Gambetto feedbacks

Beta evaluations

the tile switching is needlessly annoying and makes the game frustrating to play. the concept is good, but the constant and varying speed tile switch that the player cannot manually control unbearable. overall though nice puzzles and good naming.
I love this game, it’s simple but need to rethink, the design and music are so great.
Technically very good, I simply don’t like the gameplay, it is made of a lot of waiting and trial and error
A bit difficult for me. Good game but not really my type. It’s not you, it’s me.
The game is nice but the fact that the speed of the position keeps changing is really uncomfortable. I also noticed that sometimes the enemies move two times in sequence, it happens when you move right before the position changes after the last.
Visually and technically the game is really good, but it feels a bit repetitive gameplay wise.
The game actually teaches the rules of chess (movements) that is very cool (not a fan of chess though). Sometimes the speed of the choosing is too high. Also there is a bug(?) which you can see at 6:50 on the video
Very good game, just too complicated for me
It isn’t my tipe of game but it’s well done. I found a bug, when i arrive in the final cell but an enemy pushes me down firstly appears the losing screen and then the winning animation.
I like the game a lot. I noticed that now black pieces don’t kill you when you just get out of the square, that’s nice. I think it would be cool if there was a little comment with explanations on why you chose this naming of levels.
Probably one of the most polished game, good job.
The game is solid and levels are well studied
The game is well made, and I also enjoyed the subsequent levels. Even though I had to try several times, I didn’t find it frustrating or boring. The introduction of different lights with particles is nice.
Everything works smoothly. Well done!
I like the sound and visual design
Nice game even if is not my type.
All the comments are provided in the video.
Even after you understand what to do in a level to pass it, it’s very difficult to perform it especially with the bishop since you need to have really low reaction time to click on the correct tile. Overall, good job.
Simple yet great. Love the different aesthetic and environmental choices of the different level types. Challenging in a funny way. I honestly like playing it. I also really like the music, the general art and the chill music.
The speed of this game gives me anxiety and makes me want to ragequit, I’m sorry. The art style is incredible tho, good work there.
Much more fun, loved all additions. The “trace” options is a godsend, you should have some kind of prompt to activate it since I only discovered it late in the game. Graphically e stylistically exceptional. Love the key and bombs, highlight of the game.
The game is fluid and the puzzles are nice but i still think that the move choice of some pieces (like the horse) change too fast and are quite frustrating to select.
it’s better to have a constant speed for changing moving actions, the player control is difficult
Very good game with nice visuals, it’s not my cup of tea but I still think you did a good job.
PROs: the features (i.e. “key cell”, “bomb cell”) are fantastic and make the game more enjoyable.
CONs: the pieces that are different from the pawn are very hard to use and the knight moves so fast it is impossible to control effectively in my opinion. The shadows of the game are nice from an artistic point of view but in the darker levels it is very difficult to understand if a something is a black cell, or it is just “the void” and you can fall easily.
The idea of the game is very good and the truth is that I was surprised how much fun I had playing it, it is one of the best games.
Love the first version, this one keeps the good work
the game feels very polished but in my opinion it’s a pity that there’s absolutely nothing in terms of tutorial, it would be nice to at least have a hint about a possible strategy when a new type of enemy is introduced
Ok the first 5 minutes, then it gets quite boring
I like the game, I found some levels difficult but maybe I’m a little bad at it
comment in video description
The movement being time based makes the game frustrating to play
The game is casual but somehow fun. The artistic direction was very inspired in my opinion, and perhaps it is the best aspect of the game. The alternative “pawns” feel weird but they are sometimes wisely used. Perhaps the game is not really my kind of game, but I think that overall you did a good job guys (maybe you could just improve a little bit the UI at the end of the levels because the icons you used are rather confusing). Notably, no bugs were found during my play.
Comments at the end of the video [Game completed] [Windows]
Simple concept, but well executed. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s well made.
Not my type of game but I find it very polished and solid, ready to be deployed
Really well made game!
I love the aesthetic! Mechanics are also clean, I just got skill issues lol
Very Good Game, In first I thought it was more of a puzzle/strategy game but the more I played the more I felt like doing a kind of rhythm and coordination game.
