DIVINE PHANTASM

# Multiples Factions    Coming from versus fighting games, this is a trivial one. One of the main reason why I started working on Check 11 is Chess 2: The Sequel by David Sirlin. I loved the 5 different armies and had so much fun playing them (with myself only but oh well…) # Hidden Selection    I included this rule when the design process was already well advanced. I already had a preliminary stage of the first 5 factions down and I needed to think about the physical part of the design. Instead of creating a bunch of new pieces with all movement powers new to my variant, I opted for the simple road: The pieces would remain the same on the material side. The players would have to find which opposite factions are in play through suspect behavior detection in the opponent play. I tested it and I like it.    Now Check 11 was not a test of calculation depth only, the uncertainty brought by the hidden selection was a new level to also take into a...

So, some interesting changes happening from my Check Verse!    First, I have created a new variant: Royal Check!    Lately I have read a lot of game design articles talking about simplicity, elegance, depth, complexity and stuff like that…And It made me remember something my playtest partner said to me in late 2015, when I decide to add trance during the design of Check 11.’Why do you add trance when you already have so much trouble to balance the game with all those 11 factions at this state? Pfft! Even only with the basic orthodox, hologram and magnetic factions, this variant is very good and fun!’    I didn’t listen to him because I wanted to get as much ideas as I could out.  Now that Check 11 is finished, I realize how much complex it can be for some people. Me? I like that complexity. But for a lot of people that are testing it? Not so much. Not 3, 4 or 5 factions, but 11 factions you must keep track of during the game since you don’t k...