Prototype Launched!

After a lot of brainstorming, writing and editing the first prototype of Detective Chess is now available! Despite being a lifelong gamer in all it's media this is my first foray into designing a game so I made the decision to start off simply with a variant on a well known game. 

My initial idea was to have a version of Chess inspired by the Dropout TV show Game Changer in which players started the game not knowing what the rules were and had to discover them as they went along. At first I flirted with this as an idea for a video game to one day take a stab at that was a sort of long-form puzzle game, but when I decided to try out a prototype as a physical game I wondered if it would suit the medium better. 

There was a brief moment where I considered having a third player involved who was the only one who knew and enforced any secret rules, but that seemed like a waste of that persons time so for the first prototype we're going with a simple variation where each player has a secret rule to enforce and winning the game requires you to work their rule out.

My hope is that each player having access to secret information will change their strategy in the game so that the information players get about what their opponent's rule is will come from both experimentation on their part and observation of their opponent. This being an early version, mileage may vary depending on the rules!

There's also a potential that some of these rules could clash in unexpected ways that I haven't yet anticipated, so if anyone playing it finds a clash that significantly adds or detracts from their experience, please let me know!

Thanks for playing Detective Chess, I appreciate you taking the time to check it out.