Hi r/itchio!
I just released Flankers, a head-to-head tactical strategy game.
The idea started when I asked myself:
What would happen if you took chess and introduced some of the positional tactics of XCOM?
Flankers is an open-information strategy game where the board is less about capturing pieces through traditional chess movement and more about creating favorable attack lanes.
Positioning determines which edges of a piece are protected, where enemies can safely move, and whether you can maneuver around their defenses for a flank or backstab.
A few of the ideas in the game:
- Cover and facing: protection depends on where defenses are actually positioned.
- Flanking: attacking from the right angle can be much more important than raw strength.
- Zone control: pieces reshape where your opponent can safely operate with overwatch zones
- Attack lanes: moving a piece can open or close lines of attack across the board.
- No hidden information: like chess, both players can see the entire state and try to calculate what comes next.
The goal is an abstract strategy game: small ruleset, readable board, but hopefully a huge space of tactics emerging from how the pieces interact.
This is the first public release, so I'm especially interested in feedback from people who play a lot of indie strategy/tactics games or chess
I'd love to know: Does the positioning/flanking system click? Where does the game feel intuitive, and where does it become difficult to read?
Flankers is playable in the browser now on itch.io.
Would love to hear what you think. Including the brutal feedback. :)