It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update here, but for the last 4 months since the demo launched I’ve been consistently patching it with bug-fixes and content updates. More detailed patch notes are usually posted on Discord, but I want to take some time to point out the high level changes.
I also want to mention that the game will be part of June's next fest and will be launching shortly after this in August, though the exact date is still to be confirmed. I've been working to make sure the demo is great, but also to make sure there's a lot of additional content when the game launches, and I can't wait for people to get their hands on the new setups, badges and endless mode.
The Cannon Badge and Other New Badges
Over the last couple of months I’ve added around 9 additional badges (bringing the total in the demo to 61). The most recent is a badge that adds a unique piece called the cannon. The cannon takes like a rook, but creates an explosion where it takes and moves a square backwards from its starting position, killing whatever piece was behind it, or flying off the board if it’s at the edge.
Piece Modifiers and Upgrades
Pieces can now have a modifier applied that changes the way they work, either for the better or worse. Pieces can appear in the shop with these modifiers (though you get a discount for unstable and mercenary pieces), an upgrade in the shop can add a modifier to a random piece, or certain badges can add or remove modifiers.
Shop changes
I’ve added upgrades to the shop which appear instead of coins. These can either upgrade the lowest value piece to a higher value one, give a piece a random modifier or give the player a way to gain more money over time. There's also an emergency pawn button to give access to pawns at an increased cost (for emergencies). The idea behind these changes it to allow the player to always have an opportunity to incrementally improve their build.
AI Changes
I’ve been constantly updating the AI for the past few months. When the demo originally launched I used fairy stockfish - a separate program that the game communicated with the give the best move by the AI. The problem was that some of the modifiers or pieces could not be supported, so the AI would be great until something it couldn't understand correctly was added to the board (the courtesan piece as an example). For this reason I wrote my own chess engine around a month after the demo launched, which can accommodate some weirder (or less balanced) pieces and badges. An example of this is the cannon piece, which wouldn't be possible if I was relying on a third party chess engine.
I’ve been improving the engine and recently made a big step forward in terms of efficiency and level of plays - Especially when the atomic badge is in use. I’ve also made the easy difficulty select an in-optimal move now (as long as it isn’t sacrificing pieces etc), which should make things easier for beginners. If you want the extra challenge you can increase AI difficulty in the settings menu.
Visuals
I’ve changed the styling of the board and UI recently and I think it looks much better and clearer. I’m also adding more effects where possible to make things more interesting.
Tutorial
I’ve added a new tutorial which starts the first time the game is played. This should hopefully give enough context to complete beginners of chess to be able to figure things out as they play. If you’ve already played or don’t like tutorials, it can also be skipped using the pause menu. Alternatively you can also replay it from the settings menu.
Languages
Over the next couple of days I’m adding support to the demo for German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Russian. The game will use these languages if your steam language is set to these (otherwise it will default to English).