Chess Survivors is a grid based, quick-turn, roguelike where you'll outmaneuver and destroy the ever growing horde of chess enemies. Combine abilities and upgrades to create game-breaking builds. Unlock cosmetics, characters, and powerful relics. Think fast, die, learn, repeat.

Create Powerful Builds

Quick Turn Chess Movement

Break the Game

Die, Learn, Repeat

Features

Chess based enemies and player movement
Unique runs by choosing a Character, Starting Ability, and Relic
Casual quick 10-21 minute play sessions, for busy gamers.
Unlock new characters, cosmetics, and relics

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2065000/Chess_Survivors

Chess Survivors - 1.0 Released!

After nearly 10 months of early access, Chess Survivors 1.0 is now fully released!

Thank you to everyone who played my little indie game while I continuously worked on and published over 50 patches. A special thank you to anyone who has given me feedback. This game would be nowhere as good as it is today without your gentle encouragement and support.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be working on bug fixes and balance changes based on your feedback. Then I'll make another update here with any post-release plans for Chess Survivors and what's next for me personally.

Cheers,
Aarimous

P.S. Please consider subscribing to My YouTube Channel where I share my game development as an solo indie dev.

1.0 Patch Notes

Note from the dev: Please DM me on Discord if any of the below changes make my game unfun. I want my game to be fun and I am more than willing to hear you our and I will likely make changes to address your feedback!

New Content

New Map Consumables System[list]
Every so often a random consumable will spawn[list]
Potion - heals player
Magnet - sucks up all current XP
Bomb - creates an explosion dealing damage nearby enemies
Frost bomb - creates an explosion freezing nearby enemies

[/list]

New Character based on my cat Karl

New Character based on my cat Martin

16 new steam achievements

New run records system which will show you if you beat your previous stat (for now this is only shown on the game over screen)

New button on the settings screen to reset the player progress

New button to the settings screen to reset the records

[/list]

General Changes and Balancing

Health and Damage Numbers

Multiplied all the health and damage numbers by 10 since bigger numbers are more fun.[list]
Adjusted damage text to fit new scale of numbers
Adjust health bar size to fit new scale of numbers

Ability Damage

Increased ability damage values across the board with a focus on making single target abilities really scale at the top end of the upgrade path (more info below)

[/list]

Elites

Removed Elite Combat Modifiers[list]
These include bonus damage (red), reduced damage (blue), and always move (green)
These were boring at best and never got the love they deserve. In their current state they dont feel like they are adding to the game.

All elites will now drop extra XP when killed, the amount scales with acts

Previously non-chest elites could drop bonus XP or a Potion
With the new consumable system player should no longer need potions from elites

All elites now have three times the health, and deal 50% more damage than their normal versions

[/list]

Enemy and Act Difficulty

Adjusted the health and damage increases for Act 2 and Act 3
Adjusted the enemy spawning for the first 100 turns of Act 1
Increased enemy spawn rates in parts of Act 1
Added randomness to the Act 2 major spawn event to spawn a wave of either Pawns, Knights, Rook, or Bishops. Previously this was always a wave of pawns.
Adjusted the act modifiers for Act 2 and Act 3
Enemy health and damage[list]
Increased elite health scale from 300% to 400%
Decreased king base health from 300 to 200
Increased rook base health from 120 to 135
Increased bishop base health from 120 to 130
Increased queen base health from 150 to 175
Reduced bishop attack range from 3 to 2
Increased bishop attack damage from 20 to 30
Increased Pawn base health 80 -> 90
Increased Knight base health 80 -> 85
Added randomness to the Act 2 major spawn event to spawn a wave of either Pawns, Knights, Rook, or Bishops. Previously this was always a wave of pawns.

[/list]

Abilities

Across the board the exact number have been adjusted with the goal of making each ability feel rewarding and fun to select and upgrade. I tried to list them below, but I am sure I missed some changes.

Jack Trap[list]
Reworked this ability as the original version was unfun
Sets a trap to your current tile which will trigger when an enemy collides with it dealing damage to the enemy and launching projectiles in random directions. These projectiles will deal damage to other enemies and trigger other traps.

