City of Promotion by Nilan

made by Nilan for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

City of Promotion is a game that combines chess with colony building, where players collect resources and develop colonies using the movement rules of chess pieces.

The emperor has sent you here to collect gold, and you win as long as you gather enough!

However, aside from that, your people also need to eat, so don't let them starve to death.

Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to implement enemies, so the only way to lose is by starving.

Game Controls: - Mouse Left - Action - Mouse Wheel - Zoom - WASD/Move to Screen Edge - Scroll

How to Win: Collect the required amount of gold in the game. Don't let your king starve to death.

Attention: I was too tired to bother adjusting the balance and random generation rules, so the game can be quite extreme, sometimes very easy, sometimes very hard.

Have fun!

itch	https://nilan256.itch.io/city-of-promotion
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/city-of-promotion

Ratings

Overall	448^th	3.444⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Fun	432^th	3.278⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	23^th	4.139⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Theme	529^th	3.444⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	581^th	3.167⭐	20🧑‍⚖️
Given		27🗳️	7🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 388314

Oct 07th · 13:40 UTC

Yep! I won!!! :)))
It was pretty hard to figure out when you're getting a lot of information and you have to do something. But then the game gets more interesting :р
it was interesting!
![2025-10-07_15-47-05.png](///raw/adc/e5/z/6e9ce.png)

🎤 Nilan

Oct 08th · 07:03 UTC

@mrdumpling Awesome! I didn't finish the tutorial before the deadline, was worried no one can understand how to play XD

Anaconda Games

Oct 08th · 09:42 UTC

I really enjoyed the core idea and had a lot of fun playing. The concept is great, and I loved seeing my little population grow. A couple of small things made it a bit tricky at times: the camera movement felt a bit slow, and when the game pans to each piece at the end of a turn, it takes a while once you have a bigger population (I had around 10 pieces). I also wasn’t able to build a Royal Academy, which might just be a small issue.

Overall, this was a really creative and enjoyable entry. With a few tweaks to the pacing and camera, it would feel even smoother to play.

🎤 Nilan

Oct 09th · 06:19 UTC

@anaconda-games You're right, I don't know why the camera movement speed is always strange. It's always different between the editor and the actual runtime. I need to find out where's the problem.
Anyway, thank you for playing~

SteD

Oct 09th · 07:40 UTC

Man this game is really cool. The theme is on the point and I really like mix of Catan with Chess. Great job!

8212games

Oct 09th · 07:45 UTC

I didn't fully understand how to play it, but the idea is quite original and makes sense)

tercs

Oct 10th · 12:23 UTC

This is a fascinating concept for a strategy game. It definitely lacks some polish and fine-tuning, but I think the idea has a lot of potential. The gameplay feels quite unique — I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before.

🎤 Nilan

Oct 10th · 14:10 UTC

Thanks everyone, I am glad that my game concept has attracted you~

stesim

Oct 19th · 14:13 UTC

Great idea! I enjoyed it even as it is, but with a bit of polish I imagine it being even more fun. A few things that I would consider improving: camera panning speed, scrolling in the building list, non-skippable animations at the end of a season. Otherwise a great game with a lot of potential. Well done.

tomrijnbeek

Oct 20th · 19:17 UTC

The tutorial in the beginning had me worried, but overall good concept. I didn't end up using a lot of pieces, so the balance is maybe a bit off. Would be cool if the different pieces had more use. Still, cool and original idea.