Chessplosion

Chess. And whoever captures gets to throw.

Chessplosion adds a second action after every capture. One throw can turn a safe position around: capture a piece and you may throw it onto the board from your own edge, in the same turn. Whatever topples is captured. Yours included.

The artillery mode

The captured piece becomes the projectile, right now or never. No stockpiling: skip the throw and you lose the right to it. That's deliberate. Otherwise whoever is ahead hoards projectiles and the game tips for good.

You throw from well behind your own back rank, not from the edge of the board. That's exactly where the difficulty comes from: the same small error in angle grows over the distance into a big miss at the target. Dragging sets direction and power, releasing throws. The camera swings in behind the thrower so the release point and the board fit into one frame.

No friendly-fire protection. Your own pieces topple just as easily. That's the built-in brake: whoever leads gets more ammunition but risks their own position with every throw. Toppled means captured, so tilted more than 45° or knocked off the board. Everything else slides back onto its square. A toppled king ends the game.

Three difficulty levels that actually change something

The difference isn't a number; it's how much you get to see. Easy: the full arc, free choice of power per throw. Normal: half the arc, and the power oscillates, so you have to time it. Hard: only the release direction, faster oscillation, plus crosswind up to ±2.6 that you have to allow for before you let go.

Or just chess

The mode is a switch, not an obligation. With it off, you get complete chess with all the rules: castling, en passant, promotion, draw rules. Plus a main menu, pause, saved games, replays and settings. Play two people on one device or against the AI.

An opponent that can throw too

The AI opponent uses a custom alpha-beta search with piece-square tables at three strengths. At the lower levels it misses on purpose now and then, which feels more human than an engine that makes the same mistake every time. And among equally good moves it picks at random; otherwise every game would play out identically.

For throwing it doesn't simulate physics. It sweeps through angles and power levels, computes the landing point ballistically, crosswind included, and scores it by who's standing nearby: enemy pieces count positive, its own count negative with a penalty on top. Friendly fire hits it just as hard.

Play locally or connect with friends

Games, saves and replays stay on your device; the AI runs locally. You can play the AI or another person on the same device without an account or internet connection. The optional Balane Play account enables leaderboards, friends and correspondence matches. In those matches, moves and results are shared between players through the server.

Pieces made of code

Pawn, rook, bishop, queen and king are lathed from a profile curve; the knight is an extruded silhouette on a turned column. All generated procedurally, no bought models. A new piece theme is therefore a material swap, not another download.

For iPhone, iPad and Mac

Version 1.2.3 is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac. There is also a signed direct download for Mac. Windows and Android are not released yet. The app can notify you of a newer version. Balane Play uses a server connection for accounts, leaderboards and correspondence matches.