Kick Start Battle Chess!
Chess.com members of a certain age may remember the early days of computer chess when the hugely popular Battle Chess software brought entertainingly gory chess set animation to the masses.
In recent years there have been attempts to recreate something similar, leading to the bizarrely named 'Battle Vs Chess" which unsubtly tried to cash in on the familar name of the original apparently without having the rights to produce a sequel.
While the Battle Vs Chess 'homage' suffered endless delays and still seems virually impossible to actually buy (does anyone have a copy?), the original might just be ready for a comeback...
Subdued Software is a video game developer in Orange County, California, and they are trying to raise funds on Kickstarter to develop a modern version of Battle Chess. The key difference is that they actually have the licence to use the 'Battle Chess' name.
Want a taster? Here we go...
More videos of the new Battle Chess are available at their YouTube channel. PC and iOS versions are planned, and perhaps also Mac, XBox 360 and Android if there is enough interest.
You can read more about the game and pledge your support to make it happen at the kickstarter page here.
"We set out to create a new Battle Chess that would please the old school fans as well as modern gamers. We are proud of what we have done so far, but we need funding in order to complete our vision. We are a very small developer (less than 10 people), who loved Battle Chess and really wanted to see it updated with today's graphics capabilities".
"For the past two years we have spent our spare time and company profits developing this game. Ideally it would have been done a year ago, but with the need to stop and work on “paying” projects, it slowed us down considerably. We explored many outside funding options, only to be told they weren't interested because "board games don't sell." Undeterred, we pushed on, but ultimately the money ran so low that we were forced to stop production altogether. When Double Fine launched their Kickstarter project, like many developers, it showed us a new way: go to the fans. So that’s what we’ve done. We need funding to complete various features of the game. Most importantly, we need to fund the completion of online multiplayer".
