Final Gambit

Finally pulled off my second game jam, and I could not be prouder. I am a web developer by trade, and the dream of becoming a game developer lives on. :)

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A chess roguelike where every piece is on a timer.

Your army is burning. Every piece you own carries a countdown: the number of moves it has left before it vanishes off the board for good. Step onto an empty tile and it burns one. Take an enemy piece and the move is free.

That is the whole game. Killing is how your army stays alive. Shuffling, repositioning, playing it safe is how it dies. A Rook with 3 moves left is three devastating swings, unless it keeps eating. A Pawn is renewable chip damage. Your King is the one exception: exempt from the countdown, your permanent anchor, and the only piece that has to survive.

The enemy plays normal chess. No counts, no timers, no mercy.

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Ten matches. One sitting. No second chances.

There is no check, no checkmate, no stalemate. Take the enemy king and the match is yours. Lose yours and the run is over, back to match one.

Between matches your surviving pieces keep their counts. A worn-out Bishop with one move left starts the next match with one move left. Your army becomes a Ship of Theseus: veterans burn down and get replaced, and the only thing that keeps you strong is efficiency.

Draft mid-battle. Captures earn XP. Fill the bar and the fight pauses, then you pick 1 of 3 reinforcement cards and place it straight onto the board as a live piece. Common, Rare and Epic cards roll higher countdowns, and the deeper you climb the richer the draws.

Promote under pressure. Push a Pawn to the far rank and choose what it becomes.

Choose your shape. Before each match, pick one of three battle formations. Vanguard develops straight up the centre, Flanks splits to both wings, and Echelon fans out in a staggered line. You start already deployed in a mid-game position, not huddled on the back rank.

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Three difficulties, one honest ladder

Difficulty changes how well the enemy thinks, not how big its army is.

Mode	AI ladder	What you're up against
Easy	Levels 1 to 10	Defends itself, but plays loose. Misses forks, takes bad trades.
Normal	Levels 6 to 15	Sharper from move one, and it starts looking deeper late.
Hard	Levels 11 to 20	No slack. By match ten it plays its best move every single time.

The AI searches ahead and it will punish a hanging piece. A guided tutorial match teaches you the countdown before it starts biting.

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Get on the board

Clear a run, or die trying, and submit your score to the global leaderboard, one board per difficulty. Ranking is matches cleared first, fewest moves second, so the champion is not just whoever survived. It is whoever wasted the least. Enter your itch.io username and that is how you get credited.

Beat all ten and you are Champion.

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Controls

• Mouse — click a piece to select, click a highlighted tile to move. Gold means you can move there, red means capture.
• P — pause.

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Made in Unity for the GMTK 2026  game jam. The theme is not a clock in the corner, it is the ammunition in every piece you own.

Design and code by Yxnes. 3D art, FX and UI by Synty Studios (POLYGON). Display font Pirata One.