Thanks for the game! Chess + Dice is a cool combination!
The good:
- It works!
- It's a creative take on how to integrate dice into chess.
The bad:
- Very little is explained.
- I didn't know I was supposed to move the king onto my own queen, that's a bit counter-intuitive.
- I didn't know what the controls were at first and had to experiment instead of getting them explained.
- I didn't know I had to click on the dice at the end of every turn. Which was also kind of annoying.
- The pixel art style is both technologically obsolete, not very pretty, and hard to read. I had trouble recognising the figure I just rolled, and was surprised at times to be able to move like a queen when I thought I had rolled a bishop. The standard 2D chess set used in literature (in high definition, not pixel art) would have been an improvement, a free 3D chess set on a wooden board should have been doable.
- The game is not challenging. The challenge is in figuring out how to play it, after that it's trivial.
- It's too short. After all the heavy lifting of building this game, would adding one or two more levels (which should just be a file each with the location of the enemies) really be such an issue?
An idea for an improvement:
- Improve readability of the chess figures.
- Change the controllable token to the piece it moves as each move.
- Don't let us see our or the enemy's movement possibilities, let us visualise them. Maybe make that into a challenge mode so people can choose.
- Remove the need to roll the dice manually and roll them instantly. I know you wanted to push the theme of the jam, but if I want to play this I want to click-click-click my piece over the board quickly without having to click on the dice or wait for a result that is calculated instantly anyway.
- Generate levels randomly. Should be easy, infinite replayability.
This isn't meant to be as harsh as it sounds. I think with not that much work there can be a great casual game in this, with only minor, cosmetic changes. The core of the game is sound.
Thanks for participating and I hope we'll see you in the next jam! Good luck.