Sage Solitaire and SpellTower dev is making a game called Really Bad Chess
It's chess, but with random pieces.
SpellTower, Sage Solitaire and Halcyon developer Zach Gage has announced his next game, Really Bad Chess.
Like Sage Solitaire before it, Gage is repurposing a classic title for a new era; this time by making it really bad.
But also good! The premise of Really Bad Chess is ingenious: it's chess, but with completely random pieces.
As such, you could get an army of eight Knights, four Bishops and three Pawns.
"Chess is one of those games I always wished I enjoyed, but its commitment to beauty, elegance, and perfect balance always turned me away," Gage said of his upcoming title. "Really Bad Chess gets rid of these stodgy old restrictions and flips chess on its head."
"For chess pros, Really Bad Chess will give you a new type of challenge - the pieces & the moves are the same, but you'll have to throw out your openings and your understanding of normal patterns of play," Gage proposes.
"For novice chess players (like most of us), Really Bad Chess greatly opens up the game. Instead of starting by studying openings, in your first games you'll get to discover the joy (and challenge!) of learning how to checkmate."
If the playing field sounds too lopsided for you, there's always the worldwide Daily and Weekly Challenges, pitting everyone against the same malformed army with leaderboards showing who performed best.
Really Bad Chess is due on iOS devices 13th October.