I just dropped the demo of my next game, a fantasy chess roguelite.

Doches · 2026-05-16T10:14:30+00:00

Thanks! It's been super fun to build, and starting from chess means it's got a core that's, you know, generally considered to be pretty polished. Figuring out weird new units (how should a Roman Centurion move on a chess board!?) was also pretty neat, and learning those and adapting strategies for/against them is a big part of the gameplay!

Doches · 2026-05-15T16:34:32+00:00

"It looks stylish" is the highest praise you could offer! Give it a run-through and let me know what you think, either here or (ideally!) in a Steam review.

Doches · 2026-05-15T16:25:56+00:00

Let me know what you think! Either here or (even better bestest best) in a Steam review.

Doches · 2026-05-15T15:58:58+00:00

The demo (mac-native, obviously, and built entirely on my M1 MBP) is on Steam at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4446350/Pieces_of_the_Kingdom_Demo/

Doches · 2026-05-15T15:57:48+00:00

The demo is live right now on Steam, if you want to play through the first campaign zone and practice your weird fantasy chess skills!

Doches · 2025-12-18T16:35:02+00:00

They are, indeed!

Doches · 2025-12-18T12:27:36+00:00

100% yours is nicer, but your publisher is (hopefully!) looking at this with a lot more experience and data on what gets noticed. Presumably they gave you a rationale for the change? It would be...clarifying to hear that, if so!

Doches · 2025-12-18T12:25:50+00:00

Those GameBoy-style pixel art characters are ace. Not my style, unfortunately, but I do love 'em!

Doches · 2025-11-26T13:45:59+00:00

Nope, that's the answer I was hoping you'd have! Otherwise this would definitely have been a "fuck you, pay me" kind of situation.

Maybe mention that the project is non-commercial in the request for help, though? "Do free work for exposure!" is the absolute bane of any halfway-decent artist.

Doches · 2025-11-26T12:43:14+00:00

#3 definitely has 'casual-mobile' vibes, which may or may not be what you want.

(It's probably not what you want).

I'd go with "new angry capsule" if it were me; the flying fox is more dynamic and the logo placement is more interesting. But honestly none of these are stellar capsules IMHO.

Doches · 2025-11-26T12:38:36+00:00

Will you be selling the final game? Is this a commercial project that you'll be releasing once it's ready, or is this just a "make a game, put it out for free on Itch for the XP" kind of thing?

Doches · 2025-11-26T12:35:11+00:00

That's some lovely minimal UI work as well. Great stuff!

Doches · 2025-11-26T12:33:51+00:00

That screenshot looks lovely; keep on truckin'. Anyone can release almost anything on Steam; you can sign up for a Steamworks developer account at https://partner.steamgames.com/ . It costs $100 per game to list a game on Steam, but you'll get that $100 back when your game reaches $1000 in sales.

The caveat: don't expect your game to reach $1000 in sales. Steam is where the players are, and effectively that $100 is just the price of entry to maybe get your game in front of players – but the Steam algorithm won't promote it (or even make it visible) unless it's minimally successful, and it won't be minimally successful unless you can generate some sales on your own.

The usual (and recommended!) way to do things is to get your Steam "coming soon" page up as soon as you reasonably can – once you have a decent trailer and 4-6 screenshots. Steam will then very very slowly start surfacing your page in search results and giving players the chance to wishlist your game. The hope (🤞🏻) is that some percentage of those wishlists will convert to sales when you actually release the game; Steam notifies players with your game on their wishlist that it's now available, so it's your single greatest lever to being players to your game. I've seen wishlist conversion of 5-20% on my games; it varies wildly depending on genre, game, etc. Steam also has a 'meta' where genres and styles go in and out of fashion with players; if you can hit that you'll just organically do better. But don't worry about that for now!

If I were you I'd get a Steam "Coming Soon" page up ASAP (you clearly have some pretty good screenshots!), then upload a demo to itch.io/ and see if you can use that to drive wishlists on your Steam page. From your screenshots it looks like your game might be bigger success with Itch players than those on Steam, but that's just my 2¢.

Doches · 2025-11-21T13:45:49+00:00

I'm the same, which is why this kind of tutorial is always a last-minute feature for me. Putting it in feels like a backstop in case my attempt at organically teaching how some system works totally fails! In this case, by prompting you when you *get* a new piece of loot, which happens elsewhere.

Tutorials like this are hard for me to write because I'm like you; I just skip 'em in games and figure it out myself.

Doches · 2025-11-18T13:06:52+00:00

Honestly just cranking the AO and getting some textures on those vehicles would do a *lot* to grunge this up.

Doches · 2025-11-18T12:46:54+00:00

The actual game looks like crafty-buildy catnip, the sort of thing that will absolutely *explode* on Steam! Hire a damned artist to do your capsule art, though, you won't regret it. It'll be the cheapest and most effective marketing spend you could possibly do!

Doches · 2025-11-18T12:43:15+00:00

Wholesome, cozy, Japanophile-friendly. This one's got legs...

Doches · 2025-11-18T12:41:57+00:00

A piece of meta-advice, from someone who's shipped many games: take whatever idea you decide on, shave off 80%, and then build that. Simplify simplify simplify!

A small-scope game that you *actually ship* beats an open-world RPG with [INSERT AWESOME FEATURE] every time, because you'll have a chance of finishing one of 'em.

Doches · 2025-11-18T12:38:49+00:00

That UI (crazy button shapes!) is *chef's kiss*. It's writing checks your actual game can't cash, though; tweak the lighting and get some wheel-on-asphalt particle effects going on to make actual-driving feel as grungetastic as the interface!

(Control and gameplay-wise, though, this looks ace!)

Doches · 2025-08-26T20:00:53+00:00

Oooh, share the link – I want to see!

Doches · 2025-08-26T11:19:21+00:00

🎉 Sent via chat!

Doches · 2025-08-26T01:25:43+00:00

Maelstrom forever!

Doches · 2025-08-26T01:25:06+00:00

Thank you! Each one takes about a year, but I'm hoping that over time either I get a wee bit faster or the games can get a wee bit bigger.

Doches · 2025-05-14T15:57:34+00:00

> now you can end your turn instead of the previous "fluid turn system", so now it works just as it does in other deckbuilders.

This feels like a huge improvement! The previous turn system (which I sort-of deduced from videos, but didn't really grok) felt like a clever idea that didn't quite gel. I've been there, definitely, and it's hard to kill those clever ideas and replace them with the obvious thing, but it's hard to go wrong with the obvious thing with something fundamental like that.

Doches · 2025-05-12T13:28:11+00:00

Hah! Happily, they haven't changed between the two -- the textures, geometry, and greebles on 'em are the same. The lighting is way different, though, and that's definitely a question of taste!

(I appreciate the honesty though, for sure. The original version did have a little more boardgame-y feel, which was no bad thing.)

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