I always love when classic games get a simple twist that totally changes the way they play! I'm not a very good chess player, but I still notice a big design issue here : in classic Chess you always get a full vision of what you're playing and can plan ahead... Here the rule isn't transparent and would likely create frustration for any competitive player, they would immediatly try to understand the hidden rule. Unpredictability can be fun, but chess players only want that coming from their opponent : I think It's important to understand the core of the game you're changing.
Sadly, as I said I'm bad at Chess so I can't give you a deeper feedback... But I do have questions!
Have you noticed some winning strategies that emerged from this? I imagine that you get more switches when you turn your pieces into knights, so I wonder if this can be abused in some way. What would happen if you were only able to move the piece you changed?
Also, have you imagined other possibles changes that felt interesting?
Yeah, I didn't add a way for you to see how soon you will be able to switch. I am working on a better version and I already added that, and I also added, in the switch screen, a way for you to know that if you switch to a Queen, the cool down will be that and that moves, etc.
I wanted to add that but because I had only one day and couldn't sleep in the night, I was really exhausted when it got to the last 5 hours of the jam, where I intended on maybe implementing this, if I have time.
I have noticed an interesting winning strategy when I played some time after the jam with the better version. I got myself into a situation where my opponent was focused on attacking me, and not defending, since all I had attacking was a bishop and a knight. I then got myself into a situation where switching my knight to a queen would result in check, and then the king would have to move to a tile where I could checkmate.
What do you mean, that you get more switches then you turn your pieces into knights? You do, but the cool down is still pretty big. You can't just change all of your pieces to knights instantly. Unless it's the end of the game, and then there is a known bug.
And " What would happen if you were only able to move the piece you changed?" it might be interesting. After I implement AI I will play test it.
About " What would happen if you were only able to move the piece you changed?", I thought about maybe constraining your ability to change to different pieces, for example, at the first switch you can't change to a Queen, etc. But of course I need to think of something more interesting.
Thanks a lot for the feedback! If you want to see how much of a change the cool down timer brings, you can take a look at the better version currently. I will add AI soon.