Very smooth gaming experience, I like it very much
I love the game. Some level are too difficult for me but are only skill issues, i tried each category and the fact that the pieces that follow you move themselves after a completion of all the possible moves is a great idea. Maybe i make slower some pieces movements
nice and delicate game I enjoyed it;
No great improvement from alpha version, except for Music & Sound controls.
Something getting worse:
You cannot choose the same color for highlight next movement and white cell of the cell. It’s a suicide! (Only few levels have a light blue that allow the distinctions)
Levels in the night are too darker and absolutely not funny
Enemy’s pean move also when the playing pawn is idling (too hard to escape for a beginner) - > you will need a basic level and an advance level!
Incredible game. Great touch with different levels and reference to chess icons. Like the soviet rain!
Hard to add something, maybe would be nice to add some kind of training about how the enemy is moving and that it moves also by itself if you wait long enough. Apart from that - ready to be published in Steam. Well done!
Still amazing, but for some reason on macOS I wasn’t able to see the landing square, cause when it was on white tiles, it was white on white making it impossible to understand where I was going, even harder than before
From the artistic point of view, this game is among the best in my opinion.
Design and development wise, it could be better. While not as much as in the prototype, changing form to anything that isn’t a pawn makes the game 100x more difficult, even more because sometimes the movement lags/blinks faster or slower.
Also, the highlited cell is white… on a white and black board. So 50% of the time I was blindly clicking or trying to follow the acustic clue.
I still don’t like the speed at which you need to make moves with the bishop and knight. It is very frustrating
Imo there is some input lag when you chose to go in a cell, but apart from that the game is very good and funny
PERFECT game, super creative. add more levels than the prototype.
Smart and simple game design! Like the style and the way you solve puzzles
The timing for some inputs felt way too strict. It is weird that the same pieces have different behaviour from one level to the next. Overall quite polished, but frustrating.
The idea is really cool, but i don’t like the fact that pawns with a lot of moves have them shown in a really small fraction of time, making the selection of the desired one almost impossible
somehow you managed to make the game worse. i really hate the way you move in this game, it is so uncontrollable. i would much rather just move with the mouse. this little thing made me absolutely not enjoy the game.
I really like the style and animations. One problem is that the game is not very clear about its mechanics and sometimes is more trial and error.
Very polished game, but not exactly my cup of tea. It gets a bit repetitive after a while
I’m not a big fan of chess and chess- based games, but the game overall is quite good. I liked the artstyle
I really love this game, good job!
I like a lot the two new tile mechanics (the key and the bomb), but you used them in only three levels!
The game feels really polished and it is visually pretty, it is nice to play and i liked the puzzles (even if it is not my kind of game), the only thing i had difficulties with is the timing of the bombs, it felt strange to me. Overall it is a good game
good game!!
The game is always nice, mostly the graphic design; although I always think that the speed should be increased level by level, or “opponent by opponent
The game looks very good. I didn’t see any bug or problem. I love the graphics and smoothenss
There isn’t enough reaction time to select the tile I end up always missing
Vibe enhanced.
Great game! will try to finish in my free time, which is something I don’t think I’ll do with any other game :) The timing based movement is just a little bit frustrating though but that’s my only real issue
It’s not my type of game but it’s well done and the concept is very interesting
The new graphic style is magnificent, fits the chess setting perfectly. I found the position change ’tick’ a bit fast, but I think it’s my timing problem. The gameplay is very interesting, although at times it can be a little difficult for a player who has no idea how to play chess. Nothing that can’t be solved with practice though! The new features introduced, such as bombs and keys, are really nice and give that plus to the game, greatly increasing its fun!
