[ GIGACHESS V1.19 README - 06.25.18 ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Thanks for checking out GIGACHESS! This is a stable and infinitely playable release build that we're continuing to elaborate on. We appreciate you taking an interest! <3 GIGACHESS Main Page: http://gigachess.ca Steam Community Hub: http://steamcommunity.com/app/415910 Questions, comments, support? Please do reach out! :) trevor@drixxelsoft.com [ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1. Game Description 2. Controls 3. Rules & Basics 4. Game Modes 5. Power-ups [ 1. GAME DESCRIPTION ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ GIGACHESS is a single player chess variant hero defense puzzle game. In turn-based order, prevent the descending waves of Pawns from reaching the board's bottom by commanding a heroic party made of Knights, Rooks or Bishops. Various power-ups embolden your arsenal against the enemy horde, assuming you've earned the SP to redeem. How long can you survive the Pawn onslaught? [ 2. CONTROLS ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > MOUSE & KEYBOARD < Left mouse button - select / move / attack (click-click or click-and-drag) Right mouse button - view tooltips (hold right-click on pieces and icons for insight) Spacebar - end turn S - toggle between game skins (Classic & Halloween) X - undo moves in current turn / reset Puzzle Attack or Tutorial stage N - return to title menu M - toggle between custom mouse cursor + OS mouse cursor > XBOX 360 GAMEPAD < Left analog stick - move cursor A - select / move / attack B - view tooltips (hold button) X - end turn Y - undo moves in current turn / reset Puzzle Attack or Tutorial stage LB - quick-target up RB - quick-target down LT - view tooltips (hold button) RT - select / move / attack Back - decrease analog sensitivity Start - increase analog sensitivity > GENERIC USB GAMEPAD < Left analog stick - move cursor B2 - select / move / attack B3 - view tooltips (hold button) B1 - end turn B4 - undo moves in current turn / reset Puzzle Attack or Tutorial stage B5 - quick-target up B6 - quick-target down B7 - view tooltips (hold button) B8 - select / move / attack B9 - decrease analog sensitivity B10 - increase analog sensitivity [ 3. RULES & BASICS ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1) Decide a move for each hero piece every turn (hero pieces may jump Pawns & each other) 2) Move a hero piece into the space occupied by an enemy Pawn to defeat it 3) End your turn early by pushing the tan button at the base of the board 4) Stop a Pawn's advance by placing a hero piece or Blockade in the way of its next move 5) Watch your diagonals, Pawns attack anything offensive in their strike paths 6) Beware the glowing Viper Pawns, they move & attack more aggressively than regular Pawns [ 4. GAME MODES ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > ENDLESS < The centerpiece of GIGACHESS, Endless mode provides an infinite wave-based challenge with a choice of 4 difficulty levels. Begin by building a custom party out of Knights, Rooks and Bishops (2 pieces max of any one type), then assign their starting positions to any of the spaces at the bottom two rows of the board. Gameplay continues until all hero pieces are captured or all 10 lives are lost to enemy Pawns crossing the bottommost row, so hold them off for as long as you can! Waves of enemy Pawns randomly spawn at the top two rows of the board at a rate based on the chosen difficulty and may also spawn in the board's middle two rows when playing on EXPERT & MASTER difficulties. Wavespawns occur every 4 turns on EASY, every 3 turns on MEDIUM, every 2 turns on EXPERT and every turn on MASTER. In addition, Viper Pawns have a chance of appearing in each wavespawn, with a higher frequency on EXPERT and MASTER difficulties. HYPER: After a hero piece scores enough hits against enemy Pawns, its Hyper state activates where its movement pattern becomes greatly extended. Knights, Rooks & Bishops all gain additional movements extrapolated from their characteristic movement styles. The Hyper state continues as long as the hero piece continues to score hits against Pawns turn after turn, with each hit refreshing the Hyper's lifespan and leeway of 1 turn granted without a hit before the Hyper state breaks and the hero piece must start from scratch. The number of hits required to go Hyper state depends on party size & difficulty selected. The Hyper threshold for difficulty is set to 10 on Novice, 12 on Medium, 14 on Expert and 16 on Master with a favourable adjustment made for small parties. A Queen-up can be used on a hero piece to extend its Hyper lifespan for the duration of the Queen-up. CURSED PAWNS: Pawns may be randomly affected by a curse, indicated by a purple wisp circling overhead of the Pawn. Any hero piece that captures a Cursed Pawn will be transformed into a King for 1 turn, limiting it to single-step movement in 8 directions. The King-down effect overrides any active Queen-up or Hyper state. Conversely, a hero piece can be instantly cured of its curse by being upgraded to a Queen. PAWNWARPS: At the start of every 10th wave, a Pawnwarp is triggered which teleports any enemy Pawns on the bottom 2 rows of the board to the top two rows. Plan your moves in the turn before a Pawnwarp accordingly! SHIELDGUARDS: If a hero piece is threatened by one or more Pawns, using a second hero piece to capture the last Pawn threatening the first piece earns a Shieldguard point. Every time a Shieldguard point is earned, any Curse present on a Pawn is cleared away. Collecting 3 Shieldguard points triggers an instant downgrade of all Viper Pawns in