New conceptual app for Apple

InCube Chess: the first successful implementation of chess in a three-dimensional field

Hello!

Although in Habré usually do not discuss toys, considering them to be frivolous - I deliberately made an exception today. Very rarely in the "gaming industry" is something really original. Moreover, with bright originality, it must also remain playable - and this is quite a rarity. But in this case, it seems both requirements met. In general, I found something for real "tadpoles" ...

The bottom line is that a small Ukrainian company "InCube Games" released the same-name computer chess: InCube Chess. And it would not deserve exactly any attention (is it not enough chess programs?) - if it were not for one significant detail: the field for chess is not a flat 8x8 “board”, but a cube, 8x8x8. That is, the struggle between the players' figures unfolds not in two-dimensional, but in three-dimensional space!
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To be honest, I almost completely lost interest in classical chess as an intellectual pastime after I got into the hands of a textbook on chess theory, and it became clear that the game was already almost fully calculated and “schematized”. And then it was reported that the chess computer beat Kasparov ... "Well, I thought - the end of the game of civilization." And in the broad masses, interest in classical chess has clearly weakened in recent years: do you find now many students who can do more than just rearrange figures? .. However, a simple but elegant idea to add a third dimension to a classical board can breathe a completely new chess piece a life. Relatively speaking, we received "chess of the third millennium".

In addition to implementing the third axis of coordinates and turning the field into a cube, the developer should be thanked for one more thing: for careful preservation of the classical rules. Both on the Internet and in the patent archives one can find a cloud of all implementations of "board-games" with a claim to "true three-dimensionality", which either are not playable at all or require new rules. Therefore, no one plays in them. Who remembers the first Star Trek - there was something similar there too: several different-sized boards one above the other, and figures “jumping” on them ... In the case of InCube Chess, the developers retained all the classical rules of the game that had been established over the centuries, so you will easily start to play immediately, without preparing and reading manuals: everything is completely intuitive.

It is clear that when expanding a chessboard in 3D, the main task is an interface with which one could confidently control the situation. In this case, the sets of figures are installed in opposite faces of a rotating transparent cube, divided into black and white "cells". It helps to play a lot of visual settings: the “chess cube” can not only change color, but also set the internal and external framing of cells (Outer grid), turn on and off the drawing of internal cells (Internal cages), as well as diagonal sections. By default, the illumination of the diagonal section of the chess cube (Diagonal grid) is turned on, since the shortest line of attack is located on the diagonal. But it can be turned off if the player decides to pursue a different strategy except for the earliest occupation of the center. Another valuable “lotion” is the ability to turn on the “Billboard pieces” mode for figures: so, with any rotation of the cube, the figures will always turn sideways to you, and you won’t think about whose platform hangs over your head: pawns or knight ...

Since you can hardly find a Jedi in the neighboring courtyard who can make you a decent game in three-dimensional chess, InCube Chess has a good robot with three levels of difficulty. By default, the game is set up so that when you select a piece, all fields of possible moves are highlighted, broken fields, and a red halo lights up around the pieces that you can attack. In addition, the robot, which calculates your game, will offer the best (in his opinion!) Move. But all these gadgets can be turned off.

Starting to play, I thought that the game would take about three weeks. This was not the case: each of the games with a friend took 40 minutes (and not only due to “blunts”, but also due to the power of figures that increased many-fold in three-dimensional), and “careful robot” (Careful Nous), who develops his pieces in the mode of hard safety, finished with me for 20 minutes ... I also liked that in a difficult situation the robot demonstrates almost human behavior: it can, for example, go on a gambit - that is, even give you a couple of heavy pieces, if in his opinion, you are in a step or two from putting a mate ...

So it's really interesting to play. At first glance, it lacks only a network interface to fight with a remote opponent - but judging by the press release, the guys are already working on it.

This "art-house" thing is released not only under Mac (that is, for OS X), but also for iOS . According to my personal feelings, the game on the iPad from the Mac version of the version does not differ either in convenience or in speed, except that the settings are smaller: the robot is fairly optimized for the platform. But on the iPhone did not try: I think, the screen will still be too small. Although - a matter of habit ...
It is also important that despite the quite conditional price (for some reason, it “jumps” in recent days on the developers site, depending on the version of the update, but it has never exceeded 4 bucks) - the developers did not greedy to release a free version, which differs only in the levels of the robot and the ability to save the party.

In general, under Apple, as has already happened, the next Conceptual Thing has been released. And I recommend it to habrazhiteli as the most “stupid“. The game, as I said, is available for both OS X and iOS. But when it comes out for Windows and / or Linux is unknown. The developers site says that they have an early version of “Windows” (and a fancy one, with 4 players possible!) Version, but they do not promise to bring it to the “mind” before the second half of next year ...

New conceptual app for Apple

InCube Chess: the first successful implementation of chess in a three-dimensional field

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