Complications
The main challenge during the design of the game has been to avoid breaking any of the fundamental principles which make chess interesting. For example, a player must not be able to put himself into check. According to chess tradition only the opponent can do this. Self-check is suprisingly difficult to prevent, since the cards can be played in various ways. In chaos mode we are not entirely able to uphold this rule, since a player might find themselves in check in the beginning of their turn (impossible in traditional chess).
2.0
Looking ahead, there was always an idea for a version 2.0, containing all the features that were left out of version 1.0:
- Neutral Monsters: Monsters and NPCs roaming the board, some can be fought or befriended. Some spread diseases.
- More Cards: A few cards were hard to program, so they were left out of version 1.0, like Advance, Disguise and Stench.
- Elves and Humans: Version 2.0 should have four races, where each race has unique abilities.
Open Source, Open Data
As a small indie studio we can do things differently! Under the hood GoblinChess is different in that its source code and the data is open. Being "open" means that anyone has access to everything about the game, removing barriers to entry. Anyone who wants to create their own gaming client will be able to do so, using the common backend (the commercial GoblinChess.com gaming client is closed source, so it is not accessible). The backend is programmed in Rell, on the Chromia platform, see Github GoblinChessChromiaBackend.
Credits
GoblinChess is an indie game, mostly solo dev effort:
- Programming by Olle Kullberg
- Art by Olle Kullberg. The cards are hand painted using watercolor
- Rules by Olle Kullberg and Jesper Hall. Jesper is a renowned Swedish chess champion and instructor
- Playtesting by Olle Kullberg and Jesper Hall
- Technical advice by Oliwer Svensson, a Game Designer and Developer
- Music by Mattias Axelsson, a jack of all trades.
Contact Us
We'd love to hear from you!
- General: info (at) goblinchess (dot) com
- Support: support (at) goblinchess (dot) com
- Press: press (at) goblinchess (dot) com