YOU DIED

Im loving the sounds! Very cool. Creepy but awesome. The gameplay is impressive and I found very fun. Cant wait for more. I do enjoy the concept. Nothing i didnt enjoy honestly

This is perfect. Mood, graphics, story, sfx... I just love it

This has gotta be one of the most innovative games I've played from a Ludum Dare, it has potential to just be released as is! I love it!

Nice take on the theme. I THINK I solved all the puzzles unless there was a bonus one ;). Good job, you managed to get quite a few of them in there!

This one is excellent ! Great puzzle game with interesting mechanics and good level design, good difficulty curve to keep it interesting all along, really well done. The art and animations are very polished too, there's visual and audio feedback for player interactions and everything. The music also fits it pretty well. Great pun title too ! I didn't really dislike anything, maybe it would be good to be able to remove a piece when it's already positioned, and I had trouble understanding when the enemy pieces would or would not take mine... Definitely one of the greatest entries I've played so far ! GREAT job !

Awesome game, very very enjoyable! But there is a part where game gets kinda easier then it was before, made it lose a bit of interest. But it was awesome, loved the humor and the chessy gameplay

Very well designed game, I enjoyed playing. The only critic I can give is I am able to place on top of enemy pieces.

I love the animation death does when looking at you and board. I couldnt finish the last? stage where it is a big board but i guess that is the point lol :D. As a huge fan of chess i really liked this puzzle game as it served my nieche very well.
This game has suprisingly many levels for a ludum dare project and i commend you guys for that. audio fit the game perfectly and starting cutscene was good.

Suggestions:
-Maybe add some sort off saving system so that you can continue where you left off.
-Maybe add better tutorial what the enemy pieces were meant to do as i just kinda ignored them and it worked out well for me, but left me kinda confused.

Wow!!!!!!!
This is impressive. Very polished, complete, visually striking, fun to play, addictive.
1. I love the graphical style. And the cool death figure, which watches my moves. Nice.
2. The sound fits well.
3. I loved the puzzles, got to the end, where there is only one pawn on the big board. Unfortunately, after placing multiple times and giving up, the game crashed: white screen where I still could retry/ give up and hear things, but nothing else, then real crash (WebGL Chrome).
4. I played a lot of chess derived games. Still this one feels fresh and enjoyable.
5. Why are the enemy figures nicer than my own 😄 ? ♞ of death is nicer than my own. ... Just joking.
6. A little too much for my taste: The "hump/ shake" when placing my figure.
Overall: Great. And amazing for a game jam.

Question: I am rating graphics, assuming that you did them during the game jam, else it would not be fair for people who created graphics from scratch.

This game is so cool and polished! The presentation was so well done. I did find a bug at the end, where I couldn't solve it and pressed give up, and it lead me to a white screen. Very curious to what the ending is!

The graphics gave me Elden Ring vibes :)
I like the puzzles you came up with, it's an interesting mechanic.

I was thinking a little bit about the visualization you have of telegraphic each pieces attacks. I think it works against you here because it lets you skip thinking about the puzzle. While you still have to remember how to put the pattern together I think it encourages our lazy brains too much to just go through the levels by trial and error.
I was wondering why games like Into The Breach don't suffer from this and I think it's because you have to balance other constraints.

The opponent having pieces on their own is really nice, I think you can take this concept very far.

Another thing I noticed was that pawns should not be able to move the way they do in your game, but I can see why they do.

Really really cool entry! Congrats on shipping.

clever mechanic and puzzles. Very challenging at some points! Great game guys

I love this mood. Playing chess with death is such a strong image. It's a really nice touch how you introduce each mechanics with a smooth progression and even a tutorial, well done!
I was a bit surprised by the way the pawns cover their tiles, it felt a bit too powerful.
The level transition was cool, I liked the switch tile effect.
My only criticism is that appart from the text at the beginning, it felt a bit disconnected from the theme.
Otherwise it was a very good puzzle game, well done!

Wow, you made a lot of really cool levels! I also have an affinity for games that take chess and do something different with it. Music and sfx were great. Design was great. Death following your mouse was great and then giving you that smug look. Overall awesome!

Menu:
We have visual and audio feedback on the Play and Settings button, but you forgot to add it to the close button in the settings.

I loved playing "a round of chess" against the death itself.

