Master of Chess News

🛠️ Build Report: 0.8.8

🔧 Fixes

• Resolved issue causing unlimited expansion of the opening line.
  
• Fixed 0-indexed player rating display in the played game modal.
  
• Corrected player title rendering in the player's profile modal.
  
• Stopped the game from opening the user's own player modal unnecessarily.
  
• Fixed a bug where energy system broke after quitting to menu.
  

✨ Improvements

• Added a “Go to First Move” button in the Game Analysis modal for easier navigation.
  

🛠️ Patch Notes – 0.8.7
🔧 Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Proficiency details wouldn't expand properly.
  
• Resolved a bug where pressing ESC brought up the wrong modal.
  
• Move validation now visibly deducts 0.1 energy points
  

The most exciting batch of changes for Master of Chess is done!

Yes, there's still a lot more work to be done, but I'm getting there and I have a feeling that the hardest things are behind me now. Due to amount of changes, there's a high possibility of bugs. Please report them on Discord or in community 🙏.

I plan to release the game out from Early Access in couple of months. What's the biggest problem you have with the game? What's missing? Let me know so I can get it in before the 1.0.0 release!



I've covered all the bigger changes in previous blogs so I'll just go out and list out all the changes I've remembered to record.

[h2]🛠️ Fixes & Improvements[/h2]

• Fix AI logic on recaptures
  
• Fix negamax crash
  
• Fix bug with puzzles and progress points
  
• Fix issue with female title tooltips
  
• Fix issue with puzzle coach explanations
  
• Fix message icon for tournaments starting
  
• Fix bug with turning sound off
  
• Fix bugs with progress screen progress assignment
  
• Improve draw offer criteria
  

[h2]➕ Features & Additions[/h2]

• Allow saving mid-game
  
• Add coaches
  
• Add openings
  
• Add auto-save after a game
  
• Add tutorials for new features
  
• Add translations
  

[h2]🎮 Gameplay & Logic[/h2]

• Return entry fee on tournament withdrawal
  
• Improve AI consideration for recapture
  

[h2]🎨 UI/UX & Design[/h2]

• UX improvements
  
• Player Details modal
  
• Font consolidation
  
• Some UI changes
  

[h2]🔊 Audio[/h2]

• SFX (sound effects)
  

[h3]What's next[/h3]

One thing I've learned through these past months is that I enjoy much more to have the updates in smaller batches and delivered faster. I'll do my best to keep the update cadence better in upcoming months.

One thing to note is that I've been spending time helping a friend to release his detective game. Please wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2797960/Confidential_Killings/

Heya! Master of Chess is on sale in the Sport-acular event. Exciting stuff!

It's always cool when the game gets into a Steam festival as it increases the amount of traffic the Steam page gets. And hey, it's 20% off!

In other news: I'm couple weeks off from releasing the new version, 0.8.x.

[h2]Latest development[/h2]

I worked a lot on the openings. I'm quite happy with the direction it is going in. The most often requested features are already there: separated black and white repertoires, priority lines that are played through in the Key Moments simulation and more believable NPC opening play.



[h2]Opening proficiency[/h2]

Modelling realistic opening knowledge isn't straightforward. One of the problems I hope I'll solve better in the future.

For now, I've added proficiency levels for different lines. I've called it Line Knowledge as proficiency sounds too smart-ass. You use your book points to improve the line knowledge and this allows you to expand your opening line deeper and deeper. The deeper you go the more book points it requires.

It's easier to understand with a picture. So here it goes (stil WIP):



The given player has deep knowledge of queen and king pawn openings. So if line knowledge is 10, the player can build his opening graph as much as he wants as long as he isn't going more than 10 moves deep. You choose your primary lines in the graph and they are selected in Key Moment simulation!

[h2]Missing pieces[/h2]

Next step in my Openings Redo attempt is to get the NPCs to have some sort of opening preferences. I've done a lot of work around this topic but I would always fall short. I'm falling short for now as well but I at least can see light at the end of the tunnel (if I don't get to it soon I'll just cut it short 😊)

Lastly, I'm implementing a window in which you can see more details about the opponent. It was often requested and makes total sense. Sometimes you want to see your historical score against a specific opponent. This is very close to being done.

Ideally, this window would also contain information about opening preferences of the NPC, but I might cut that out as well. Obviously a lot of things depend on me handling the previous step successfully 😀

[h2]The end[/h2]

I plan to release the game out of Early Access in the summer. It's so close now!

I've been working on this project for almost 3 years now. It's incredible. I've learned so much and I hope to apply it when I make a second instalment of this chess career simulation game in couple of years. But for now it's all about making Master of Chess the best it could be.

If you have ideas and suggestions, join my discord to tell me about it:
https://discord.gg/HYV8Zz8V2Q


Cheers!

What's a chess player without a coach, eh?



I'm wrapping up this feature. I wanted to share the news. It ended up a lot bigger and better than I imagined. It was considerably harder to implement as well so it's only fair that I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

It's going to come to beta branch soon. Join the Discord if you have any question or just want to chat with us: https://discord.gg/HYV8Zz8V2Q

What makes me happiest is that Jonathan Schrantz allowed me to use his name and likeness as one of the coaches. His videos on the Saint Louis Chess Youtube channel that I watched 10ish years ago provided me with chess knowledge to achieve the greatest feat I could imagine: beating my dad at chess.

[h3]What's so cool about it?[/h3]

...I hear you ask. Say no more! There's 2 new training modes:

• Positional Analysis (5k of them)
  
• Studies (472 of them)
  

Both bring a new dynamic to the game. While positional analysis allows you to sharpen your intuition and decide the objective evaluation of given positions; studies are quite more hands-on and make you play out a position to its maximum potential: be it a draw, retaining advantage or checkmating your opponent.



If your eyebrow is raised disapprovingly now, don't worry - your choice of coach allows you to switch up which training modes you get. Every coach has a different training regiment and every month you're allowed to pick your training.

[h2]What's next[/h2]

I'll release this feature to the beta branch quite soon. Meanwhile, I'm testing it and starting work (again) on my nemesis - Openings feature. Yes, it's in the game now, but we all know it's not up to the task. It doesn't synergize with the rest of the game. A lot of reviews mention it as a problem - rightfully so.

But giving it justice isn't easy as I thought. I've had 2 attempts already and gave up. This time I've planned it out better. Third time's the charm!

Some smaller fixes are coming as well:

• In game save (adjournment)
  
• Smaller game size as I've reduced the DB size considerably
  
• Fix some crashes with the chess engine search
  
• Improve draw offer criteria
  
• Small AI improvement around recapturing
  

And many smaller fixes I've not been smart enough to record. So that's what's up. I've been working considerably slower these past few months, but I think I'm getting back into the groove.

Hope you'll have a lovely month!

BRANE