I don’t like the fact that sometimes I do not understand if I am going to a platform or in the void, because the square highlighted is a little confusing in my opinion
I liked the concept in the first levels, it then got quickly boring since most challenges were always the same. The graphical part, however, is very good
I saw a lot of work in the playability and ui with respect to the prototype, which was your weak point, so for me the game is already complete in this way, very good, well done
The game is done well, but the time mechanic, although it is a foundational part of the game, does not appeal to me. It makes the experience more frustrating, but that is a completely personal opinion and I realize that. From a graphical point of view very nice
The design is very good. I played it using the spacebar, a suggestion is to make the buttons to retry the level and go to next level clickable with the spacebar and not only with the mouse. At the start of every level the pointer c goes to the center of the screen, but it’s not needed.
Nice game I really enjoyed it, I’d suggest to slow down the speed of the bishop
I love the game concept, and the new graphics, well done! (I still suck at it tho)
Nice game
I ended up finding the “rhythm” element just an hindrance for the well crafted puzzles, but it may have been a skill issue. Very professional- looking game
The fact that you have to strategically move the pawn but also follow the rhythm and avoid enemies altogether is a bit overwhelming. But the game is nice!
Comments in video
Not my Type of game but feels very well-made and polished, not much criticism here

Prototype

Nice concept, but pawn capturing forward hurts.
It would be nice to have a tutorial and a next level button. Then, the speed increase with the number of movement makes sense but i think it increases a bit too much and it becomes confusing after a certain point. The enemy pieces move before the player one so you have to be at least two step ahead of every enemy increasing the difficulty. The collision with an enemy piece can happen even while moving so, especially with the horse, even if you move to a safe cell you lose because they hit each other while moving.
The gameplay is simple, but satisfying to play. Waiting for the spot to move where you want it can become frustrating.
after each level I suggest you to put a button to go to the next level, it is unconvenient to go back to the main menu every time. The idea is good but it is frustrating wait for the correct position.
I like the idea and the style. It lacks rhythm and became really hard really fast.
The game feels very polished, but I think that the enemy pieces shouldn’t move when you stay still. Maybe add a key bind to step the time even if you don’t move.
Nice game, definitely needs more levels and also harder ones, because for now it is pretty quick to complete. I like the way it is made, one thing I didn’t understand is why the speed of the same chess pieces would sometimes be faster or slower.
in-game explanation is missing: how do the enemies move? Does their behaviour change based on yours? also as of now it’s not really clear what you should be doing: you cannot stop and think as you would in traditional chess, because the game moves without you, but you cannot rely on a rhythm to finish the level, at least as far as i can tell. this makes it really frustrating because it’s more like trying random stuff until you succeed with no strategy or skill at all
see video description
Sorry, I was lagging a lot during the game, I don’t understand why. Nevertheless, the idea is brilliant, it’s simple and mechanically efficient! Chill and relaxing game
perfect game, super creative and intriguing
music not working the movement mechanism is not easy the difficulty of levels is not ordered colliding with enemies sometimes does not working correctly after winning or death next move of enemies and the exact time of their movements are not shown in the game so it’s a little bit confusing it’s annoying that I should select a level after each level, it’s better to have something like a “next level” button
Nice game funny to play, add next level button at the end of each level. A feature that I don’t like (due to chess rules) is that, if you touch a piece without being in his square, you die; this happens also if the next move of the enemy is not in your square… (see video at 9:13) A bug is that the timing of a piece is not always the same, for example with the bishop.
included in the feedback in the video
The game has his potentials, but right now is very hard. I tried different levels and i completed only the tutorial. Maybe i need more time to practive, but at least one level easy it should be implemented, just a personal opinion.
i think the horse moves are a bit too fast
I like the idea, but the lagging makes it quite difficult
Love the art
Very good game and animations. Feels kinda weird when you leave a cell, an enemy still kills you even though you just escaped
Cute but doesn’t feel like a rythm game, just a pattern recognition and reflexes
nice game the game is intuitive and the rhythm make it more enjoyable also the level are different and well designed
It’s nice. It’s not a problem to wait out for the movement of the pawn because it’s a rythm game, but if possibile i would create a music that follow the sync of the movement. I hope to see other puzzles.
It’s a good idea, but i hate the time staff, i mean just let the player move without thinking about the right time to click.
Pretty simple game but make it less difficult to choose where to move the pawns.