Graphics:
The graphics are amazing and matching. The presence of the death while playing against him really adds to the athmosphere. All in all a good looking game.

Gameplay:

I also liked the introduction story sequence, it really helped building the athmosphere.

Beside the one bug i found, where i could place my piece right inside to the enemy piece i enjoyed playing the game.
I felt like some of the earlier levels are harder than some of the mid-end levels. This could also due to the fact, that while playing the game, you gain more understanding of how to solve the puzzles.
You instantly catched me with the gameplay.

If the game had more levels i'd play till the end.
The end of itself of the game was a bit confusing :D

I was a little bit confused by the pawn being able to cover fields in all directions, cause the game stated standard chess rules in the beginning, but that is not a big of a deal.

Being able to continue the game where you left off is a really good feature!

Audio:

The chilled music fits perfectly, it's not annoying although the loop is pretty short. Good job here!

Theme:

Really good approach on the theme.

Innovation:
A new approach to a chess based game i have not yet seen. Good job here!

Very nice puzzle game. Anything with chess pieces immediately allows for some interesting complexity. There was unfortunately a bug where I could place my pieces onto enemy ones and cheese some of the levels. I also wish the difficulty ramped up a bit more and the puzzle design was a bit more rigorous (right now a lot of puzzles can be finished leftover pieces, for example), but can't ask too much from a jam game. As a first exploration of these mechanics, this is really, really good.

Theme and presentation are of course great. The animation work is really juicy, and I really like the jazzy soundtrack and super tactile sound and feel of everything.

Outstanding work! Wonderful graphics and a great game concept. I found the puzzles to be on the easy side and wished that reset would work instantly instead of having to sit through the animation. The rules also weren't 100% clear, had to find out through trial and error that enemy pieces only capture once. But those are pretty minor flaws and the idea and execution are both superb here. Good luck with the ratings I feel that you'll do very well!

Great style and atmosphere to all of it. Also really interesting puzzle idea that I have never seen. Well done!

Very very cool idea and theming. Looks great, music was great, easily the best I've played in the jam so far. Puzzles were very clever, and the reaper's dialog was fun. Great work!

Just WOW! At the same time it's a great puzzle game but also a philosophical story about perishableness. Pure five stars product!

I don't have enough braincell to solve one level but the rest is fire, I enjoyed playing through all the stage because it genuinely stimulated my non-existent braincell. It's a great game based on the theme of death being inevitable presented in a physical form with a story told through filling the board with chess.

Fun and solid game!
Considering the short time to think of the puzzles they were really well done.

First thoughts was of The Seventh Seal which is always a plus, and including Terry Pratchett quotes is always a good way to make a game better.

Very nicely done, I also appreciate the Pratchett quote in the beginning :smile:

What I liked: Amazing graphics, really good production quality overall.

What I think could be improved: minor things really, for example I would reduce the delay on retry and level end. Also on level 8, I had already learned how to bait the enemy and level 8 itself was beatable without doing the bait maneuver as told by Death. The music is appropriate but there is not enough for a longer game like this.

The chess mechanic works *VERY* well in this game, especially the enemy pieces add interesting dynamics that allow the player to try different solutions.

I like a good puzzle game and this works well...some of the puzzle seemed a bit easy (I completed them with pieces left over) if that was a special challenge that might be cool!

I have virtually nothing but good things to say about this game. Loved the writing, LOVED the graphics/look of it (SO polished for a game jam!), and was immediately hooked. I'm no chess buff but I was pretty proud of getting to do all of the levels. I would 100% play an extended version of this game.

Seriously, the reaper looming over the board in a white, deathly space is just SO cool. 10/10 (or 5/5, I should say).

The *only* hitch I had was how long it took to reset the level, but it's such a minor thing. Didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game at all. Excellent ending, too!!

Really cleaver game - well done

Amazing game! Great aesthetics, both the models and the animations when flipping the board and pieces spawning.

Gameplay is a really great take on chess, making for a really fun puzzle game that could easily be expanded to a full game! I think it would work really well as a mobile game as well.

Great work!

It was soo fun! I loved the mood and the puzzles were really balanced. Loved the ending.

@danonino Thanks for playing! The game is actually saved from the beginning, if you go back to the main menu you will see a continue button and it goes back to where you were!

