10 Variant Creating Advices

These may not be completely true, these are tips I got from my creation of variants. These tips may have pinned forums about it, but I have to mainly provide real examples for it. I am not here to mock those creators, but using them as insight, I will remove examples of the owner wishes to. Also, shoutout to every personnel mentioned here!

1. Submitting your variant is a big deal. Have atleast 3~5 revisions from your initial draft (I have 15 for Unequal Strategies), and play so much that your archive is filled with it. (I recommend 20 minimum) Make improvements since your draft is never perfect. This was my first draft for Sharp Incantation. https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/70441257 and this is the final product https://variants.world/posts/771 Notice how different this is? Submitting should not be done when 9 games were filled, it should be done when you feel like you are ready and confident with it.

2. CGA's also mention this, but please be original. Variants like https://variants.world/posts/444 is not original, and will not be accepted (well, I am not a cga or even a tester, but if I was one, I would note a -1 because this is not original nor fun. Oh yeah dont submit knightchess.

3. variants should be fun. A very subjective but always-working tip is that would you play your variant at your leasure time. https://variants.world/posts/651 is Unequal Strategies, and I do sometimes play this when i am bored, and this is now I measure the fun factor.

4. This one if a little more specific, but avoid some variant combinations, the most notable one being Crazyhouse and Atomic, and avoid gamerules such as crazyhouse or fog of war on large boards. https://variants.world/posts/223 is also a good example, just do not out crazyhouse on large boards, fog of war has it's exceptions, but don't. Another tip: Do not exceed 16 pieces per side on a crazyhouse board on a 2pc, and 12 for 4pc. 

5. This is a connection to 1, but when playtesting, get players who can give good feedback if you can to the board. One of my variants, https://variants.world/posts/771 had trouble with playtesting since half of the players blundered mate on move 3 due to not knowing how spells work. Due to this, most of the testing was conducted by 1 person, @asthebird because he was able to give quality feedback, and was able to play high level games to a certain extent. This does not mean you cannot give feedback to yourself, stuff such as Hill rush is too overpowered, this side is not fair, etc.

6. Please make your variants fair, ESPECIALLY if it's an imbalance. In most variants where it is not an imbalance, https://variants.world/posts/777 (hey triple 7!) I did some testing with the author of this variant that is currently in UR as of september 29th, and with 2 knights on each other's side of the board, you can get quickly mated, and even if you dont, you lose a ton of material. and this can get extremely unfair since takeover is on, and this happens really early on the board, so you have the majority of that guy's army. This can obviously happen with the greatest chance if it's green, so make sure of those issues. Another one is that some variants have gamerules that make firts move advantae really evident. https://variants.world/posts/299 has an issue with it, as with other submissions I have browsed through. As with imbalances, convince a high level player that is interested and play extensively. I approximate the testing games I have played with @jackityjackjack on Unequal Strategies is about 40~50 games, without exaggeration. All this was to make sure it is fair.

7. Try to avoid inspiring other variants. Personally, the hardest part of creating variants is to come up with a fun and original idea. I am pretty sure this is what a variant needs nowadays to get it accepted. Trust me, whenever I try inspiring other variants, people know what I inspired off of, even if the variant is obscure. again, be original. 

8. Now, you might ask, where do you get those ideas? well, you get them from a lot of places. My favourite is to brainstorm right before sleeping, because you can get a lot of mediocre ideas, and polish them to a few good ideas. Another is to try to mash the merits of 5 or more variants, and create something new. Or just experiment with a lot of gamerules. Try not to force out ideas, I take about 2 weeks to make one variant, and a whole week of that is to come up with a good idea.

9. Do not think the submission requirement of 9 games as 9 games. Think these 9 games as 9 high quality games, the types of games you would imagine between 2 players who knows what they're doing, the only exception to this is if you have done extensive testing with one person that can warrant the amount of feedback 9 good games does, then you can fill the rest with filler, otherwise, please play some quality games. Examples of bad testing games include https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/71617756, and good ones include https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/71493787 . Compare the chat and the amount of mvoes and the quality of the moves and stuff. I would say play a minimum of 6 of games in that quality. This does not mean if you got 6 aand you immediately go submit. My advice: unless your variant is really fast paced, only put games that are above 20 moves. Better if there was not many blunders in the game itself. Again, submitting is serious.

