After a year and a half of development, Shinogi Chess Club has finally arrived!
Synopsis
Shinogi Chess Club is a hybrid-genre experience that combines Visual Novel storytelling with free-roaming 3D exploration and a playable strategy game! Uncover the secrets of Yoshino High School, compete against various AI opponents in the Spring Championships, and join the Shinogi Chess Club!
This game is a spiritual follow-up to my previous VN game, Burden of Proof. It advances the world and game mechanics, and even connects the two stories thematically in significant ways.
What will you expect playing SCC? Like Burden of Proof, the game is primarily a visual novel. During certain segments you will be able to walk around freely and explore the campus. The Shinogi Chess Club meetings allow you to talk to each club member and discuss aspects of the evolving story across each chapter. You will encounter opponents though, and when the time comes you will get to actually play Shinogi Chess against their various AI personalities!
What is Shinogi Chess? In this world, the entertainment craze of the future is a brand new variant of traditional chess. One key difference is the addition of new objectives and new piece types, which add a whole new layer of strategy for each turn. But the main feature of Shinogi Chess is piece stacking. Place pieces on top of each other to create a stack, which allows you to move both pieces at the same time!
Face off against various opponents who are introduced through the story segments. Learn their strategy by studying their personalities in order to effectively counter their moves. Discover new features of the game by experimenting with different stack types, plan your approach with move highlighting & a full reference book, and employ mind games to psych out other players with Hidden Pieces!
Support
If you have any technical questions or concerns, feel free to make a discussion post in the Shinogi Chess Club community page! You can also check out this post for common steps on how to resolve issues. If you'd prefer, you can also contact me on Twitter @RobProductions!
I plan on supporting the game as long as I can so please don't hesitate to let me know if issues pop up.
Upcoming Features
As it goes with any development cycle, there were ideas that popped up after the main mechanics were already set in stone for release. Last minute bugfixing also pushed back some QOL items like mouse-hover labels and extra detail for some interior hallways. Between delaying the game for these small ideas or releasing it without them, I felt that it was better to have it ready for people to play.
This shouldn't hugely impact your play experience, but I realize that based on the feedback I've received from play testers it would be better to include these eventually. So in the coming weeks I will work to update the game with these features, as well as fix any reported bugs that get found. Here are the planned updates:
- A new "outtakes" extra menu that unlocks once you've completed the game
- Minor animation improvements
- Adding more VO lines
- UI & controller navigation features
- Possibly some extra chess interface options
- & More
There's no exact timetable on this yet but I will keep everyone updated as these features are worked on. Again, this will not impact the core story experience or the chess gameplay in any meaningful way, so feel free to start your playthrough now!
That's about it for this update! It has been a hectic week but I'm glad that this story is finally available for you all to play! Again, huge thanks to everyone that supported me and I hope you'll all enjoy the game. You can find all of my latest news and updates on my Twitter! Happy gaming everyone!
-Matt