LudumData

Chezz! by 4kbshort

[raw]
made by 4kbshort for LD 40 (COMPO)

chezz_001.png

Direct link to game as embed is not working: https://itch.io/embed-upload/680011?color=000000

The controls are in "Pico-8" format. To start the game press UP to see the info press RIGHT then LEFT to get back to the main menu. Hope that helps!

With every game coming out with a zombie mode I thought "What if we took a very old game and added zombies?" Thus CHEZZ was born!

This version of Chezz is just a simple chess board, no rules, no special moves, just one move per person's turn. The hook is that when a human piecetakes a zombie piece it's removed from the board, but when a zombie piece takes a human piece that piece is turned into a zombie and moved to the taking's pieces previous position. As the game progresses and you lose more human pieces the game becomes even harder for the humans to win.

The game is two-player hotseat. No AI or online anything. Play with yourself or with a friend and see if you can beat the zombie hordes!

Source code is available as part of the download: https://4kbshort.itch.io/chezz

If you want the source and don't have Pico-8 use any text editor to open the .p8 file.

HTML5 (web) https://4kbshort.itch.io/chezz
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/chezz

Ratings

Overall 594th 2.85⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 613th 2.579⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 217th 3.425⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 463th 3.132⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 387th 3.184⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 463th 2.342⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 265th 2.933⭐ 17🧑‍⚖️
Mood 484th 2.75⭐ 18🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

pcmxms
03. Dec 2017 · 22:50 UTC
Shame is a two player only game. Liked the idea of a zombie chess game!
Pixelome
04. Dec 2017 · 09:14 UTC
I like the look of the game, but I had problems starting to play since I couldn't figure out the controls.

Overall it's hard to judge if it's possible to win with humans when playing both side by yourself(a basic AI would be super cool), but it seems that it is very unlikely.

Good job!
Chris Hall
04. Dec 2017 · 09:22 UTC
This idea is so so rad. I wish it had a dumb cpu player or at least enforcement of movement rules. Nice!
🎤 4kbshort
04. Dec 2017 · 09:28 UTC
Thanks for the feedback guys!
I definitely did not have the time for code any kind of AI and the chess rules require a lot of if and when switches that I think would have overloaded the Pico-8 forced limitations (probably not, but there are a LOT of rules out there). I mostly use Pico-8 for prototyping and am excited to expand on it in the future as I'm learning to use Love2D and both are LUA based engines.

@Pixelome - Instructions are located by pressing right on the main title screen. Z to select and then move the marker and Z to put a piece down. X to cancel if you don't want to move a piece once selected. Also I played the game about seven times during testing and was able to win (using legit chess rules) only once as a human player, but it is possible if the other side is bad at it. (I was playing alone. XD)
Are Sundnes
04. Dec 2017 · 09:37 UTC
Nice and simple idea, and really well executed. Took me a minute to figure out how to show the info screen and learn the controls though!
Brenden
05. Dec 2017 · 03:43 UTC
Took me a while to figure out the controls, and only realized that you had an alternate screen for them when I read the comments here.

Other than that, I think it's incredible! Yeah having some AI would be nice, but I wouldn't expect that within 48 hours. Great job!
Billeclipse
05. Dec 2017 · 10:19 UTC
I liked the idea a lot and the art style is really neat :D Yeah some AI can be really nice but it can also be nice if you go and make it as an online multiplayer game because it is such a rad idea the game itself really makes me wanna play with a friend... Good job making a real cool game in such a short time :D
Racso
06. Dec 2017 · 03:21 UTC
This is kind of a cool idea (and looks really nice on the Pico-8), but, of course, it must be tested to see how to make it as balanced as possible haha. I think it's simply impossible for humans to win if we stick to the original chess rules. With that in mind, here are some ideas:

- To keep the original rules and score based on how many turns do Humans last before being overrun (or how quickly can zombies kill all humans).
- To somehow give humans tools to combat the zombies more effectively. Power-ups or so.
- To start the game with more humans than zombies, so zombies are forced to capture in order to grow their horde. For examples, just start with zombie pawns + the king.

All in all, nice idea!
🎤 4kbshort
06. Dec 2017 · 07:13 UTC
@racso Actually I had a few ideas for alternate game modes if I ever implement movement rules in a non-Pico version. One of them would be a game of "actual" zombies which would just be two rows of pawns and any capture pieces convert into pawns and they use pawn movement styles. They would be the closest to classic zombies. However, I have found that in most games the zombie side can win using mostly an alternating series of pawns so maybe it'd be harder. XD Thanks for the feedback!
blubberquark
06. Dec 2017 · 11:18 UTC
> So you're expected to know how to play chess and move the pieces accordingly. This doesn't hold hands. :)

hahaha
tweedle
07. Dec 2017 · 05:08 UTC
reverse take on the theme and hard to judge without a 2nd or AI player, the pico art and sounds are nice and you can't fuck with funky chess i guess, so kudos :)
pkenney
07. Dec 2017 · 14:24 UTC
Cool thought experiment, but WOW it made me realize that chess is really about trades and threats, and if you are the human you cannot allow a trade so you have to back down from everything. At least that was my little solo exploration. I didn't get a chance to play with another person.

In the end the poor humans were feeling so glum that I let them just use the first move to leap the knight all the way onto the zombie king on the first move! In this world where even the rules are not enforced, the human's first move advantage does outweigh even the mighty zombie power!

Nice art, good basic sound, getting the job done. Probably this idea is too unbalanced to be worth a larger game, so a good idea to explore it in a jam with a small game. Nice entry!
DaragonGames
14. Dec 2017 · 13:30 UTC
This game does not follow any chess rules. You can move your troops into each other or jump over them. Also the zombie side has a to big advantage by being zombies, which makes the game way to unbalanced for a 2 Player Game. I really like the Idea, but to work out it would need some work and polishment.
Iluvatar
17. Dec 2017 · 17:41 UTC
I gotta say, I really like the idea and execution. Original usage of zombie concept :)
Iluvatar
17. Dec 2017 · 17:41 UTC
Great graphics, minimalistic sounds, Great entry.
Gurbx
17. Dec 2017 · 21:46 UTC
Cool game! It would be cool if some movement restrictions were implemented as it's a bit difficult to see which piece is which. Also some AI would be really cool!