10. This one's more of a tip, but have a variant friend who can and are willing to test a lot of games for you. This is really useful on a 4pc variant, where the custom queue takes FOREVER to fill up. If the friend is not that bad at the particular variant, then it can be very helpful to easen up the process of testing. just chat with players you see on your average variant matches to ask them if they are interested on it. I helped @chye3mc 's WOF: Rimchess a lot by testing a lot of his games. 

This one's kind of an extra, but do not be demotivated when your variant is declined. Read over the pinned threads like 5 times to see if there is a problem, but even with all that there is a 90% chance it will be declined. If the issue looks fixable, fix it. If it's not, move on from it. I recently got one of my variants autodeclined, but with this rate of working I expect to make 24 QUALITY variants in 1 year. @josephruhf has made tens of how do I say this.... low quality submissions (im sorry), and 3 of them got accepted. If you consistently make quality variants, one of them will eventually be accepted. Also, whatever ChessmasterGS says will basically be the verdict (saying this from experience), so if you are blesses enough to get his feedback and if he points out an issue that is almost unfixable, I would scrap that. (I actually scrapped one of the WoF's I was working on by a single line of his feedback)

what is a variant?

11. If a CGA joins your queue, you're blessed. If a higher-rated player joins, that's a great opportunity.

12. Don't force out an idea. This might be a me issue, but forcing out an idea has never worked out.

thats not advice, but true

12 is just true. forced out ideas are never original enough

added one more paragraph of info

A few such combinations include:

1. N-Check + Taboo

What’s the point of adding check lives if checks are forbidden?

2. Any Capture + Crazyhouse

This is just asking for an infinite trade fest. Just take your own pieces and put them back on the board.

3. Spell Chess + Fog of War

A more obscure one, but this is bad because when paired with Fog, Freeze spells limit board vision way too much and Jump spells are close to useless.

4. Giveaway + Fog of War

You have to take whatever you see. There isn’t much strategy there.

5. Giveaway + Any Capture

Why take your opponent’s pieces and help them when you can take your own and help yourself?

I have some gamerules I never use in my games, so this probably will not happen

[This comment has been edited by a CGA. Please do not quote large blocks of text.]

Great guide!

Thanks!

Hey guys just joined yesterday I think.

More bad combinations:

Regicide KotH: Only use this if regicide and the hill are absolutely required -- hill rushes are way harder to stop

Torpedo No En Passant: Not bad bad, but still avoid this.

1st Rankd Promotion Sideways: Dude, just use setup.

Crazyhouse Game of Point: Infinite point generator go brrrr.

Atomic Crazyhouse: Queen takes pawn. Gets queen and pawn.

Atomic Any Capture Crazyhouse - Same thing as Any Capture Crazyhouse.

Atomic Giveaway - In most scenarios, the first-mover will eventually get a huge advantage.

Fatal Crazyhouse - This is an okay combination, but (I think) there is a bug related to this.

Any Capture w/ Castling - Only those who were there will understand

Ghostboard w/ invisible bricks - #getbettermemory

=X w/ Royal Pawn - *removes royal from board*

Anything higher than 12+ - Don't do it. I learned the hard way. The only exception is for a timer (Thermopylae), to tell players when in check (Underground War), and for players to not win my checking a player a number of times (Counterturn).

any capture with castling......

I know what you mean

Also Taboo+no racing kings+ no KOTH+no GoP. I mean, try to win "Taboo Chess"

Rereading it again! I added this to the pinned directory now too Just wanted to point out however that just because I say something in a prospective submission is an issue doesn't mean you should scrap the entire variant, even if you think it's unfixable. I think the important thing in these types of cases is to think about what concepts you really want to include in the variant and then see how you can fix the issues present without sacrificing as much of the vision as possible.

thanks

originality is the bane of variant creation

all ideas available feels explored

Random Notification Jumpscare! 
(Also i wasnt following this, i guess I am now)

come here bro,some combinations had been solved. I mean,not only Forbidden City,something were testing now(fog+spell,any capture giveaway,All the times(sucked),atomic crazyhouse fatal.)

it still fits for us now