Chess Wars

People with ADD, whose focus would benefit from playing chess, may be discouraged because it can be complex and slow. People will like this variation because it is dynamic and easier to understand.

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Inspiration

I wanted to create a game that makes developing your brain fun.

Since I was around seven years old, I have played chess. However, when I was growing up, I did not think of it as a "game" - it was extremely complex, and it felt too serious to feel like I was having fun. Even though there are studies to show the creativity, focus, and problem-solving benefits of chess, if the game is not intrinsically motivating it is hard to play it for a long time.

I have also played many games like League of Legends and Maplestory, which I was extremely invested in and spent around 300+ hours playing during my high school years.

Especially in the COVID-19 pandemic, Sacramento high school and college students, who are already on their laptops for hours going to Zoom classes, have easy access to games with minimal cognitive benefits that end up being time sinks.

That got me thinking - how can I create a game with the positive benefits of chess with the fun of popular games so that students spend their free time having fun while exercising their brain? This game is a solution to that problem.

What it does

We built a variation of chess with two pieces for each side, and the players still take turns just like in regular chess.

However, when a piece captures another piece, it promotes to a piece of a higher value (except for when the Queen captures a piece) (Pawn -> Bishop -> Rook -> Queen -> Knight). The first player that promotes to a knight and captures an opponent's piece wins the game.

How we built it

-We used the Unity engine and C# to build our product -Created four pieces, 2 for each color, at each corner of the board -Created methods to help us find whether pieces were moving to valid squares -Using a promotion method to help a piece promote once it captured another piece and an enumeration to cycle through the different promotions -Declared a player a winner once their Knight captures a piece -Connecting a title screen and adding music

Challenges we ran into

-Making sure that the pieces only stayed on valid squares, pieces cannot capture friendly pieces, and that pieces that are not knights cannot jump over other pieces -Promoting capturing pieces and moving the captured piece to a random, unoccupied location -Incorporating handmade drawings as aspects of our objects

Accomplishments that we're proud of

-Creating clear and doable objectives on Trello -Developing a complete end-to-end product

What we learned

-Objected-oriented programming in C# since each piece was created as an object -Working together with people of different skillsets (designer and programmers)

Next Steps

It would be fascinating to: -Add an AI that uses reinforcement learning for people to play against and to create different levels -Add more pieces and a board with more squares -Create a community with chats between two players

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