TOO FAST the cell switch when you become the horse or the bishop (please SLOW IT DOWN) - Enemy piece(s) make their own move even when our pawn doesn’t move, but if you click too fast, you risk to fall in the empty space - Pressing the settings icon, game makes a move, and also when SFX is regulated with mouse - Always the same noisy sound when the highlighted cell switches OVERALL EVALUATION (ALPHA VERSION) a) Screenplay & art: 8/10 b) Techical aspects: 2/10 c) Gameplay/Playability: 3/10 d) Music & Sounds: 1/10
Nice !! Could I only run away from enemies, or will I also be able to “eat” them ?
A bit challenging I think but that easily be solved by slowing down just a bit the enemies
The game is good, but for me it is too frustrating. I appreciate how you adapted the theme to the gameplay though. The thing I would suggest is to make more clear (perhaps with an explanation) the behaviour of the various chess pawns.
I think that the concept is fun but the highlited tiles of possible positions go way too fast for pawns that have a large set of moves. I also think that letting other pawns move if you skip yours is too punishing for the player
The game is too hard, you don’t have enough reaction time to make a move
Sometimes it is not clear who is moving first
I liked the idea behind your project and i found the execution interesting, I inadvertently stopped recording while playing so the video is short but I played all the available levels, the only thing i didn’t understand is if it’s possible to “eat” another pawn, and why it doesn’t automatically happen when it is in the right position (diagonally from my pawn position), also sometimes i felt the opposing pawns or pieces moved too fast. Overall i liked it a lot, keep on with the hard work!
Nice concept, but the timing feels unnecessarily strict at times and it is a bit confusing that some pieces move when you move while others move on a clock
The game is very polished and the art style is perfect. I’m not a fan of the rythm mechanic, but it may be just personal preference. For sure the speed is too fast imo. Also, would help a lot to know exactly when the enemies are going to move, since it seems they bot move on your command and on a timer. Stil, it was fun and good job!
I like this game but sometimes time seems to be too fast
nice game, but sometimes it gets frustrating waiting for the spot to move where you want
The mix between a rithm game and chess is extraordinary, gg. I found a little issue in some levels, like Tower Escape or Knight versus Hook: sometimes if you miss the right time you die or sometimes you don’t even have the time to think abount your next move, especially if it’s the first time playing the level.
Comment in video description
Very cool idea, also graphics and gameplay are good. It is very difficult as a game because of the little reaction time the player has to do the moves, and the effect of this is more like creating a pattern to learn by heart for beating a leavel, rather than reasoning during the game. Also I found a bug where I won and died at the same time (first the “you win” text appeared, and right after the “you lose”), that happens when you arrive at the finish cell, but at the same time the enemy reaches the cell you were on the last turn.
It’s a finished game, you just need to add more levels and release it, wow, nothing to say, the mechanics are crazy, I could have never imagined something this cool
Even though I am not a fan of puzzle games at all I must admit that is a good game. The levels feel unique and interesting enough to keep playing. I found some issues with the movements of the pieces: when controlling advanced pieces (i.e. the horse) it is not always clear if you land on a white cell or in the “void”. Generally speaking, I don’t like the timed movement mechanic and I found it a bit frustrating since it made me miss-click a lot of times (but this is probably a me problem).
I like it a lot!
I would transition to fully puzzle, i would make enemies move only when the player moves like superhot but with turns, then level design is key.
easy
Fun game but it ran extremly poorly in chrome to that point that it crashed my screenrecording software and made it almost unplayable
its really frustrating that enemy pieces move if you fail to move in one cycle. in the escape from tower level you had to do it perfectly with horse to be able to pass the level.
Powering up feels like powering down The window for the movement oportunity in any piece other than the pawn is just too short for me to be able to hit it with any precision. Therefore making the “power up” feel like a power down as now I’m more unable to move than before due to how precise the comand must be Either make the time that each square is selectable longer or make the window to hit your desired square more forgiving For example, if the game sees that I’m going to fall because of a 0,1 second difference in my input, it forgives that and puts me on the last valid square. Also, the game would really benefit from a song to keep you in rythm like crypt of the necrodancer. If each piece had a prticular rythm that fitted the song, it would be much easier for the player to play correctly.