play to regular Pawns. EARNING SP: Skillful performance in a turn earns SP which may be redeemed for power-ups. All Strike! - awarded if all living hero pieces hit enemy Pawns in a turn (+1 SP) All Clear! - awarded if all enemy Pawns are dispatched from the board (+1 SP) UNDO: All actions in a turn may be rolled back using the Undo command activated by the button at the bottom right of the screen, or moved hero pieces can be clicked on to have their individual actions reset. AUTOSAVES: Each turn, an automatic gamesave is made, allowing the previous turn to be loaded up and replayed. QUICKSAVES: A game may be manually backed up and continued later through use of the Save & Load buttons located above the Undo button at the bottom right of the screen. Persistent quicksaves make it possible to resume a run in a later session or return to an earlier point in the same session. ( MORE ON QUICKSAVES: A single save file is maintained so each save overwrites the last. Any given quicksave may only be loaded ONCE per game, but a save is never lost until a new save overwrites it. ) MUTATORS: There are 3 mutators available that stack on the selected difficulty to spice up gameplay. All Viper - Pawns always spawn as Viper Pawns Spawncycle - Wavespawn rate ticks up for every Hits target reached Hardcore - 1 life, Hyper lifespan does not refresh with Pawn capture > PUZZLE ATTACK < In contrast to Endless mode's unpredictable randomosity, Puzzle Attack presents a set of 48 high-stakes stages to clear. Pawn formation and party composition are preset. Pro mode offers only a single life to lose, clearing a pro Puzzle Attack stage requires that not even a single enemy Pawn cross the bottom of the board. Easy mode provides 2 lives, bonus SP and, in some cases, different power-ups compared to what's available on pro. Puzzle Attack mode is broken into 6 blocks of 8 stages with each new block of 8 becoming available to challenge after at least 5 stages in the immediate block have been cleared. Stages cleared in the number of turns stated by the Par value are marked with a gold star on the Puzzle Attack level selection screen, whereas achieving Birdie (Par -1) and Eagle (Par -2) feature corresponding medals. Unlike Endless mode, SP is no longer awarded based on performance and is instead provided on a stage-by-stage basis as intended for the puzzle's Par solution. Additionally, the last move can be redone by clicking the "Step Forward" button at the bottom right of the screen, and a stage may be quickly restarted by clicking the "Restart" button found in the same area. Following 3 successive defeats in a stage, a hint showing the first 2 moves towards a possible Par solution (and placements for any power-ups available) may be toggled on and off by clicking the button to the right of the board labelled with a '?'. > KNIGHT'S DUNGEON < Inspired by the classic knight's tour chess puzzle, Knight's Dungeon offers a 40-stage collection of logic puzzles where the objective is to touch every open square of the board with a Knight. Stages range from breezy and bite-sized to large and maze-like and, unlike the traditional knight's tour where a single piece is used, Knight's Dungeon often presents a pair of Knights to move. Each stage is given a Par value of turns to be ideally cleared within, but there are no penalties for exceeding the stage's stated Par. There are two difficulty levels available, Easy & Pro, with Easy awarding a set number of SP to spend on Blockades after the stage's Par value is exceeded. A Blockade can be used to fill an untouched square of the board, lowering by 1 the number of squares needing to be touched by Knights. Special shapeshifting tiles can be found in many stages that, upon being touched, grant that Knight the movement of either a Rook or Bishop for 1 turn. A stage-specific hint unlocks after Par x 3 turns are played in the stage, showing two suggested moves to open with that work towards one possible Par solution. A history of a given Knight's move order can be viewed by right-clicking on the Knight, and the entire history of turns taken can be rewound by clicking the "Step Back" button found at the bottom right of the screen. Additionally, the last move can be redone by clicking the "Step Forward" button at the bottom right of the screen, and a stage may be quickly restarted by clicking the "Restart" button found in the same area. > TUTORIAL < Contained in the three lessons of the GIGACHESS tutorial is a series of staged scenarios introducing the movement styles of Knights, Rooks and Bishops, the various power-ups and basic strategies for their effective use, and opportunites to practice against typical arrangements of enemy Pawns. Like Puzzle Attack mode, a stage may be quickly restarted via the Undo command, and a hint showing the first 2 moves towards a possible solution (and placements for any power-ups available) for a stage may be accessed after 3 successive defeats. While GIGACHESS riffs on the structure of chess in a number of ways, a familiarity with the rules of the classic game will go a long way to mastering the new strategies required for fighting through the seemingly unbreakable formations of Pawns & Viper Pawns. [ 5. POWER-UPS ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Resurrect - restore a fallen piece to the board (5 SP) Blockade - build a wall to block 4 Pawn advances, can be refreshed, max 4 (1 SP) Queen-up - upgrade a chosen piece with 8-directional movement for 4 turns (4 SP) Trapmine - plant an explosive to bait & destroy attacking Pawns, max 4 (3 SP) [ GIGACHESS © Drixxel Soft ] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~