Battle Chess

[Superskull85]

As one of our grade 12 projects we were to go through the software life cycle and create a piece of software. As a result Battle Chess was created. Battle Chess is a Chess variant modeled after another chess variant, Orthodox Chess. Battle Chess features:

30 Pieces!

• 18 Pawns
  
• 2 Knights
  
• 2 Rooks
  
• 2 Bishops
  
• 2 Hybrids
  
• 2 Bombs
  
• 1 Queen
  
• 1 King
  
  9 Different "Special Squares"!
  
• Extra Turn
  
• Move Twice
  
• Kill Danger
  
• Random Movement
  
• Random Creation
  
• Random Destruction
  
• Piece Change
  
• Pawn Upgrade
  
• A Hidden Square
  
  Extended board (10x12)
  Customizable pieces and board spaces

There is no AI system yet, and the King's movement during Check is not restricted, however, these features are planned for a later release. There is an included User Manual explaining how the game is played, so it is advised to read through the User Manual before playing the game. Credits go to Jessie Finley (me), Mike Hogendoorn, and Stephen Euwanchuk for the creation of the game.

In the package you will see two executable files. The first, named "Battle Chess.EXE" is the current stable release of the game, which was the direct result of the project. This executable is the version you will, most likely, want to run in order to play the game.

The second executable file, named "Battle Chess (Newest Unstable Release).EXE" is a build that was created after the initial project was completed. This version is an experiment adding new features such as a "snap-to" system for pieces, other chess variants, other pieces, background loading, new (experimental) piece graphics, and a secret feature only accessible by a certain key combination. This version does have bugs, but they are planned to be fixed.

We look forward to any feedback you may be able to give us, as we are looking to improving the game over the summer.

Screenshots:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r120/Superskull85/Battle%20Chess/MainMenu.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r120/Superskull85/Battle%20Chess/InitialSetup.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r120/Superskull85/Battle%20Chess/ColourSelection.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r120/Superskull85/Battle%20Chess/MoveHighlighting.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r120/Superskull85/Battle%20Chess/GamePlay.jpg

[MichaelM]

Sounds really cool, but I keep getting a Run Time Error after I click New Game, it says: Illegal Picture ID number '0'

[Insectoid]

That means that a picture was not loaded. This is caused by missing files (The picture) or files in the wrong spot.

It looks cool, but I don't have time to download. New piece graphics would be great!

[Superskull85]

It should work...make sure that the file "BChessLogo.bmp" is in the same directory as the executable. Could you post the entire error message, or a screenshot of the error window?

[SNIPERDUDE]

looks amazing, shame I don't play chess, lol.

I actually did play it, really nice (I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to chess).

I really like the overall look and feel of it, with a few exceptions.

First of all although it is standard the turing GUI looks ugly, and can be fixed with custom buttons.

Another thing is if you changed the special tiles to instead of a bright font have a small logo (it would be the opposite coloured tile colour) it would make it appear nicer.

NOW some things I liked.

I really though the game overall was really nice, was actually interesting to play. I enjoyed how you setup your board for one thing (the status and information on the side about each tile) so it made it more user friendly than most other versions of chess I've seen.

I also enjoyed the fact that I could change colour to what I liked. As mentioned before it would be better if you upgraded the look of the pieces would be nice.

But I also appreciate the little things; the fact that you drew the pieces (in the battle Chess exe) in the game instead of image files.
NOBODY can say that way only makes them look worse than if you used an image file - I've recreated Windows XP buttons using no outside images (drawdot, line and RGB).

Anywho, overall a really nice game.
+ bits

[Superskull85]

Well we did create custom buttons for the game, but when they were modeled after the Turing buttons only because we really didn't know how they should look when we created them. We are trying to create new graphics for the game. For example in the executable "Battle Chess (Newest Unstable Release).EXE" you will see that some of the pieces have other graphics. As for special square's, adding icons would definitely be something that we should add, however, initially we didn't have any ideas for the special square graphics so we kept them in the same style as the pieces. Making the colours of the special squares dependent on what colour the board spaces are would be a nice addition, and is something I didn't initially consider, thanks!

When we were testing a couple of people did like the status bar, so I am glad that you liked it to! Again we will be working on creating new graphics.

Thanks for the feedback!

[MichaelM]

aha, never mind, I got it to work. Really good job. Its original, and creative. I enjoyed the stats on the left side, and customization is always fun. I see a lot of hard work was put into this. I agree with SNIPERDUDE that the pieces could look better, but it doesn't take fancy graphics to make a good game, and the game is very good

[SNIPERDUDE]

WOW, just tried the hex battle chess, amazing and original.
I know this is an old topic, but I just had to comment on it.

[michaelp]

It's only a week old, there's still time for discussion.
BTW, great game!

[Superskull85]

SNIPERDUDE @ Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:30 pm wrote:

WOW, just tried the hex battle chess, amazing and original.
I know this is an old topic, but I just had to comment on it.

Thanks! We are still working on the hex version of Battle Chess but I am glad you like it. Hopefully we will be able to release a full version of Hex Battle Chess soon.

[Zeroth]

The concept reminds me of Archon. Check it out, an almost 20 year old game.