Prototyping: Draft Chess

The first prototype of this prototype which we will call “Draft Chess” for now started out as a very basic piece capture game. The objective was to capture all of your opponents pieces by landing on them just like chess. However the power of movement did not come from the pieces themselves but from cards. As such pieces are all equal to each other and you play cards in order to move them.

The core mechanic is grid movement and strategy.

1st Play Session

The first iteration we had each player simply draw 4 cards that the other player doesn’t know what they are. We also had the royal cards have special abilities. My partner and I found two big problems after playing through it. This first iteration had a problem with being a bit boring as there was no interaction in the card draw phase. The second problem was that the ace let you revive a piece which turned out to be too powerful and stalled out the game indefinitely.

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2nd Session

The second session was when my partner and I branched off. At this point I implemented a card draft system where both players start with a single hidden card. Then six cards are laid face up on the table and both players take turns drafting a card. What this does it it creates strategy over what cards to you draft and “give” over to your opponent while still maintaining an element of surprise with the hidden card. Then both players take turns playing cards till they have one card left and then draft starts again. This solves the previous problem of not having enough interaction with the card drawing phase. We solved the revival problem by changing the effect of aces to allowing diagonal movement.

The feedback given to me for this iteration is the board seems a bit small and the first move is always forward. We also encountered a stalemate situation when both of us had one piece left and couldn’t capture the other. Also we had the same person always draft first and we decided it was a bit powerful.

3rd play session

The last play session I augmented the rules so that there are extra win conditions to prevent a tie. Should a player get a number of units equal greater than the opponents alive units in the opponent’s end zone then that player wins.

Additionally, if both players only own one one piece, then the player that can keep their single unit for 3 consecutive turns in their opponent’s end zone will win. Ties can also be called should both players agree.

Also I augmented the draft so that the person who drafts first will alternate between the two players.

This time my player said it was very fun and enjoyed the rng aspects of the game. He suggested adding in joker cards that allow you to search the deck for a specific card you want.