Independent PC project · In development
Codename What-a-chess
A tactical roguelite about launching a growing squad of meeples across a chessboard, routing ricochets through resources, obstacles and enemy pieces before rebuilding the squad between waves.
What is the game?
What-a-chess turns a chessboard into a compact systemic combat space. The player aims a volley of meeples, uses rebounds to damage chess-piece enemies and collect resources, places dice and other board objects, then spends the results in a between-wave shop.
Why I am making it
I want to test whether the physical satisfaction of a breakout-style volley and the predictability of chess movement can create tactical decisions that stay readable, fast and replayable.
Core design ideas
- 01Every volley should communicate a tactical intention: damage, resource, position or setup.
- 02Chess movement should create predictable pressure rather than hidden randomness.
- 03New meeples and cards should change how the board is solved, not only increase damage.
- 04The fight must remain readable at high squad counts and ×4 speed.
Selected development problems
The original 2D prototype contained a dense, interconnected combat loop that had to survive a move into a 3D Godot project.
Ported the systems reference-first and split the implementation by feature: board, battle flow, enemies, volley, resources, shop, HUD and effects.
The current vertical slice supports a six-wave run with chess-piece enemies, resources, dice, a shop and nine meeple types.
Large volleys and accelerated simulation can amplify repeated contacts, effects and feedback until the fight becomes slow or unreadable.
Treat deterministic collision resolution, contact instrumentation and an explicit effect budget as release gates rather than polishing tasks.
Performance and edge-column contact handling are tracked as the first stabilization milestone before expanding the game.
A playable combat prototype is not yet a Steam-ready product.
Separated the path to release into stability, player chess pieces, persistence/onboarding, external playtests, a public demo and Steam review gates.
The project now has a public Markdown roadmap with explicit scope boundaries and release criteria.
Current state
Playable vertical slice · Targeting Steam
What I own
Game design, systems design, implementation, balance and production
Godot 4.7 · PC
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