Combat Chess (7DRL 2015 success)

[rust]

Or rather "Much combat, little chess", but that name would be a bit too long for my taste.

But let's get to the point. This is going to be an arena fighting game in which you use chess moves to move your party and attack enemies. I plan to have 4 available player classes, each with 3 weapons switchable in between fights. It's going to be entirely deterministic too, just like chess are and roguelikes aren't. I'm also going to try to put more work into polishing the game, because that's what my last 7DRL lacked.
It'll be made using C# and XNA just like last time, but maybe I'll try porting it to SDL using FNA.

Good luck to all other participants!

It's a success! You can download the game here:
https://onedrive.live.com/download?resid=D1EAC8B9200A8595%21145

[binary_headspace]

This sounds interesting! I really like the tight combat in Hoplite and I think you could get a similar feeling (although not identical) from playing this idea as well.

Good luck!

[rust]

I spent half of yesterday fiddling with stuff, so now by day 1.5 I have done movement system and basics of characters and level generation. The levels are gonna be mirrored, like on the screenshot below.

[Samildanach]

The idea of chess movement in a roguelike is interesting. Good luck!

[AgingMinotaur]

If you haven't already, might want to try out ChessRogue. I think it basically starts you out moving like a chess king, and for each piece you capture, you gain the power to move like that piece.

Anyways, good luck.

As always,
Minotauros

[rust]

I just gave it a shot and it's an interesting mechanic, though it's different from what I want to achieve. My idea stems from my very first concept for this year's 7DRL, which was a card game. It then got simplified and altered until it became a concept I'm working on right now. Basically you get a "deck" of "cards" with chess moves, play them until you run out of them and then get another "deck".

I just implemented this mechanic along with multiple characters.

[Avagart]

Interesting idea. I think that chess movement can be difficult to balance, but certainly I have watched the development of Combat Chess.

[rust]

It probably is difficult to balance, but I'm not even sure I'll have a complete game by the end of the challenge, because my past 3 days weren't productive at all. I'll try my best though, there's still 1 and a half day left.
So now I have enemies that sit in one place and take damage, and 12 weapons, each with its unique property. Like an axe which deals damage to all surrounding enemies, burning spell which only damages the enemy at the end of a turn, or a spear which deals damage based on how many squares the piece travelled before attacking.

[Avagart]

a spear which deals damage based on how many squares the piece travelled before attacking.

Great, this ability is easier to use than melee attack from a distance of two/three fields.

[rust]

And it's done! I tried hard to finish on time, but that resulted in cutting a feature or two, and in the fact that the game lacks player progression. Other than that it's quite fun to play and, most importantly, it was fun to make.

Here's the download link:
https://onedrive.live.com/download?resid=D1EAC8B9200A8595%21145

[Avagart]

Good game, very interesting (and well-implemented) mechanics. But - sometimes after the attack on the enemy (I'm guessing that at the time of his death) game crashes

[rust]

That's what lack of playtesting does to a game. The bug was when the last player (in a list, not the last alive) died right after making a move, then the game checked against a non-existing character, which led to a crash. It's fixed now, but do let me know if there are any other bugs you encounter.

I also fixed hammer's damage which didn't match the description provided in game.

[Avagart]

Good news. I'm going to play and I hope that will not be more bugs