Chess the MMORPG

A lot of indie developers of turn-based, tactical RPGs were strutting their stuff on Twitter yesterday. So wait a second – Pawnbarian is a card based tactical strategy puzzle RPG? And the hero moves like chess pieces? That you can upgrade? And there’s a demo? Me? I’d already be downloading the demo. And did. But for those of you who need a little more convincing… The Goblin Caves, Floor 1 In the demo, you are Pawnbarian, a warrior from the northern Chesslands come to die in glorious battle. The full game has four different character classes with different abilities. Pawnbarian’s special ability revolves around pawn promotion – pieces are promoted when their move starts in the top rank, a pawn moves into it, or there are three pawns in the hand. ...

We here at West Karana Games Inc. have been blown away by the positive response to our new Chess MMO. Taking a game from tabletop to the MMO arena is a challenge and an opportunity, and I am so pleased that our teams of artists and designers rose to both. Big news first: You might remember in beta that we were forced to cut the Bishop and the Rook jobs from the game as playtesting proved neither were as popular with the testers as we would have liked. We are happy to announce that both the Bishop AND the Rook are back in the game – initially, only Black will have Bishops and White will have Rooks while we take careful note of balance issues. We expect both sides to have the chance to play both jobs in an upcoming game update. ...