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And here I am announcing a project that is already on Hiatus! 
 
Ehehe... I've been working on this project for about a month, but it's not eligible for that indie game competition, which I really want to enter, so development is on hold for the next 20 days while I work on that. But it'd be nice to get some feedback in the meantime so I can jump right back on this one at the end of the month, so... without further adeu, BEHOLD! 
 

 
Synopsis:
 
2020 AD:
You and your friends are spending the last bit of your spring break attending the Riverside Anime and Comics Convention, and this year, you're a participant in the Cosplay Gladiators tournament. In this annual event, you get to wear a crazy costume [or not] and [pretend to] beat the tar out of all who would be foolish enough to face off against you on the field of battle. [Or the convention center hallway]
 
In the tournament, everyone has a crazy variety of different abilities, based on their costumes, inspired by just about every conceivable genre of anime, comics, games and every other nerdy hobby. Assemble a team from over 100 recruit-able characters, and fight your way to the top of the tournament bracket to become the champion!  
 
Screenshots: 

 
About:
Every year, my local Anime/Comic/Game convention holds an event called the “Cosplay Deathmatch.” Two teams or individuals dressed up in often elaborate costumes of characters from popular comics, games and movies get up on stage to face off in a round of “combat.” Basically the audience decides who wins the fight by cheering for who they want to win, and after the judge determines who got the loudest cheers, both participants act out a fight by exchanging a few attacks before the predetermined winner lands the finishing blow. And then the match-ups continue in a tournament-style bracket until a single team or person is announced the winner. For anyone who's never been to such an event, it's kind of like an extraordinarily nerdy improv match, since the fights are acting and not actual combat. Usually the winner is whoever is dressed as the more popular character, but often people with very good costumes or acting skills can still come out on top.
 
The idea for “Cosplay Gladiators” was to take the concept of the cosplay deathmatch imagined as if it had actual combat that requires strategy to win. It uses a similar combat system to most traditional turn based Role Playing Games, but the rules are adjusted to be a little more similar to how they might work for an actual cosplay event. The other aim for the game was to re-create the experience of attending an Anime/Comic convention and include several other events and things one would see at one of these events.
 
Battle System:
The game uses a free turn battle system. where your whole team has a set number of Action Points (AP) they all share, and your turn ends when you use them all up. A basic attack or skill will only use one point, but a flashy, drawn out skill will take 2 or more. You won't have enough AP in one turn for everyone on your team to use their flashier skills all at once.
 
In addition, most skills also cost SP (skill points) to use, which regenerate one per turn. It's possible for one person to use up all the AP to take up the whole teams entire turn, but then that character may run low on SP, so it's up to the player to decide if they want to spread their actions out among their whole team, or have one character do a blitz with all of their skills at once.
 
With 7 different classes for the main character, and over 100 recruit-able team members, there is a lot of freedom to build a team that suits your playstle and to play around with different battle strategies.  
 
Gameplay features:
 
There's also plenty of other things to do while you're at the convention, and participating in some of these side activities will help you gain an edge in battle! Your characters can get new ideas and inspiration for skills by reading comics and manga in the library. You can buy items, weapon props and costume accessories in the dealers room to customize your stats. The arcade and game room are filled with playable minigames, some of which even award prizes. There are also panels and workshops around the convention you can participate in with various effects.  
 
"Classes" for the Main Character:
 
All of the "Main character" classes are meant to be general balanced all rounders without too many weaknesses, so your own character will still be generally useful in pretty much every battle. Several of the recruit-able characters have much more specialized classes so it will be important to play with your team configuration often to find what works well together. 
 
 
 
So... That's pretty much all I have to actually show so far. Kinda wondering what people think of the idea. Does this look like something ya'll might wanna play?