Proto Boxing
A downloadable game for Windows
This is an early prototype of an improbable boxing game—focused not on realistic simulation, but on fast-paced, arcade-style action. It features exaggerated movements, stylized reactions, and a touch of dark humor, prioritizing entertainment over an authentic boxing experience.
For now, I’m focusing almost exclusively on the core combat mechanics to make sure the fighting feels fun and captures the arcade-style vibe I’m going for. The visuals, UI, and sound are still very rough, but once the combat is where I want it, I’ll start polishing the rest.
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Things I’m planning to add:
- Improve footwork and defense: Making movement and blocking feel more fluid and responsive.
- Add and polish animations: Bringing more life and personality to the fighters.
- Crowd reactions: Cheers, boos, and maybe even things thrown into the ring if the fight isn’t exciting enough.
- Fighting style variants: Different movesets and strategies to keep things fresh.
- Adjustable difficulty: For both casual players and those looking for a challenge.
- Game modes: Training, career mode, tournaments, and championships.
- Local multiplayer: Because punching a friend is always more fun.
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Controls
Gamepad is the recommended way to play, but you can also use a keyboard if you prefer.
Any Xbox controller or compatible gamepad should work without issues. If you have a PlayStation controller, don’t worry—just a couple of extra steps, and you should be able to play without any problems.
PS4 Controllers
PlayStation gamepads are not natively supported at the moment, but...
You can use Stem Input
or use DS4Windows.
Performance
Tested on NVIDIA GTX 1650
Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I haven't been able to optimize the game yet. The recommended minimum FPS is 60.
Anything below that, hit detection becomes highly unreliable, making the gameplay experience quite poor and not at all representative of the intended result.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Testing new "footwork" system7 days ago
- New Release – Smarter Moves, Smoother Fights15 days ago
- New Release – Back in the Ring27 days ago
- So… What Happened to Proto Boxing?94 days ago
- Smoother Hits & Southpaw AdjustmentsJun 11, 2025
- Minor Fixes, Major FlowMay 23, 2025
- Smarter Defense, Smoother PunchesMay 08, 2025
- More Punch, Less Bugs – Minor Fixes & New Strike AnimationsApr 24, 2025
Comments
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A fun 20-minute game with good physics and sounds.
Thanks for the feedback.
Yeah, the defensive side is still very early in development — that’s what I’m working on for future updates. Thanks for the feedback!
fun game, excited to see future updates.
Thanks! More updates are definitely on the way
Alright, some notes:
First of al the game has a decent overall feel to it when in the middle of it. Its basic but has the feel of the physics of the punches mattering a bit.
That said, the tuning of the game is not ideal atm. I can spend *minutes* in a match just waiting to move to or from corners, waiting for my opponent to recover from their concussion, and in other little situational bleeds.
Additionally, I was able to beat up to hard difficulty with no real tactics or concern for what my opponent was doing, or what might be effective -I simply just wailed on them with hooks until they went down, pacing them out at the rate of my stamina consumption (once I realized low meant slower regen as well). I did not block, I didnt even hold the controler so I might be able to.
Your hardest AI has obviously got to be better than this, and I understand AI can be difficult, but if this means you have to make it cheat *a little*, its probably worth it. Part of the joy of this sort of game is the progression of skill, and not needing any is probably a bit too light
Additionally, as the movement is flat - not having the ability to lunge or weave or mete it out with any obvious extremity, the skill ceiling is naturally going to be a bit lower here. Its likely worth it to have your first movement in a direction be a bit faster and a bit more stamina consuming - to give the option of repeated tap movement for higher speed, and to allow a bit more varied skill expression.
Finally WRT staying down, its likely going to be worth it to make it harder based around the difference in your conditions. If I am above 90, and they are at 14 max head condition... maybe just stay down my guy. It will save me 30 seconds, and save the virtual opponent another needless concussion.
I do appreciate the work you are doing on this sort of thing, but I do think its going to take a bit more physical interaction and variation to really make it pop.
Thanks so much for taking the time not only to play the game but also to leave such a detailed comment — I really appreciate it. The project is still very much in a prototype stage and there’s a long road ahead. Some of the things you mentioned are already on my (never-ending) TODO list, while others are genuinely useful ideas for me to explore. A lot of this process is trial and error, trying to land on that balance where the gameplay feels challenging but still simple to pick up and fun to play.
Right now the AI (which has more “artificial” than “intelligence”) is extremely basic, and that’s one of the areas I want to dedicate real focus to. My goal is to create at least three distinct fighting styles, improve defense drastically (which is almost nonexistent at the moment), and give each match more tactical depth so that it’s not just about throwing punches but also about how and when you use them.
I’m also a bit (well, quite a bit) behind the timeline I had in mind — life expenses come first, and here in Argentina they keep going up — but feedback like yours is exactly what keeps me motivated to keep pushing forward and improving the game. Thanks again for helping me see where the rough edges are, and for reminding me why it’s worth putting in the work.
I do wish you luck in the road ahead.
I have noticed that there are 'flick right stick' controls which simply do not seem to work on my controller. It might be if I manage to fix that, that the possibilities increase a bit.
