Every capture has a character.
The ambition was to make chess feel expressive without losing the clarity of the game. Every capture needed to respect a legal move while making the two characters feel different—and the product needed a commercial approach that welcomes a broad audience.
SEE THE GAME IN MOTION
Small battles.
Big personalities.
Actual gameplay recordings from the project. Press play to watch an encounter with its recorded audio.
Beneath the lance
A pawn meets a mounted knight. The encounter uses anticipation, a shield defense, and an evasive move to give the capture its own rhythm.
Pawn–Knight v5 · courtyard build · September 2026View gameplay screenshot ↗The siege of giants
The castles awaken as stone fighters. The battle turns a familiar chess piece into a character with weight, reach, and a theatrical finish.
Rook–Rook v3 · earlier board presentation · September 2026View gameplay screenshot ↗A different kind of power
A crystal feint draws the pawn’s defense before the queen commits to the next move. Separate actor tracks connect the exchange to its effects and sound.
Queen–Pawn v3 · courtyard build · September 2026View gameplay screenshot ↗These clips show the programmed encounters, including a retained Rook recording from the earlier board presentation. The newer courtyard appears in the Pawn–Knight and Queen–Pawn footage. Media is reduced in size for the web; playback speed is unchanged.
From the idea
to the implementation.
- 01
Define the product and the characters
I set the direction: an original fantasy chess game with recognizable rules, theatrical captures, distinct armies, and an affordable route to a broad audience. Gameplay and commercial choices were considered together.
- 02
Connect rules to authored performances
I directed a scene pipeline that binds a legal capture to versioned actor tracks, sprite poses, contact points, effects, and sound. Choreography gives each matchup its personality while the game preserves the correct board outcome.
- 03
Review the game at several levels
The work checks chess legality independently, exercises computer-opponent decisions, and reviews encounters by faction, screen size, and playback mode. A replayable gallery makes individual scenes easy to inspect and refine.
- 04
Carry one client into real applications
Shared web content is packaged for Windows and Android. File-parity checks connect packages to the reviewed source; local Windows launch and physical Android gameplay records provide platform evidence.
Decisions that
shape the system.
Keep the chess authoritative
Legal moves, turn order, clocks, and saved positions belong to the game system. The animation presents the capture; it does not invent a different board result.
Author the encounter, not just the hit
Separate actor tracks define approach, anticipation, defense, contact, recovery, and victory. Weapon and body anchors connect the choreography to timed effects and sound.
Build one product across screens
A shared client carries the board, characters, lessons, and game controls into desktop and Android wrappers. Responsive layouts, playback options, and reduced-motion behavior address different ways of playing.
Let creative content extend the product
Cosmetic sprite-and-animation packs have a selected maximum of US$5 equivalent per pack, including tax. Purchases are intended to change presentation without granting a chess advantage; account-based ownership across platforms is part of the commercial design.
- Legal chess move
- Versioned encounter
- Actor choreography
- Timed effects & sound
- Settled board state
Inside the implementation
The animation system combines reusable sprite atlases with encounter-specific actor tracks and contact markers. Source poses are compiled into runtime frames; named anchors locate hands, weapons, shields, and other interaction points. Versioned encounters preserve older scene definitions for saved games. A separate gallery makes individual performances replayable, while Full and Fast modes let presentation fit the pace of play.
THE COMMERCIAL THINKING
Make it accessible.
Give people a reason
to come back.
My commercial design keeps every cosmetic sprite-and-animation pack at or below US$5 equivalent in the player’s final checkout total, including applicable tax. The goal is broad international reach and an ongoing stream of affordable creative additions.
US-dollar equivalent · final total · tax included
An approachable purchase.
The cap applies to each optional cosmetic pack, not the base game. It is designed to make a new look or performance an approachable purchase. Cosmetic content changes expression, while chess rules and competitive ability stay independent of spending.
A worldwide audience.
Global distribution is central to the strategy. The plan checks each offered country’s currency, tax treatment, and final checkout total against the cap. A region is enabled only when that price can be demonstrated; base-game pricing is a separate decision.
More personality to collect.
New sprite sets and animated encounters can extend the game’s appeal. Planned account-based ownership would let players restore eligible purchases across Windows and Android, with future iOS support separately qualified. New creative content gives them something fresh to choose.
A strategy with measurable results.
The intended cycle is accessible entry, more players, more engagement, and demand for new content. Actual uptake, repeat purchases, and retention will show how well that strategy works.
This is the selected commercial design. Account-based ownership, billing, and country-by-country price verification are planned implementation work; paid packs are not enabled in the reviewed build. Adoption and sales remain outcomes to measure.
What the work
demonstrates.
- Computer-opponent settings
- 20 levels
- Windows and Android packaging
- Shared client
- Character-specific capture choreography
- Original scenes
The reviewed implementation combines a playable chess board, a 20-level computer opponent, clocks, teaching content, a battle gallery, and original fantasy character animation. Windows and Android packaging draws on a shared client. Recorded validation independently checked 33,625 game plies without move, notation, or position errors; physical Android checks include timed play and representative animated encounters. The latest local desktop-to-Pixel QA match agreed on a capture, its scene version, and the board position, then restored the match after a Pixel reload.
Why it matters to a client
A complete product problem spanning interaction design, game rules, animation systems, cross-platform packaging, quality review, and a considered commercial strategy. It shows how I connect technical detail with what makes a product understandable, enjoyable, and worth returning to.