Chessboard Kingdoms
Animations update
- fixed the western siege tower's drawbridge;
- replaced the broken version of the siege tower with correct model and textures.
Big Update -- Lunar New Year
New pieces
Three new pieces were added to the game, expanding our unique features, mainly the building and siege aspects. You can now build Trebuchets and Siege Towers via the Workshop and Engineer.
Trebuchet is much like the catapult, but has a bigger range. This is balanced by the requirement of having to be in the siege mode in order to shoot.
Siege Tower is our most unique and interesting siege unit yet. Other units can be stationed inside and once the siege tower docks to a wall (or other obstacle), units can exit on the other side.
Settler unit is now available from our newest building piece, Tavern. Tavern also adds 2 new housing slots.
Animations
Lots of work is being done on animations for all our units. It is work-in-progress. As of this update, roughly half of all humanoid units are animated. Kings, engineers, knights, western pawn and wizard, rook,- are all animated for testing. More coming soon. Siege weapons, including the new trebuchet and siege tower, are all animated.
Localizations and more achievements
Achievements
Continuing where we left it off with achievements in the previous update, today we release a few more. These new achievements cover flag mode, sieges, range weapons and even hint at a few new updates that we are preparing.
Night mode
As a pleasant bonus, we added beatiful new torch lights to all our buildings in night mode. To enjoy those, simply swith to night in the game settings while playing.
Achievements!
Achievements
We're happy to introduce achievements into Chessboard Kingdoms. Only a few days ago we had them added for testing and today's update makes them available for unlocking in the game. As of right now we have 8 achievements present with more being designed.
Other updates
Among other things, we updated both the game and the map editor with new terrain types and materials, which allows for more vibrant and beautiful maps to be created and played.
First new localizations for the game will be coming out in the next updates. New ongoing fixes are happening with every update as well. This time we tweaked some of the UI in both the menu and in-game.
Early Access Update and Hotfix 2
- added new blur on camera in the menu and score screen;
- added two unlockable achievements (more on the way);
- catapult is now built at the workshop instead of barracks;
- additionally, engineer can also make a catapult.
Hotseat Mode -- New game mode update
Now you can play a match from the same computer. Share a game with your friends, or practice on your own. Hotseat matches can be played on any map with or without fog of war, and unlike singleplayer, you can play capture the flag modes!
What's next
Stay tuned for the next updates, which are to deliver Steam achivements and localizations. We are working on a few more exciting things right now, but more on that soon. New content is coming.
What we're working on...
Hotseat
The genre and chess mechanics call for a hotseat mode, wherein players will be able to assume the roles of there opponents from the same computer. Practice on your own, or invite friends and swap seats, hotseat multiplayer can be a lot more fun than artificial computer-controlled opponents.
At the moment we are testing a hotseat implementation. If everything goes well, it will be ready very soon.
Achievements
Games on Steam should have achievements (and with cool icons at that). We have many ideas for very intriguing and creative achievements, but we're going to start by implementing some of the simpler ones first.
The system for triggering the achievements is already in place and is being tested.
Localizations
Initially, we did not prepare the game for being localized into various languages, and so English was the only option. Right now we are working on decoupling the text from the game, so that localized versions can be created and added with ease.
As of right now we are not sure which additional languages will be supported first, but with a possibility to add new language support without changes to the code base, perhaps we will be able to leave that question open.
Early Access Hotfix 1
List of changes
- Changing board piece tag type (icon, name, name+icon) in the settings should now work correctly after it being switched off and on;
- Map Editor now allows undo/redo with Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y, respectively.
Chessboard Kingdoms Released (Early Access)
Release decisions
We are happy to present you the full version of the game finally available to all. Many options of how to proceed with releasing Chessboard Kingdoms have crossed our minds, and we opted to go with an Early Access version. Although the game is fully playable, there is yet much to be done if we want to keep it close to the grandeur of the original design. Early Access is here to help us determine how far we can take it and how players will respond to what the game offers right now. Our second big decision is the pricing. Even though we would like to have the game free-to-play with paid downloadable content and user-created items, after nearly two years in development we realize that we simply don't yet have the resources to rely on a free-to-play model, which would not be keeping us afloat for a long time.
Fixes
For this release we prepared a lot of fixes directly based on the recent beta test feedback. There are still a ton of things we should be fixing and the suggestions we had from all who have tried the game before are excellent. Our big desire was to finally make the game available for more people to try, so we had to pause somewhere. Early Access is the way to go, as it should allow us to continue receiving feedback and tweaking the game accordingly, as well as adding new features.
Map Editor
As an important bonus, we released the Map Editor as a DLC. It is a free app that will give you the chance to make your own maps and share them through Steam Workshop (or by sending them out however you like). Needless to say, as long as you and your friends have the map you made, you all can play it together in multiplayer.
In the end...
Most of all we hope that our players will enjoy the game and will have fun making some maps. We value any feedback you are willing to provide. Thank you for your time and enjoy Chessboard Kingdoms!
End of Beta
Thanks and see you soon!
