Birbla

Join the discussion

Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.

Sign in
  • Hacker News
  • This is a great puzzle game. I think it actually teaches the concept of "piece coordination" in chess very well.

    One suggestion is to have all enemy pieces move simultaneously. I expected that the losing condition is that I am threatened and there are no unthreatened squares to move (checkmate).

    However, since the opponents move one-at-a-time, I found that even if I moved to a safe square, sometimes I could be both threatened and captured in the same move! Which is somewhat different from normal chess, since now you have to consider the possible orders in which the opponents move. So even moving to unthreatened squares could be a game over.

    by eig
  • You can click your own piece and see the move order to see if it's a possibility you'll be moving into a discovered attack. You can sort of predict that pieces will move if they can go from a non-threatening state to a threatening state.
    by ngokevin
  • The AI can cheat, because it can move a blocking piece out of the way to then attack you in the same turn. Or maybe it's just something to keep in mind, but it caught me off guard.
    by addandsubtract
  • I think the order of enemy moves is deterministic. So if piece 1 blocks piece 2 from attacking you, piece 2 can attack if 1 moves out of the way.
    by smu3l
  • Charming!

    Reminds me of Alice:

    https://folklore.org/Alice.html

    (which I played manically until I managed _1_ perfect game of --- still have the box/disk....)

    by WillAdams
  • UI drag/drop is a little clunky at times, but I love the overall vibe. Doesn’t really feel like a daily game, though. Feels more like it is being shoehorned into that model rather than just being a solo Game Game (like Tetris).

    What I mean is as a player, I'll likely not notice the difference in a Friday puzzle vs a Thursday puzzle. And I can replay to my hearts content anyway. So why not simply randomize the board on each replay? Which I'd do anyway.

    by erickhill
  • You can just click where should go, no need for drag and drop
    by croes
  • The main reason for adding a daily puzzle (or really the seeded RNG) is that part of the game loop is retrying the same seed to find the best lines for that map. Since all pieces are deterministic, we've found it fun to retry the same map to see if a different line works better. It also adds a competitive/multiplayer element to the game, rather than it just being for single player use.

    I think both "play styles" make sense, we've just found it more fun to share with friends this way!

    by cowboy_henk
  • Before clicking on the link I thought this was going to be about Gambonanza, a game I've seen some people play on Youtube (on videos that I think were sponsored by the developer of the game, but I don't actually know). Haven't played Gambonanza but from what I can tell you are trying to capture all the rival pieces, you get a coin for each piece you capture, and when you succeed you can spend those coins to buy new pieces or give your pieces new powers (like a shield that protects a piece from the first time it would have been captured). So although it starts out with rules quite like chess (except not totally, e.g. you can have multiple kings and you don't lose until all your pieces are captured, so you can let your king be captured and win with your remaining rook), it can eventually evolve into something quite weird (a king that can also move like a knight, or a rook with protection from being captured, or a "golden" square on the board that if you capture an enemy on that square, you earn 2 or 3 coins instead of just 1).

    Actually, Gambonanza kind of reminds me of Balatro in that way: start out with rules resembling the standard game, end up with some very weird combinations. Not really my cup of tea, but might be of interest to others.

    by rmunn
  • As the random is seeded, I would like an undo/redo button.
    by antfarm
  • This is cool!

    One suggestion: some way to tell what the enemy pieces are? Maybe a legend to the right of the board? I ended up discovering by trial and error.

    by impendia
  • Isn't it pretty obvious? At least I recognized them.
    by bastardo
  • I think it makes a pretty good assumption on understanding core chess rules, but yea that would be nice. The thing that did trip me up at first was not realizing the red and blue bishops were the same piece, I was wondering if I was missing something.
    by TheGRS
  • Dang, that's really fun! I think its solid all-around and no notes on the core game loop.

    If you want to make it more accessible to folks like myself who stink at chess, I'd recommend adding some sort of power-ups so that you can take multiple pieces, jump over obstacles, or freeze enemies in place. And with that you probably have a great little game to sell on Steam :)

    by TheGRS
  • Can't go over 19, seems to be a lot of RNG, sometimes pieces spawn around protecting each-other and you stuck between them, so not much you can do.
    by XCSme
  • Impossible?
    by kalx
  • "Chess-related roguelike" is a an very crowded genre for unclear reasons and it's difficult to stick out.

    So far I've played Shotgun Queen and Pawnbarian. There's also Ouroboros King, Demoncrawl, The Rookery, Passant, Chess Survivors, Gambonanza, Mind over Monarchy, and many more.

    There was even a Humble Bundle for mostly Chess-inspired indie roguelikes.

    https://www.humblebundle.com/games/checkmate-chess-games-col...

    by jjmarr
  • > unclear reasons

    I think it's pretty obvious, tbh. Traditional roguelikes are turn-based, take place on a square grid, are good vehicles for exploring focused mechanical ideas, and can be fun without much in the way of story or graphic design. All of those features mesh well with the rules of chess, which itself is probably the most widely played game in the world.

    by nimih
  • Great game. I love playing chess so this is quite a unique way to play it.

    One piece of feedback: dragging a piece on mobile seems inaccurate at times. I’m used to chess apps where it works great. Here it seems the dragged piece doesn’t always end up where I’ve left my finger. I’ve lost a few rounds like this.

    by bbx
  • Good feedback! It should feel better now :) let me know if it still needs work!
    by rayquinox
  • Simply click, don't drag
    by tantalor
  • There must be something in the water! I’ve been working on a (very different) chess-like roguelike, and just released the demo. Check it out if you’re a fan of weird chess puzzles, bad chess puns, and Hnefatafl!

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/3856240/Pieces_of_the_Kin...

    by Doches
  • This is highly parasitic: someone does a Show HN about their hobby project, and then you come and snap on to it like a leech with your to-be-paid-for completely unrelated game demo.

    I find this kind of behaviour disgusting. Why don't you do a Show HN on your own?

    by haspok
  • Wishlisted! Looks great
    by growt
  • GoG, pls.
    by tpoacher
  • That's awesome! I've been working on nearly this exact same idea as a prototype in Godot. Looks like my work is done! ;-)
    by justinbeaudry
  • Looks great! Gamedev is so cool, being able to create enjoyable, playable worlds and characters must be so satisfying. If you can tell me how to build something like this I will be so grateful.
    by rockyj
  • So, Battle Chess 2026?
    by selimthegrim
  • Nice this is an actual roguelike
    by keyle