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Ascension Chess's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #86 | 3.951 | 3.951 |
| Topic | #128 | 3.854 | 3.854 |
| Sound | #142 | 3.537 | 3.537 |
| WOWIE! | #177 | 3.512 | 3.512 |
| Fun | #269 | 3.390 | 3.390 |
| Visuals | #347 | 3.341 | 3.341 |
| Simplicity | #659 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 41 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Music Source
It came from Assets from the Asset Store like Total Music Collection
Credits
GoedWare
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Comments
Thank you :)
Interesting concept. I didn't understand at first that you had to lose your pieces in order to win, so I thinks it's something that could be conveyed a little better in the intro. Also, it looks like the AI sometimes gets stuck and you're forced to restart the game then, which is kinda annoying.
Otherwise, really interesting entry! Good job :)
Thanks :)!
Top that you liked it!
Good tip for the intro. Could be explained better.
And the AI sometimes get stuck indeed..it is a bug..AI needs a big update...
Dang, this was really entertaining! I feel like the strategy genre makes the best candidates for games that are difficult to purposefully fail, especially when attacking is compulsory.
Thank you for the compliments :D!
I am happy that you enjoyed playing the game. That is always one of the goals of course to entertain the user :)!
This was very interesting and puzzling to play! I loved various pieces types, non-passable cells, the backstory, the demon voice lines and especially the enemy AI
The only issue I had was sometimes it would get stuck on the enemy turn and I'd have to restart, but it's understandable that these things can happen in a jam game
Great game!
Nice to read that you liked it and also the AI :)!
Even if the AI needs an update indeed.. ;)
Thanks again for your nice words!
This game was a lot of fun to play! I like the mix between the mandatory captures of checker and the variety of movements of chess. I thought the AI would just make random moves, but it actually proved to be quite a challenge!
The theme of the jam was followed quite nicely. I think the way you framed it (having to lose all your demons before ascending to heaven) was the perfect way to tie it in. This meant the gameplay made sense, instead of just being generic "die to win" instructions.
The music is a good choice and is played at an appropriate volume relative to the sound effects. I love that each type of demon has a unique sound when you click on them.
I like the visual design of the pieces and the board, with one exception. The texture used for the bottom half (rocks?) looks strange when repeated on every square.
Overall, you did a great job! I enjoyed playing your game :)
Thank you for your thorough review. I appreciate that :)!
And I am happy that you liked the game and had fun!
Yes, the AI is not the smartest and no Skynet ;), but it does know when to move so you must take it. It only calculates 1 move ahead though.. In future it would be nice to make it a bit smarter for an even better challenge.
I indeed tried to make it a bit of a story why you should lose. Nice that it came across.
The texture should be rocks indeed and you are totally right it does look a bit odd if you repeat it in the rows. Should have invested a bit more time it that one, but oh those damn short Game Jams haha ;)!
Interesting game, good job! It was kind of weird that you were forced to attack. This would have been cool with an isometric camera angle.
Thank you :D
Isometric could be cool indeed. I shall keep it in mind :)!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fun! The mechanics were interesting. I have played losing chess gamemodes before, but not with my ascension on the line!
Glad you have enjoyed it :D!
This was a very interesting take on chess. At first, I played like it was chess, and I failed (obviously). This made me have to change my mindset about the game, which was challenging but a lot of fun! I had to think in different ways than I usually do to get myself to die without having to attack the AI. Great work!
Thanks :)
I am happy that you enjoyed playing. That is an important goal of any game of course :)!
I love the sound effects in this. It's hard to evaluate fairly because it would probably be a lot more fun with two players. Regardless, this was really ambitious and I think you did an amazing job given time constraints. It might be worth uploading a version (later) with the option to turn off the ai and let the player control both sides to allow for local multiplayer.
Thanks for the kind words :)!
Local multiplayer is a good idea indeed. Crossed my mind during the jam, but the jam was so damned short ;)! But I think it could indeed be a lot of fun trying to lose against your friends. Nice tip!
And thanks for playing and reviewing and glad you liked it!
the enemy kept locking up for to where I had to relaunch a couple times, I dunno if anyone had that. the demons were a little hard to see on their background. I could play was fun though. :)
Thank :).
I am happy that you had fun, that was one of the goals.
Yes, the game and AI is not bug free unfortunately because of the time constraint. That is why I am glad you still had fun :)!
I love the concept but the ai is way to suicidal. It was doing everything it could to lose.
Thanks :)!
