About This Demo

What's in the demo

The demo gives you one full run: the first starting deck on the first difficulty, from the first fight to the final boss. Every card and relic is already in it. The other five decks and five difficulties are in the full game.

Your progress carries over. Win in the demo and the full game will remember it. The next deck and the next difficulty will already be open when you start.

Familiar pieces. A whole new game.

ChessDeck is a roguelike deckbuilder built on chess. You don't play a full game of chess. Instead, every turn you draw a hand of cards that spawn pieces onto your back row and move them up a small board using the movement rules of chess. Pawns are cheap and slow. Knights jump. Rooks and queens cross the board in one move, at a price.

Reach the enemy's row and your piece strikes the garrison holding that column. Clear the garrison to win the fight.

Every threat is on the board

Enemies show what they'll do a full turn ahead. You know which column gets hit and how hard. What you don't know is what you'll draw. The first piece in a threatened column takes the hit, so every turn you have to choose: push your strongest piece forward to attack, or keep it home as a wall.

Pieces protect each other

Real chess captures matter here too. A piece standing on a square another of your pieces covers gains guard and survives longer. A pawn chain is a shield. A lone queen is a target.

Losses are never free

When a piece falls, it leaves a Fallen card in your discard pile, and you'll have to draw it. Throw pieces away and your deck fills with the dead. Build a deck that turns that cost into strength, or one that never has to pay it.

Features in the demo

• One starting deck and one difficulty, played as a full run
  
• 90+ cards: spawns, moves, tactics and powers, each with an upgraded version
  
• 80+ relics that bend the rules of the board
  
• A branching map of fights, elites, shops, camps and random events
  
• A board that grows each act, up to a final boss
  
• Short runs you can finish in one sitting
  
• Demo unlocks carry into the full game

Features in the full game

• Six starting decks, each changing how a run plays
  
• Six difficulty levels, unlocked one at a time by winning

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

Music