Introducing Bandit Chess
I would like to introduce a new game I've been developing as my hobby project called Bandit Chess. It is described as:
Classic Chess, but every move scores up to 6 points if it's in the engine's top 6 — otherwise, nothing.
I think it adds a new flavor to the game of chess, where your every move is equally important regardless of evaluation of the position. So you never get depressed in a losing position, or take it lightly in a highly winning position. You have to fight until the end to find the best engine moves throughout the entire game.
I occasionally enter game jams, and my goal is to develop a game that is fun and juicy. I tried to incorporate these little auditory and visual feedback into the game to make it pop and excite the player. Of course the time spent and the obstacles I overcome and the frustration kicks in, which reduces the quality of the game, then you learn from your mistakes and try again.
You can play against the Stockfish on the website I link below. I highly recommend for you to try it, and leave your feedback.
From my personal experience play testing this game, you are still playing chess, emphasis on finding the top engine moves in every situation.
There is also a combo score category where your streak of choosing among the top 6 moves increases your multiplier for combo score category. The scoring starts after move 6 and the game ends once move 40 is reached to skip the opening and mostly the endgame phases. Of course a checkmate has no significance other than it ends the game, and it doesn't change the score.
Then there are the leader boards, for private personal best scores and the public world records. I am really excited to see what you players come up with.
You might also notice, the engine doesn't always pick the absolute best lines, there is a randomness among the top 7 moves engine always picks from leaning towards the best moves. So you might tend to capture a queen, and get surprised that it doesn't capture back, but it is not the most significance as in real chess, because you still have to keep your score up by still finding the best moves regardless of the evaluation of the position. And remember your final score only counts if it's higher than your opponent.
It's all free and open source, no signup required. Also please note that your public top scores might get overridden or lost at any time due to technical limitations. As a bonus you can vote on the project when you beat the engine, and achieve a personal best score so keep playing! Your top score and your given handle hopefully will be published on the home page for everyone to see if you make it to the top leader board.
I plan to pursue this project to add more features based on your feedback, and the joy I get from my personal experience with the game. Because I get quite tired of losing in a game of chess, even though I love the game to the heart. So If I can bring a fresh new experience, to the game of chess without breaking the principles of chess itself, and make it fun and exciting, then I have achieved my goal.
Best Regards, Bandit Chess Developer.
PS: For more technically in depth article you can see my second blog post here