Yes, the AI definitely could be better, if only I had more time ;)!
same haha
This is a cool idea! However, there is no real reason to progress the pieces forward - it seemed to work fine to just bring the same piece forwards and backward and wait for the AI to do something crazy. One way I would combat this would be to make pawns work as they do in normal chess - they only move forward, and they promote at the end. But nonetheless, this is very impressive for the jam (especially the AI) and it was nice to see another chess entry :D
Thank you for the nice words :)!
Yes, the AI needs an update :). I will call it the Skynet update ;).
But moving only forward and promote would be a good option indeed. Or a maximum number of turn so you have to go to your opponent to win. And the AI needs to be smarter indeed. And do some less random moves :)
But glad you liked it, especially because you made a chess game also. I will check that one out later today. I am curious on your approach.
Thanks again!
Pretty cool game! I like the idea and the sounds. First I tried to play it like a normal chess and I was quite confused. Then I realized it has its own rules. The AI was also playing in strange ways that I didn't fully understand.
Thanks :)!
The AI is not as smart as I would have want it to be.. that is why it plays a bit strange unfortunately.
But I am glad you still liked it :)!
Great game! I couldn't beat it because Brain Smooth but I had a lot of fun playing it! The main criticism that I have is that the AI kept putting itself in suicidal positions instead of attacking, but I see that people already mentioned that.
Thanks :)!
Yes..the AI needs a Skynet upgrade ;)!
Nice Game but at some point it just read "oponents turn" I waited a minute nothing happened.
Thank you :)!
Yes the game is not AI bug proof unfortunately. The time was too short to make it better. I am sorry but you can restart and try another game if you wish..the bug is not always present I heard from other players.
Really cool idea. Two things that bothered me were: Pieces in spite chess-like didn't move like chess and this was really hard to learn without a tutorial for me ( it took me a lot of pieces before I got it what each piece move) second thing was AI (but I understand that game jam is not the time for super AI) They were making moves that were forcing me to kill them not trying to kill me. Don't know if this was planned but those moves just jeopardize my plan and looked like they want to die as well not to kill all my demons. Overall cool :D
Thanks for the compliments :)!
I hope it did not bother you a lot and you had still some fun ;)!?
Another reviewer mentioned that on mouse hover showing the possible moves could be a handy idea. Maybe that solves the tutorial a bit. But you are right: a tutorial would have been nice. Oh 72 hours is too short ;). Also for the master AI it was too short. I tried to let the AI think at least 1 move ahead, but it would have been nice if it calculated more moves in advance and choose the best valued one. That would be a nice addition for an update.
Thanks again for playing and the kind words :)!
The game was super fun to play. I won the game on my first try. Then I had to play it again so I can lose. I love the art and the music really matched the theme. Nice work!
Thank you and I am happy that you had fun playing the game :D!
The linux package is broken, I can’t unzip it. Please fix it, I would like to play it and I want to support everyone who provides Linux builds.
Ok, that is not good.
I tested it with Ubuntu 20.04 and could unzip and run it after changing the x86.64 file to run as executable..
But I am not a Linux expert, just changed the Unity Build to Linux and zipped the files.
Strange, I don’t think it is a linux problem, but rather with the zip file. But I check again, maybe the download was broken.
Thanks for trying again and please let me know if you succeeded or not..
Yes, it works now, sorry for the confusion and thanks for the Linux support :-)
You have great graphics and I like the concept. I assume you are aware that this is basically a well-known chess variant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losing_chess
It is great that you did not implement it as actual chess gameplay and add own aspects like the lava fields, it reminds me that you can do so many things on the premise of chess.
I also had a bug, once the opponent thought forever and the game did not continue.
I am glad it did work on Linux :)!
I did wonder that something like this would probably exist for normal chess but did not do any research to confirm. And my first brainstorm idee was to make a normal chess variant to lose.. Fun to see that it is an actual real variant and popular and probably a difficult one also :D. Thanks for mentioning that and the wiki link! Great to read. (and I am glad I did change it to a bit different game with the lava & demons after all)
Yes the AI can be better and smarter and the bug sometimes occurs...not enough time unfortunately..
But I hope you still enjoyed it?!
Absolutely!
Awesome game. Really smooth mechanics. I didn't understand the ramifications of the "must take" rule until I accidentally "won" the game and couldn't ascend.
Thank you for the kind words :)
Yes, you have to think very different than with normal chess for example..especially with the must take rule.. I hope you liked that twist in the rules :)!?
Oh absolutely it really elevated the game from something good to something great.
Interesting game and excellent topic choice.
I beat it at 44 moves, but I'm sure it can be made better.
It was fun. Good job!
I think you can do better also :)!
I managed, with some random AI luck ;), to do it in 24 once..
And thank you for your compliments :)
Nice to read that you had fun!