Can you add styles from fighters like Gervonta 'Tank' Davis, Ryan Garcia, Mike Tyson, and Manny Pacquiao?
Tank Davis for his deadly counter uppercut and explosive timing.
Ryan Garcia for his lightning-fast punches, awkward but effective defensive posture, and that devastating one-tap left hook.
Mike Tyson for his aggressive in-fighting, relentless pressure, and signature hook barrages.
Manny Pacquiao for his insane stamina, unpredictable angles, and high-volume, lightning-fast combinations.
(or just add the anime, HAJIME NO IPPO, styles lol and make it like we have to earn money to get it.. like we earn money by winning.. or smth)
That’s a really cool suggestion! My plan is to give NPCs different styles and tactics so each fight feels unique. I’d love to recreate real fighters’ styles, but to be honest my animation skills are still pretty limited for that level of detail. Who knows though — if things go well maybe I could eventually bring someone on board to help make it happen. The Hajime no Ippo idea made me smile, too — adding fun variants you can unlock over time is definitely something I’d like to explore. Thanks a lot for the feedback, it really helps me shape the direction of the game!
i hope you also add weight devision or just ADJUSTABLE character/ AI weigh.
Absolutely — customizable characters are definitely on my list, not only in terms of visuals but also in fighting style and stats. Weight and body type are things I’d really like to let players (and AI) adjust, since they can make a big difference in how each match feels. It’s one of those features that will add a lot of variety and personality to the game once I get to it.
love the game! although I have noticed a bug were my character can no longer be customized other then hair type. I honestly have no idea what could be causing it lol!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, even in the prototype stage. Yeah, it's a known bug (one of many on my loooong fix list). As a temporary workaround, try deleting the save files at:
C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\UnrealBoxing\Saved\SaveGames
This should reset your customization options. I'm working on a proper fix for the next update.
Thanks for reporting this.
I have a content and binary folder in UnrealBoxing no saved folder?
You're looking at the folder where the executable is located. You need to go to:
C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\UnrealBoxing\Saved\SaveGames
Change [USERNAME] with your Windows username. There, you'll see files like CustomBoxer_01.sav, CustomBoxer_v02.sav, or CharacterCutomization.sav. Delete them all (you'll lose your character's customization).
figured it out thanks! (ive never even had to use AppData before so i had to look it up lol.)
You're welcome. If you have to go into AppData, it's because something went wrong, lol. I hope to fix that for the next release. See ya!
Any way to change the controls for keyboard? do not have a numpad and don't have a controller sadly
There's no remapping yet, but I just uploaded a new version where you can throw punches using Y, U, I, H, J, K, N, M, ; and block with SPACEBAR (not the most comfortable setup, but at least it lets you try it out). Still planning to add full key remapping in a future update. Thanks for bringing it up!
Awesome! Thank you, it's a fun game I can see the potential.
It keeps saying Fatal Error, is there any work around for this?
Hey! Where exactly does the error show up? Does it always happen in the same spot?
Try deleting this file:
C:\Users\[YOUR_USERNAME]\AppData\Local\UnrealBoxing\Saved\SaveGames\CharacterCutomization.sav
or
C:\Users\[YOUR_USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\ProtoBoxing\Saved\CharacterCutomization.sav
Thanks for commenting — I hope that helps fix it! If not, let me know and I’ll keep digging into it.
The error shows up whenever i try to start the game, i can't seem to find the file aswell i checked saved and all the files are just (Config,Crashes,Logs)
Since the save file isn’t there, let’s try checking the crash logs.
In the meantime, I’ve just uploaded a new build of the game — could you try downloading that and see if it fixes the issue? The file is ProtoBoxing_v007_2.zip
If it still crashes, please send me the most recent file from this folder:
C:\Users\[YOUR_USERNAME]\AppData\Local\UnrealBoxing\Saved\Logs
and the file CrashContext.runtime-xml in the most recent folder in:
C:\Users\[YOUR_USERNAME]\AppData\Local\UnrealBoxing\Saved\Crashes
That should help me figure out what’s going on. Really appreciate your help with this!
still not running coach, how do i send it to you?
There's no files going in logs btw, it's just empty
Muy bueno!. Hubo un gran progreso desde la ultima version
Please make it easier to knock people out lol, its really hard to hit them even though i hit the guy lol i can barely hit him and p.s add overhands !!! and please add different styles and hits!!!
Yeah, it's really frustrating to land a punch and not have it register. I'm working on that. Adding more animations and fighting styles is also part of the plan. Thanks for the feedback!
You've added so much to the game, very amazing! i've been playing for many hours now it's great probably the best free boxing game out there imo, it's just missing some elements and local multiplayer i've been getting my friends to download this game ever since! (p.s please add playstation controller support, been playing this on steam cant use pivots and stuff, would be highly appreciated thank you!)
Thank you so much for the feedback! Glad you're enjoying the updates — and really appreciate you sharing the game with your friends. Local multiplayer is the next big upgrade I'm planning, so hopefully that will make it even better. I'll look into adding PlayStation controller support too. Thanks again!