Cribbage

Projectiles now shoot in alternating directions
I wanted to make this one a bit easier to use since it will be the first ability a player gets, this ability also resembles the starting ability from Vampire survivors. As such, Im hoping this will act as a good tutorial ability for players.
Damage has been reduced since the ability now starts with a base of 2 projectiles and its easier to hit enemies

Boomerang

Reduced the cooldown from [10,8,6] [8,6,4]
Increased the damage from [55, 80, 110, 175] [75, 100, 150 250]

Blizzard

Reduced the number of particles from 100 to 50 to improve visual clarity
Made the entire effect a bit transparent

Tic Tac Toe

Increased damage from [55, 75, 100, 160] [65, 90, 130, 175]
Projectiles now always pierce enemies
Reduced cooldown from [4, 3, 2] [3, 2, 1]
Increased range from [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] [2, 3, 4, 5]

Yo-Yo

Reduced damage form [40, 85, 100, 120] [40, 65, 100, 150]

Marble

Increased the base pierce now starts a 2 instead of 1
Adjusted max number of projectiles to be at 25 at all levels
Can now upgrade number of projectiles to 2 in act 1, previously this was locked to act 2

[/list]

Character Health

All characters will now gain 20 health when leveling up
Base health amounts have been reduced by about 50%
My goal here is to make the early game feel a lot harder, previously it felt like a bad build could easily get by the early game without getting lucky or having good mechanics. This massive health reduction should mostly felt in Act 1. I balanced this around getting to near the same health by the end of the game. [list]
Joker 640 350
Doll 420 200
Evil Monkey 690 333
Smol Wizard 540 275
Jak 250 120
Fishbowl 580 300
Ghost 220 185
The Real Knight 420 230
Koala 500 270
Little Robot 630 300
Karl 520 260
Martin 450 225

[/list]

Miscellaneous:

The Real Knight[list]
Reworked since the original theme of cant heal, but has a lot of health, ended up being a bit confusing since healing related relics would still spawn.
Instead this will be a melee focused character

Relics

Old Smelly Cheese - Removed % max health increase, Added +100 base health increase, Added +20 health gained each level
Lucky Crown - Added -5 to Consumable Spawn Rate
Magic Carrot - Increased healing amount from 10 to 20
Three of Clubs - Increased all damages mods from 30 to 33 (for being on theme)
Lost Diadem of the Queen Added +2 to player pierce
Ancient Hawacha Rocket Added +2 to range

Player Base Stats

Increased base XP needed to level for 3 to 5. With the elite dropping more XP the player would get to powerful to quickly so I have adjusted this down a bit.
Each level the XP requirement will now increase by 4 (previously 3)

Firewall

Increased the spawn delay to match the Meteor and Laser map hazards

Updated the game over screen to show the run stats
Update the art of the game over screen
Removed XP calculation text as it was just messy
Increased the speed the XP bar increased
Adjusted other game over UI elements to fit better
Update the art on the main menu screen
Removed Early Access text from main menu screen
Removed the early access developer note from main menu screen
Disabled stat tracking as it was useless, and as such removed the data tracking opt in message
Fixed the run settings screen to now properly show the arrow you are focused on. This was creating some confusion for controller only players
Removed the tutorial and controller screens from ever appearing, but you can still access these from the pause menu.
On a players first run they will jump right into playing as the Joker, them on their next run they will see the run settings and character select screen. The goal was just to streamline the process and get the player playing sooner.
Updated my logo on the main splash screen to be higher resolution
Hide the run timer, there is already enough time pressure during the run and this is just extra clutter
Run timer is still in the stats screen and game win/lose screen

Bugs

Fixed a bug where the aliens teleoperation laser was not dealing melee damage to enemies
Fixed an text issue where the wrong text would appear for the laser map hazard
Adjusted the level up UI so it moving around the popup would properly work with controllers
Attempted to fix a bug where the level up screen would sometimes note work when using a controller or for some steam deck users.

[/list]