Dead Position

Dead Position is a chess roguelike. Underneath is a straight game of chess against a small engine, on a 3D board. On top, every move you make scores, and you have ten moves to reach the target.

Every move scores

A round is a fresh game against the engine: ten moves, three take-backs and a target to reach. Every move scores chips × mult, from a quiet move up through captures, checks, forks, pins, skewers and discovered attacks to checkmate. Chain tactics into a streak and each one adds to the mult of the next; lose a piece to the engine’s reply and the streak snaps.

Gambits and the shop

Between rounds, the shopkeepers sell Gambits: passive cards that bend the scoring and, for a few of them, the rules of chess. Let your king castle from anywhere on the board, let your bishops jump a piece, double the mult on every knight move. Study packs level up the tactics you lean on, and editions (Foil, Holographic, Polychrome and Negative) sweeten any card.

The Host cheats

Your opponent is the Host, and he does not play fair. From the second ante he bends the board with Blaze and Frost, and every ante ends with one of his lieutenants:

• The Warden forbids you to give check.
• The Beach Bum sends tidal waves that knock everything on their rows three squares along.
• The Pyromancer marks the piece you use most, and burns it unless you keep your pieces close.
• The Puppeteer never moves his own pieces. He moves yours.

A run

Four antes of four rounds, the targets climbing and the Host’s army growing. The pieces you lose stay lost for the rest of the run unless you buy them back in the shop, and the Host keeps a claw for your queen. Skip a round for a tag, beat the fourth ante’s boss to win, then climb the stakes: White, Red, Gold and Black.

Also in the box

• The full rules of chess, down to en passant, underpromotion and the dead position the game is named after.
• Free play against four engine levels, from Beginner to Expert.
• Three tutorial lessons, from how the pieces move to scoring a round.
• Blitz: play your run against the clock.
• A Motion setting (Full, Reduced or None). The effects are built on motion and ink, never on flashes of light.

Early access

Dead Position is in early access, at version 0.1.0. More of the Host’s board events and lieutenants, and more to spend your winnings on between rounds, are on the way. Tell us what you think with the Feedback button in the game, or in the comments below.

Requirements

Windows 10 or later (64-bit) and a graphics card that supports Vulkan. Mouse and keyboard.