Fencing Practice
On Monday you went to fencing practice.
On Wednesday you learnt to wield a weapon.
On Friday you faced the old god.
Fencing Practice is a small action-adventure game made in 48 hours in Bitsy for the Global Game Jam 2026. The theme was "Mask".
(Fear Of Tedium PSA: You don't have to do 1000 steps.)
Diversifiers I used:
- Cubes: Think outside the cube! Or inside the cube? We don’t know - just use some cubes! Squares, boxes, and real-time tri-dimensional objects are welcome too. It’s hip to be squared when you incorporate cubes into your game design or mechanics.
- Cartridge Ready: Your game should be under 10 MB.
- Diverse: Include a total of three or four diversifiers in your game, including this one!
Special shout out to Valeriy Petrov, whose game Power To The People gave me an idea. Also to cephalopodunk, whose tutorial reminded me that I can shuffle text because I had completely forgotten.
Table Mountain Fencing Club is a real fencing club based in Cape Town, South Africa, but it has yet to face any old gods. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to existing people or places is coincidental.
Controls: Arrow keys to move and advance the dialogue boxes. Nudge your avatar against highlighted objects to interact with them.
Credits:
- Mandy J Watson (@mandyjwatson on Bluesky):
Game design, narrative and writing, programming, and art - Title Card Font:
Munro by Ten By Twenty (SIL Open Font Licence Version 1.1)
Software Used:
- Bitsy, Dan's Tools (RGB To HEX/HEX To RGB), GIMP, and Notepad.
Comments
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i loved this so much. i love narratives where no one questions the seemingly insane premise in the slightest.
Me too. I've played and enjoyed so many games like that and so this time I thought I should finally try to do it myself and fight back all urges to explain anything. I think it worked well and I'm going to add the technique to my narrative toolbox.
That was fun, I always enjoy experiences that get you in the head space of someone who does something you might not have tried. Getting that across in such a low fidelity format is quite impressive.
Thank you! I did my best to be accurate with the sprites, which was incredibly difficult at 8x8, and I even have some that I sadly didn't get to use due to jam time constraints, but I also saved everyone from having to step and lunge backwards and forwards for half an hour or so!