Greenlight is coming...
16-4-2016
Hey there!
I've been working on Checkmate for almost half a year now, and the game is starting to near a more finished development state. Most main mechanics are in, and all there's left to do is polish up some AI, add a couple of pieces and do some rebalances here and there.
Because of that, I'm going to hit up Greenlight somewhere next month. It's still quite some time away, but I'm already preparing for the submission. Today, I want to discuss the stuff I'm doing for Greenlight, and what it all means for you guys!
New soundtrack
For Greenlight, aswell as the game itself, I've hired some guys who are good at sound. They do their jazz and produce some pretty neat content for me to smack onto the game.
I've decided to take it this route, because it's really important to make a good entrance, and having badly produced music is an immediate "click-away", especially in an environment like Steam, which encourages you heavily to do so on a marginally not-interesting looking game.
I can't give you guys anything right now, but there are some sweet tracks on the way here, and you'll hear all about them as fast as possible!
Demo version of Checkmate
I'm currently working on a demo version of the game, free to play for everyone. The demo will contain the following things:
- Two tutorials; One in board mode (for the turn-based mechanics) and one in world mode (for the real-time mechanics)
- "Sandbox: Board mode"; This mode allows you to play pieces onto the board wherever you like, save it as scenario's and play these scenario's later. It's used to create puzzles, but it's also fun to just do random stuff in it.
- "8 scenario's: Board mode"; A scenario is just like a small puzzle. There'll be eight of these (with many more in the final game) for you to enjoy, including "mate in one", "mate in two" and the reborn classic "Scholar's mate".
- "3 scenario's: World mode"; A scenario for world mode works slightly different. Instead of being a puzzle, you'll get an already built world, and your job is to reach a particular goal. This'll challenge you strategically as you need to apply all of your chess skills, aswell as your long-term strategy planning skills...
I can say for sure that these three points are what you can expect from the demo, at least. There can only be more added to it!
Tutorials
I've mentioned the tutorials briefly in the last section, and I still need to start working on them, but I wanted to elaborate on them slightly more before anything.
There will be two explicit parts of the game: The part where you set up your base and train your pawns to pieces, and the part where you "fight it out" between your opponent in a sort-of "mini-chess". Both of these parts will have their own seperate tutorial, so you can easily walk through everything.
You'll also be able to play a Sandbox mode in the final game, allowing you to put anything you want, anywhere, for free. Not only is this used to create puzzles, scenario's, etc., but it's also fun to mess around in and see what you can get away with.
Scenario's
As for the scenario's, there'll also be two types: One in which you must solve a puzzle on a chessboard, and one in which you play in the world, and must achieve a particular goal.
Each scenario is essentially a "snapshot" of a current game, only with special goals in them. They're really easy for me to create, which allows me to push out a bunch of these in a very small amount of time.
In the final game, you can expect loads of scenario's, and perhaps also the opportunity for you to create your own, and share them with others.
Concluding: About Greenlight
I'll head to Greenlight once I've got a trailer, a "proper" soundtrack and a demo version of the game. The demo version will be up for ~1 week prior to the Greenlight release, so I can get some early-birds involved in testing the demo.
I'll make another announcement once I get closer to Greenlight. I can't give an exact date, but I'm pretty certain it'll launch somewhere at the start of next month.
I've said this before, but I'll just put it out there again: The entire game will be available for just €5, which is practically nothing compared to other indie titles!
That's all I had to say for now. If you'll excuse me now, I must work on getting out a fully fleshed demo version...