I made all the comments on the video recorded using microphone
Great idea and the design! As a way to improvement I would propose to sync a bit more the indication of the possible move and the jump. Also not very straightforward how the enemies work. Also, it could be better to show enemies earlier at the game, just that player knows this feature is in the game, like move level 4 to level 2. It might be a consideration to add a sound to the movement of the player’s figure.
The art style is very cool. The power ups are not really satisfying, they add more difficulty to the moves and at times feel completely random or luck based (horse skipping a cell, bishop going more or less distant without any apparent reason).
- For a chess player this game would be a gem
Game feels too unforgiving, but the idea is very neat. The clicking to open and select options of the menu trigger a movement and that doesn’t feel good nor intended. Enjoyed it a lot despite all this, very solid concept and execution.
not much to say, super cool game, clean graphics, nothing overcomplicated and actually enjoyable
Smart and simple game design! Like the style and the way to solve the puzzle, a little advice: 1. UI can be optimized 2. For soldiers, it is relatively simple to choose the number of forward moves, but for other pieces, it is a bit complicated. For example, it is difficult for me to judge the direction and time of the rotation of the number of forward moves of the elephant, and it is difficult for me to control the pieces 3. Some pieces are not smooth, it is recommended to optimize it 4. Falling pieces can add fragmentation effect, which is more interesting and realistic
I’m sure it will be added, but some visual indicator as for when the enemy pieces will move would be helpful. Fun game otherwise, a lot of potential
Already left a feedback, but to summarize: consider difficulty levels regarding the ticking speed, maybe a star system or a square that lets you choose the piece to transform into.
The graphics are very nice, minimal and clean. The difficulty seems quite balanced but tends more towards being difficult, especially because sometimes there is no time to think and you have to leave immediately and this makes you lose the ‘strategic’ side of the game. The ‘rhythm’ side is interesting but the clock tick could be replaced by more interesting music. All in all, a very interesting and technically and graphically complete game.
Difficult to press at the right time to move, it’s not a so stimulating game in my opinion
I liked it. In general it’s a great work, but it’s odd that more complex pieces are faster, and I totally didn’t undestand how enemy pieces move and where; maybe you can add a red line or something to let the player know where the enemy will move next. It could sound as a simplification, but sometimes it moves in the exact moment I move and I’m instantly dead. Plus, it’s a rhythm game so the player has to think very fast and having enemies move almost randomly it’s annoying. Onestly I would have liked it more without the rhythm part, like trying to figure out what kind of piece I need to reach that point, where to go with the only pieces I got etc, but that’s my personal opinion.
The game is pretty simple but really efficient. I like it. I see some collide bugs but nothing too hard to patch. I like this game
I liked the minimal art style. Bishop and knight are not super easy to manage, since the changing tiles are a bit too fast
The idea is nice. The controls are a bit difficult to manage.
The game is solid and challenging well done. But the tutorial should be more exhaustive, there is a big gap between the tutorial and everything else.
the concept is pretty good, but the mechanics are frustrating right now: when you transform in a different piece it become really difficult to have the correct timing to move to the wanted location and, because of this, you have to pay all of you attention on that, instead of the puzzle.
I really like the basic idea of the game, as well as the graphic style. Combining chess mechanics at the right timing is nice and fun to play, although I would have liked to see some animation on the elimination of opposing pieces.
I would like a “next level” button at the end of each stage and a marker on the levels completed
see video
I find the timing mechanic for the movement a bit frustrating sometimes (probably just my personal preference, I would enjoy better a more relaxed gameplay). Anyway very nice and beautiful game, well built.
At the beginning it seems like a little slow and simple game, but as you progress through the levels the chess movement becomes really intriguing. I like the minimal aesthetic of the game.
- the bishop is unhinged (so fast) - overall I love the concept and if the level design is well curated it’ll be great
For me it’s a fun and complete protype, it’s maybe too fast when you have to choose the right cell, such as when you use the horse, you have to be too fast
I really like the idea behind this puzzle. Well made game