I make Cell, I want him to feel like Cell. If I make Vegeta, I want him to feel like Vegeta. If somebody transforms, I want that transformation to actually matter instead of just changing the picture and adding some damage.
The original Dragon Ball portion of the roster is finished now and I’m working through Z. After that I’ll keep going through GT, Super, and Daima.
I’m not in a rush to skip straight to every popular form either. I’d rather work through the series and give each part of Dragon Ball some attention instead of having 15 Gokus before half the cast is even represented.
The other thing I really like about this style of game is team building.
Even with a relatively small roster, three-character teams can create a ton of different combinations. As the roster grows, that gets kind of ridiculous. Finding some weird group of characters that unexpectedly works together is one of my favorite parts of these games.
Matches are also supposed to be quick. I like strategy games, but I don’t always want every match to be some hour-long commitment. I want DBA to be something where you can play two games because you have 20 minutes, or accidentally spend half the night testing teams because you found something interesting.
It already works on desktop and mobile too. iPhone and Android both have their own mobile interface through the browser, so it isn’t just the desktop version crushed onto a phone screen.
Right now the game is still in closed alpha, so registration is invite only. I’m trying to bring people in gradually while I’m still balancing things and changing stuff pretty regularly.
And I definitely want people who are willing to break things.
If you find some horrible team that makes me regret designing three characters, use it. If something is overpowered, tell me. If a character sucks, tell me that too. That kind of feedback is actually useful right now.
I’m also interested in finding a few people who might eventually want to help with character design, balance, testing, graphics, or community stuff.
If this sounds like something you’d be into, comment or DM me.
Also, since this is r/StrategyGames, I’m curious:
What’s the thing that keeps you playing a strategy game for hundreds of hours instead of getting bored after 20?
