Below the Crown

An interesting game. Built on the scaffolding of chess but with rules and objectives altered enough to require a new way of thinking about the pieces and how to utilize them. Queens have a handicap knocking them down to being about equal in value with rooks and bishops. Kings can move into check as long as the game will be won by doing so. The board is always changing in shape and layout. The pieces can have special abilities drastically changing their effectiveness. Overall it is a fun and worthwhile experience. There is some room for improvement to the interface ( special abilities don't have unique icons on the pieces requiring a hover to see what they do - and often these drastically change how they should be used ) and a couple inconsistencies in pieces that add for confusion. ( like the queen losing her handicap but only when she is your chosen king ) But what I found was that all of these changes in behavior and rules provides a challenging strategy game where you will find yourself thinking carefully on what your best move/action combo is going to be at every turn. Sometimes the choices are obvious and the round is simplistic. Other times it takes careful thought the whole way through. But it will seldom be a situation of doing the same thing you did last time.

Incredible game design and fantastic atmosphere. Sadly took just 10 minutes for it to crash due to a memory leak on linux, which was supposed to be fixed in the latest patch :/

Bite-sized chess with per-run upgrades and debuffs, over-game progression, varied boards (rooms), and a mechanism to keep games brief. I play chess-likes, but not really played chess since I was a kid. I imagine AI could probably be better - quite slow when toggled to enhanced and then becomes difficult to outmanoeuvre by brute force, but careful use of piece deployment, upgrades and powers stack the deck in your favour. One of the better mini chess-likes I've played, and the kind of pacing and challenge that can be addictive.

Guess there is something to adjust bit, but great experience, great visual & sound design so far.

Well, chess battle advanced

music, artstyle and visual effects -> 10/10 nice ideas and atmosphere