@nerzal Thanks for the detailed feedback! I also watched the stream and really liked watching you figure it out!
The bug on the end was the game trying to go to the next level instead of to some more conversation and a "thank you for playing" screen.

@udo @teenythanos Thanks for your feedback, I slightly tuned the restart level timings, so it feels a little snappier.

@okamit I agree, this one should be reasonably simple to convert to a mobile game!

Amazing on the Terry Pratchett quote. Legendary. The graphics were really nice and the concept is neat - a bit of a classic with make a deal with death to try to stay alive, and then going back to a classic such as chess is just doubling down on classicalness.
Chess isn't my favourite game in the world so I didn't get too into the gameplay, but I can say it's gorgeous and it seems very well executed. =)
Well done!

Wow. This game is just amazing. Idea, design and implementation. I love the game mood and increassing level of dificulty. Evrything is well explained and I had no doupt what should I do. Even the topic is 5/5. The secend best chess game in this jam- nah even first ;)

Amazing

Very well done, great visuals and polish, with a very nice chess puzzle gameplay. Can totally see this as a full fledged game.

Great job!

@adriannowak97 thank you, but surely https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/shotgun-king is the best chess game!

I really like your choice of music there! The skull becomes more like a chill friend than a spooky enemy in that blues.
All high scores. Best game seen in a few days.

Great entry as other have said, interesting mechanic, impressive amount of levels, amazing polish (skeleton blew my mind when i realised his head tracks you!), entertaining writing, all in all a solid game!

Some constructive crit:
- Also picked up the bug(?) where you can place pieces on top of the red ones.
- thought the ending was a bit confusing
- I found it a bit easy, also noticed a dip in difficulty about midway through
- I thought the enemy bishop was a queen at first

All of those are minor, especially considering this is just a jam game. Well done Sadie Bros, another great little game :)

@japes thank you for the feedback!
Puzzle design is so hard! For every person that says it is too easy someone also said it was too hard :smiley:
Are you sure you played the latest build? I fixed the bug with the pieces (accidentally forgot to add the enemy layer to the raycast) and the game not ending properly on the last level.

@nsadie I will play again just to see the ending :)

Neat puzzles with a great theme! Really polished even for a jam. I love how the skeleton watches where your cursor is.

I really like this! I liked that I started with the familiarity of chess rules (modified pawn, though!) - and then had to think of how to apply them in a different puzzle environment. It was really impressive how you worked in the enemy pieces, I think it added a lot of depth when you had to think about baiting the enemy pieces too!

Absolutely amazing game you made there! And it was great to welcome you to the stream today! Here's the link if you want to rewatch it: https://youtu.be/n5c0GndY1SY

An interesting take on chest creating a puzzle element.

Awesome concept. Great to learn chess. I gave up at 11/18. Great experience Thanks

Very nice puzzle game. It's pretty hard to make a fun puzzle game and you done it very well. Congratulations

A very good puzzle game with very well done difficulty curve, fun dialog and aesthetically pleasing. Enjoyed every bit of it from start to end -- such an impressive feat for a jam.

Thanks for bringing it to my stream! Here's a recording in case you'd like to refer to it https://youtu.be/P3HI-2edlag

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1457959497?t=00h50m46s)

One of my favorites of the jam so far, knew I'd love it the moment I understood the concept from the tutorial. Very awesome work here, guys!!

Hardly, but interesting game!

I really love everything about this game \o/ The mood is really well done and I loved the little intro bits. The way the text came in at the very start was super cool.

I really liked the puzzles and I thought the idea for covering the board with different chess pieces was really interesting. I liked all the different mechanics that got added, it made for some intersting puzzles! I thought that the filled in space looked really nice as well.

The graphics were really well done and it sounds very fitting for what's happening in game. Overall well done!!

Excellent presentation, and a very clever puzzle! I've not seen a chess puzzle quite like it before! Fantastic work!

Just when you think every chess variant has been done, you see something like this.

I really enjoyed this game, AND it winds up being a great teaching tool for teaching coverage and territory control in the actual game. Around stage 9 when you introduce the baiting is when the formula changes up quite a lot. It certainly made it a lot more difficult to play, but I think it was quite needed since otherwise you'd mostly have to rely on adding more enemies or something.

A nice ending to the game since the skeleton has been staring at you the whole time and you sort of forget it being in the background, and a perfect way to tie it back to the theme. Very cool game.

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