Game concept: Pawnquest – A chess-based strategy RPG

Summarise the idea in one sentence

A turn-based RPG that incorporates chess mechanics as skills with cooldowns. Fight your way through the fortress and slay the king.

Genre

Strategy RPG

Platform

WebGL (and possibly a mobile port)

Story / setting

You are a lowly pawn, wronged by your kingdom and seeking to free your fellow townsfolk from the tyrannical reign of the monarchy.

You set foot inside the castle, ill-equipped to face the skilled combatants within, relying on your intellect to overcome your foes and progress to slay the corrupted King.

Legend has it however, that knights who are pure of heart and righteous in their cause may have the ability to acquire the combat skills of their deadliest foes. Though it is only a legend, of course.

Core mechanic

The game is essentially turn-based dungeon crawler, where each room has a tile grid on the floor and you move and defeat enemies following the mechanics/rules of pawn movement in chess.

As you progress through rooms, you unlock the ability to move/attack in the same way as other chess pieces, only these come with cooldowns before they can be used again.

Features

• The game consists of a series of asymmetrical, grid/tile-based rooms.
• Each set of rooms introduces a new type of enemy (or chess piece), which has to adhere to the movement rules of its piece in chess.
• At the end of each set of rooms, you unlock the ability of each chess piece.
• These abilities can then be used in your turns, but will come with a cooldown to avoid overuse.
• Progress through the fortress and face the king to complete the game.

Input device

Mouse and phone

Controls

Click/tap-based controls

Concept art

What does a 'minimum viable product' prototype look like?

A single level with the use of 2-3 chess moves as skills that trigger a cooldown after use, and 2 enemies with fixed chess pieces that follow traditional rules.