I love chess, and having a chess game on my playdate is great. Still i wouldn't whole heartedly recommend it to everyone.
The game obviously looks and feels great to play. The only way you can play chess is versus the engine, and this turns into my biggest gripe with it
The engine has six levels:
four moves ahead, two seconds thinking
four moves ahead, ten seconds thinking
five moves ahead, 25 seconds thinking
six moves ahead, 100 seconds thinking
six moves ahead, 200 seconds thinking
seven moves ahead, 300 seconds thinking
The first two difficulty levels are really fast, but can be easily beaten. Great for beginners i guess. Level four through six really tests your patience with thinking times at 300 seconds almost every move. And by almost every move I mean if you start the game as black the computer will think for 300 seconds before playing e4. lol. I'm happy to say it will use less time if there is a forced check mate sequence.
I prefer playing against difficulty level 3, I can still easily beat it if I'm focused, bit it doesn't take minutes every move.
I'd love if there was a pass and play mode, where I could play with another person.
auto queen is always enabled, meaning you can't underpromote.
Hi SingKing, thank you for your feedback. Your review is very informative and does a great job explaining all the details of the app and the engine.
All modern engines read a database of opening positions to instantly play the first several moves. I didn't get around to implementing that but it would speed things up a lot. The underpromotion and pass and play are good features to add. I would like to add all those features (opening move lookup, underpromotion, pass and play mode ) in the future but i've been very busy lately.
Edit: i should mention that I made all the source code public on github if anyone is curios what engine its using. It tried a few open source engines and the Jester engine ended up working the best for my needs.
Sorry to double post but....I'm loving this, although my chess skills these days really do suck! Well made game. I'll review this soon over at 'Playdate Player' on YouTube. Good stuff! EDIT: here's the review if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDPj1Sw9AYA
Hahaha I too was waiting for a chess game on Playdate since day 1, thank you for such a great implementation! Works wonders and perfect to play on the go.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
how do I perform the move where king and tower switch positions?
Hi, ckooken,
To castle you need to click the king and then click the second square to the left or right.
Kingside castle: click e1 then g1
Queenside castle: click e1 then c1
Thanks! I had found it by clicking around.
great game, available on catalog as well!
I love chess, and having a chess game on my playdate is great. Still i wouldn't whole heartedly recommend it to everyone.
The game obviously looks and feels great to play. The only way you can play chess is versus the engine, and this turns into my biggest gripe with it
The engine has six levels:
The first two difficulty levels are really fast, but can be easily beaten. Great for beginners i guess. Level four through six really tests your patience with thinking times at 300 seconds almost every move. And by almost every move I mean if you start the game as black the computer will think for 300 seconds before playing e4. lol. I'm happy to say it will use less time if there is a forced check mate sequence.
I prefer playing against difficulty level 3, I can still easily beat it if I'm focused, bit it doesn't take minutes every move.
I'd love if there was a pass and play mode, where I could play with another person.
auto queen is always enabled, meaning you can't underpromote.
Hi SingKing, thank you for your feedback. Your review is very informative and does a great job explaining all the details of the app and the engine.
All modern engines read a database of opening positions to instantly play the first several moves. I didn't get around to implementing that but it would speed things up a lot. The underpromotion and pass and play are good features to add. I would like to add all those features (opening move lookup, underpromotion, pass and play mode ) in the future but i've been very busy lately.
Edit: i should mention that I made all the source code public on github if anyone is curios what engine its using. It tried a few open source engines and the Jester engine ended up working the best for my needs.
https://github.com/t1miller/chess-playdate
thank you so much ^^
Sorry to double post but....I'm loving this, although my chess skills these days really do suck! Well made game. I'll review this soon over at 'Playdate Player' on YouTube. Good stuff! EDIT: here's the review if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDPj1Sw9AYA
Thanks for your support!
Hahaha I too was waiting for a chess game on Playdate since day 1, thank you for such a great implementation! Works wonders and perfect to play on the go.
Thank you. Glad you like it!
Yes! I've been aching for a chess game for Playdate, so this release has made my day! $3 is a fine price too - so thanks for that.