Turning chess into a roguelike via design first principles

Turning chess into a roguelike via design first principles(elbowgreasegames.substack.com)

16 points by spacemarine1 62 days ago | 4 comments

vunderba 62 days ago |

Nice article. Chess roguelike is an incredibly fun genre, and there are several good games in this space.

It’s also pretty easy to come up with all kinds of fun variants for them, such as:

- Kings are strong, charismatic leaders and can persuade enemy units to join their side.

- Rooks are defensive units and can boost the defenses of adjacent pieces, or they’re strong enough to shift allies by literally pushing them in a direction as part of their turn.

- Bishops are men of the cloth and can heal the wounded. Pieces that are resurrected are vulnerable to being “turned” by bishops.

The difficult part is playtesting the everloving sh## out of it, since it’s a bit like coming up with new mechanics or cards for MTG: easy to do, but hard to balance.

spacemarine1 62 days ago | |

Thank you. I agree. When done well, a good mashup can feel “easy” and “obvious” but really the devil is in the details. Creating the perfect balance of features across the whole design space for a shippable game takes extreme skill, taste and a lot of effort.

Garry often describes the fast iterative development loop for startups. Launch, test and get user feedback, polish off the rough edges and then do it again. I believe the same process is necessary for excellent game development.

johnecheck 62 days ago |

Huh. What are the odds two chess-themed roguelikes launch the same day?

I haven't played either yet, but I assumed this was about Gambonanza when I read the title. (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3509230/Gambonanza/)

I just might have to give both a shot.

wilbur_whateley 62 days ago |

If you like this, you might find Nichess interesting - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47947041

Adding health points to chess gives you a lot more options for balancing and abilities.