Ugly, unintuitive, dull, and "Profile Features Limited". Save yourself the minutes and pennies. Either play something like Shotgun King or Pawnbarian instead, or play classic chess. Sorry.

Edit: The developer contacted me on Twitter and asked for more specific feedback. I’ll paste that feedback below.

Dev:
“Hi! I saw your review of my game, and it's totally fine.
I'm a solo dev and I just want to make sure my next game is better and would like some input from you.

I see you played for 12 minutes. What is unintuitive about the game? Did you mean the opponent's AI, the list of abilities, or something else?

Again, I'm not mad about the negative review, I just want to learn and make it better. Thanks.”

Me:

“Primarily the UX and the list of abilities. It is overwhelming, or introduced in an overwhelming way. I would prefer a visual or interactive tutorial—“show, don’t tell”. That’s just my tactile-kinesthetic learning style, but then again there isn’t anything more tactile-kinesthetic than a videogame.

Additionally, a more gradual and linear introduction. I know it might seem counterintuitive but sometimes rails can be helpful, so long as they’re optional and not overbearing or overwrought. Skyward Sword is an example of a game with the opposite problem, too much tutorial and text and dialogue and handholding, I spent even fewer minutes with it before giving up all those years ago.

For example, starting levels could have simpler layouts with fewer pieces. Or pieces could start with only one ability per piece instead of three, allowing the player to level up into their perks and skill trees, an improvement in more than one way arguably.

Forgive me for trying to recall, my memory of those 12 minutes is fuzzy.

The AI seemed serviceable, but that’s not necessarily a compliment.

“Ugly” in my review was probably my biggest complaint. Primarily the board and pieces, where my eyes spend 90% or more of their time during your game. I dislike how the pieces are uncentered/“unkerned” per space, more than anything. Also dislike the designs and color palettes themselves. It is customary for chess games to offer at least some customization on these fronts. Even if it was locked as an unlockable item, maybe 10 or 25 XP for a new piece design set, and 10 or 25 xp per new color set/selection.

I wish I could try the game again to offer more specific and constructive feedback. Apologies that my initial public review was unhelpful. I was on some level being both sensational and lazy, myself.

I didn’t get far enough to see the game’s design holistically so feel free to take my ideas and suggestions with a chunk of salt.

(resistance/skepticism I mean, not the modern slang definition of salt to mean “bitterness or resentment”)

Thanks for listening, sorry for spamming, good luck with future projects, hope to keep in touch.

(…)

“Profile Features Limited” was another big one for me. I want achievements to mean something. I heard that the in-game achievement list did not match the Steam achievement list, either, and I find that frustrating/bizarre.“