Chess and checkers themselves would be pretty simple with correlation....you just need 4 sprites for each unit, White on White, White on Black, Black on White and Black on Black, or perhaps just two and some Asm to do text color inversion.

That would be nice to see a SAD spinoff of Chess. I hope you finish this one.

That would be nice to see a SAD spinoff of Chess. I hope you finish this one.

So do I.  Actually, part of the reason I want to do it is that even though it will remind you of chess, gameplay is quite different, not least because you need different strategies depending on what race you play as

Quote from: DJ_O on March 27, 2011, 08:55:41 pm

That would be nice to see a SAD spinoff of Chess. I hope you finish this one.

So do I.  Actually, part of the reason I want to do it is that even though it will remind you of chess, gameplay is quite different, not least because you need different strategies depending on what race you play as

Would there kinda be some ground and air units/pieces or something? THat would be cool.

Here's the concept art, a sample game between Humans and Ptaloids.  However, in the future I'm going to give "black pieces" white backgrounds instead of black backgrounds.

Some things you may notice from the concept art:

1. The Ptaloids have more pieces...they are weaker, however, and most of the time two of the same piece must surround an enemy for a kill.  The three funky "pieces" on the bottom right are 2 of the same Ptaloid piece occupying the same square.
2. There are Operation Centers and Celestial Temples! You win the game by either capturing all pieces, making it so your opponent can't move, or killing the buildings.
3. There is a wall blocking the middle.  Raptors and Protar can use the wall to their advantage (I'll talk about sniping later), but no other pieces can move over the wall.

Questions are always welcome!

Just one map, or rather one game board.

You do have a point about the balancing.  Each side will have 8 different kinds of pieces, and corresponding pieces from each race will move identically.  However, to keep the strategy of each race, here's what will happen:

Ptaloids: Most pieces do half damage of their human equivalents, but come in pairs.  A Ptaloid player can move 2 identical pieces per turn, but two identical pieces must capture the enemy piece for the move to be legal.  The advantage?  More board control and a little bit more forgiving to throw away pieces.  The disadvantage?  Easier for pieces to get picked off

Tosonians: Tosonians have about half as many pieces as humans, but with twice the HP and damage in most cases.  Thus, it takes 2 "captures" to destory a piece.  For example, a Splitron would normally fall to a Reclauda, but it takes two Reclaudas to take down a Tosonian Command Ship.  Also, Tosonian pieces can move twice the distance allowed for other pieces.  The advantage?  Hard for a piece to be killed, and every human or Ptaloid unit captured improves odds more for Tosonians than for the other two races.  The disadvantage?  Not as much board control

So for those of you who are S.A.D. fans, here's how each of the pieces can move for humans, and remember that these moves will be somewhat identical for the other races:
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* Scouter -- Can move any number of spaces in any direction.  It can only attack other scouts, but it can bring back captured pieces
* Raptor -- Can move 1 space in any direction, or can do a "mirror" move to the other side of the map.  Known as an "infantry" unit.  Can attack anything except capital ships.
* Tank -- Can move 1-2 spaces horizontally or vertically, and can capture any unit (except capital ships) in a 3x3 square
* Degruser -- Moves like the Chess Rook, and can capture any unit except capital ships
* Reclauda -- Moves like the Chess Queen, but can only capture capital ships, scouts or infantry units
* Balkstone -- Moves like the Chess Bishop, and can capture any unit except capital ships.
* Splitron -- Moves 1-2 spaces in any direction, and can capture any unit
* Camoza -- Moves like the chess queen, and can capture any unit except capital ships.  It dies once it captures a unit.

Humans = 16 pieces
Ptaloids = 28 pieces
Tosonians = 9 pieces

It is a lot of Ptaloid pieces, but there's much more map space.  In chess you had 32 pieces for 64 squares.  If you had two Ptaloid players, it would be 56 pieces for 132 squares.

By the way, don't be fooled by the number of pieces.  Some pieces from each race are all equal to each other, neither stronger nor weaker.