Lead ten animal armies in 3D chess. Challenge the computer across five difficulties or play a friend locally. Learn with Danger Sense and 100 guided lessons, solve 100 mate-in-two puzzles, and conquer the nine-battle Gauntlet.

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About This Game

Pawnimals brings classic chess to life with a royal cast of animated animal armies. Choose your champions, step onto a 3D board, and play at your pace—whether you are learning your first moves, sharpening tactics, or challenging a friend on the same PC.

Choose Your Army

Lead pigs, rhinos, bears, cats, dogs, elephants, frogs, penguins, dinosaurs, or unicorns. Each army brings its own character designs, animations, sounds, and reactions to the board.

Play Your Way

  • Five computer difficulties — From Beginner to Expert.
  • Danger Sense — Preview the first three different risky moves in Beginner and Easy computer matches. A ghost capture shows how your moved piece could be taken, then you can choose another move or move anyway. Repeating the same preview in the same position uses no extra warning.
  • Local two-player matches — Share the board with a friend on the same PC.
  • 100 mate-in-two puzzles — Find the forcing finish in themed tactical challenges.
  • 100 guided lessons — Explore board basics, tactics, strategy, and endgames with Professor Hootington in the Royal Chess Academy.
  • Gauntlet mode — Choose your champion and climb a nine-battle tower, with Easy, Medium, and Hard challenges.
  • Flexible time controls — Play untimed or choose Classical, Rapid, Blitz, or custom clocks.
  • Replay support — Review saved games and import PGN files.
  • Make it yours — Adjust text size, animation speed, music and effects volume, reduced animation, and color-assist markers.

Chess With Character

Animal pieces hop across the board, react to captures, and celebrate or despair when the match is decided. Switch between perspective and top-down views, rotate the board, and adjust sound and camera settings to suit your game.

The Academy's short lessons and practice moves let you learn without a timer and try again as often as you like.

Pick your champions. Claim the crown.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Pawnimals uses generative AI as part of its development and content creation process. Generative AI tools were used to assist with the creation and refinement of some visual assets, character artwork, animations, voice/audio content, and other creative elements in the game.

AI-generated content is reviewed, edited, directed, and integrated by the developer to maintain a consistent visual style, character design, and overall player experience. Generative AI is used as a production tool and does not generate unrestricted content based on player prompts during normal gameplay.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: DirectX 11-compatible graphics
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: 64-bit processor and operating system required.
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 3 equivalent
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Dedicated DirectX 11-compatible graphics with 2 GB VRAM
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
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