Thou shalt PvP! (but only locally)

Thank you for your patience! We're not dead!

We have a lot in development in the background, and we're trying to figure out how to share that (without spilling the beans). Thank you for your patience!

Onto the newest features so far!

2.5-D Board!

We heard a lot of feedback about the awkward angle our board was at before. We tried experiments with camera modes, including adding a movable camera, while trying to find a way to make squares more accessible and readable. However, from resounding feedback from the team (and outward), we're finding flat and accessible 2D squares is easiest. So many other games do it well, why fix what isn't broken (or break a fixed position)?

Behind the scenes, It still uses 3D graphics and models, but with a different camera. So far, most of the team likes the aesthetic, but we still need to find a modeler and animator who can adapt new 3D (or 2D) characters in this style.

In the future, we hope to support switching back and forth between this mode and the flying camera view that we had before. Ultimately, though, this mode is consistently easier to use, and good controls are very important at this early stage.

Local Multiplayer!

We know... our artificial intelligence is a bit dumb (dumber than initially designed), and it makes some randomly bad moves. Put in definitely technical terms: it makes a lot of idiotically robotic moves, and not the idiotically "human" moves we were planning. It may take a while to build something smart...er... dumberer, but for now we want to focus on building the fun RPG parts. We're also trying to make games short, so we might leave the AI be as we experiment with our 'chess battles'

So... for fun (and showcasing!), we added a little local PvP. Rumor has it, Chess is played by two people, so we thought we'd break new ground and support this in our game too. Right now, there is no online mode, so you have to have a friend beside you in order to play against them. We're not sure what competitive multiplayer looks like in the long-term. We're just trying to keep it available alongside single-player.

The bishop gets a redo (art)!

Our fairly foppish, vaguely uppity member of the tutorial clergy has returned with a new look! We found an artist that has an extremely good eye for concepting and building out characters. We've tried many iterations, but we like this style.

Unfortunately, this artist has moved on to focus on their other work for now, but we hope to keep in touch.

AND MORE!

We're doing a lot of planning and plotting behind the scenes, eagerly trying to build out larger systems to make it feel like a proper RPG. I don't want to spoil any of it (because it would be very awkward if we had to dial it back...), but rest assured, we're strategizing a lot on top of this strategy game!

We're also showcasing in Sacramento, CA at the Sac Gamers Expo in... about two days from now (Dec 16th and 17th). If you're in the area and interested, consider dropping on by! It's $20 or $15 depending on which day you come. Jon St John will be there too!!!

https://www.sacgamersexpo.com/