Play directly on the game's website! https://chessnado.app/

I've never used itch before, there are some bugs when playing on itch's site. You will be unable to copy captain URLs among other issues.

This itch page is for the Feedback Quest 9 game jam.

Quick pitch

• Chess, but unlimited players
• No turns, move as fast as you can
• 4 armies: North, East, South, and West
• Captured pieces can be placed down for your army
• Pieces move at a given speed
• When pieces collide, they capture each other
• The board size and number of pieces auto-scale with the number of players

Tips

• The game needs at least 4 players, one for each army
• Become a captain by inviting others with your captain URL
• Everyone in a captain’s group stays in the same army, even after the king is captured or the board resets
• If you are streaming, invite your viewers to your captain group!
• Try a tablet with touch controls or a gamepad! Keyboard and mouse also work
• Do not forget to reinforce with captured pieces!

What’s next (this is an early prototype!)

• Make a tutorial!
• Get feedback on existing systems and improve
• New features such as persistent accounts, stats tracking, coordination tools, etc
• Add sound?
• Marketing website, posts, game cover art, trailer, etc
• Steam and mobile ports

Game architecture 

Briefly described, this game is a multiplayer web browser frontend with an authoritative server backend. The frontend uses PixiJS, React Router, TypeScript, FontAwesome, and Kenny’s Input Prompts. The backend is a custom Golang server on a VPS behind Cloudflare. The two communicate via Connect RPC (synchronous) or Protobuf messages over websockets (event driven). The game works by communicating an initial game state, then only sending “deltas” to minimize network traffic. It's designed to reach MMO scale chaos on a budget.

All my infrastructure is prepaid, not pay as you go. If the system hits a limit, it'll degrade by design. The current infrastructure should be able to handle at least a thousand players.

AI usage

I used AI to assist in writing code. Not art! The graphics and animations are very simple. The chess pieces are slightly modified FontAwesome icons!

I have been a professional software engineer for about 8 years. I started my career as a backend engineer and learned frontend web dev about 3 years ago. The most exciting part of this project to me is the auto-scaling multiplayer. If the game grows, I am hoping to get someone more creative to help with graphics and animation.

Monetization

This project has no monetization yet. If the game grows, I want it to remain free-to-play with cosmetics as the monetization. Piece skins that take effect when a player moves them, trail effects for piece movements, and some other ideas. I want the game to never have advertisements.