V6C, a fan-game.

[Isoraķatheð]

Hello. I am Isoraķatheð, and I found this game no more than one week ago. I found it to be really good. It is rated +7 660 in the Ekestimos Scale. (I'll get to that later.)

So why am I posting here, especially when a) I'm Internet-penniless and couldn't buy the game, b) my knowledge of the game is limited to watching playthroughs, reading wikis and my imagination, and c) I live miles away from the nearest VVVVVV fan?

Well, two things.

When I find something I really like, I make a couple of things. This is one of them.

This is VVVVVVChess, abbreviated V6C (which, you note, is a pun on the W3C). V6C is a Chess Variant that is modeled much like the game, with spikes and strange gravity galore.

I will document this game in both this thread an a specific wiki article about it (linked later so I don't sound like a spambot), which could use some editing skills. I may also make a YouTube video describing the game. For now though, all I have is this board:



And this description to go with it:

The V6C board: Base, Holes and Spikes.

The board: a 12 × 12 board, with 48 edges. It may be a square, a torus or a cylinder; depends on the players. Has 144 squares, but...
The holes: ...cover up 24 of them, leaving a total square amount of 120. They cut holes in the board for falling pieces to land on. They have a lot of edges, and some of the edges are lined with...
The spikes: ...70 of them! Have a piece land on spikes and they get captured!

I'll attempt to explain everything. Of course, any questions can be asked here.

[Terry]

This sounds really interesting! I'd love to see more Looking forward to the youtube video!

[Isoraķatheð]

Oh wow, this is fast. (I have multiple projects to work on...)

Anyway, as an example to how the mechanics work, I've made an example board. As I haven't decided on which pieceset to use yet (they're either the more thematic but trickier-to-design custom pieces named after the characters, or the blander but more easily balanced geometric pieces) the only piece present is the King, which may or may not be replaced by good old Viridian (though how I'm going to color them, and how am I going to disambiguate the move Ve4 is an issue...)

The Example Board



In this picture is the example board. A couple rules that it demonstrates:

• Holes must be placed between rank 3 to rank 10, never on ranks that end in 1 or 2. (This is so that the array could be constant.)
• Spikes, on the other hand, can be placed anywhere, even on the array. No, the pieces on top of them don't die immediately; they must slam into the spikes to die, either by momentum or by manually slamming themselves onto the spikes. (Momentum is my implementation of the old flipping move, and will be explained shortly.)
• Blocks cannot overlap, though they can combine to make bigger, more complex holes.
• You don't have to (and you really shouldn't if you don't want a slaughterfest) use all the spikes. All holes must be placed down though.
• Each board you make may have a title.
• You can place spikes at the edges of the base board, even if it's a cylinder or a torus.
• The players may make their own board, or choose this board and play.

That's about it. The hour is late, though you won't notice on the forum clock (where's the time zone option?) so I shall retire. More, hopefully, tomorrow, if my other interests (another CV, and some data work, and some VVVVVVConlangTranslation!) don't come in the way first.

[Whirligig]

You created a VVVVVV conlang? I'd love to see that.

Or are you translating VVVVVV into conlangs? If that's the case, I call dibs on making an actual VVVVVV conlang.

[Isoraķatheð]

You created a VVVVVV conlang? I'd love to see that.

Or are you translating VVVVVV into conlangs? If that's the case, I call dibs on making an actual VVVVVV conlang.

All in good time, whirl, all in good time...

Now anyway, I think it's about time that I worked on the momentum thing.

I have no idea how to explain it simply, so I'm basing this on someone else's words and start there. Below is a quotation of Momentum Chess, invented 2000:

• The rules of FIDE chess apply except as follows.


• When a piece is moved, it acquires momentum, and keeps moving in the same direction at the same speed on subsequent turns.
  
  The "speed" of a piece is how many squares per turn it moves. After 1. e2-e4, the White Pawn will continue on with 2. e4-e6 unless it is stopped.
  
  Capture and non-capturing moves are different "speeds". Thus, after 1. Ng1-f3 e7-e5, White cannot use the inertia of the Knight to capture Nf3:e5.


• When a piece with momentum cannot move any further, it simply stops. Now it has no momentum. We call this "autostop".


• On each turn, each player may either start one piece moving or stop the motion of one piece that was already in motion.


• If a piece is moving by inertia, you cannot start it moving in another direction, nor can you change its speed. You can only stop it, which uses up your move.
  
  On each turn, each player may have one or more pieces in motion by momentum, in addition to the usual move that may be made. Doctor Einstein informs me that these events cannot all happen at once, because there is no true simultaneity.
  
  The player has a free choice about which event should be resolved first.
  
  For example, after 1. e4; 1...d6???; 2. e6, Bb5!; this move is check because White can (and will) play his third move as follows: first the Bishop is stopped because it can go no further, then the Bishop is chosen as the piece to be moved.
  
  As another example, consider a position with White Bishop f1, Black King g6, Black Pawn b5: 1. Bf1-d3+ can be answered by 1...b5-b4 (!). Now the Bishop cannot go to g6 because its momentum wants to carry it to b5, so it is not check.
  
  This is a most important rule, and deserves a bit more discussion.
  
  You can stop the motion of a piece either before or after it has moved by inertia, but of course if you do so you may not start some other piece moving.
  
  You can start a piece moving after you have allowed it to stop itself; a piece stops itself when it has no further moves in the same direction and speed.
  
  You can prevent a piece from stopping itself by getting out of its way; thus, if you have previously moved your Bishop from f1 to d3, and you have a Pawn on c4, and you plan to move that Pawn away from c4,
  
  it is your choice whether to allow the Bishop to stop itself on d3 before you move the Pawn,
  
  or to move the Pawn first and allow the Bishop to continue on to b5.
  
  On the other hand, if you have previously moved your Bishop from f1 to c3, and you have a Pawn on c3, and you plan to move the Pawn to c4, you get to choose whether the Bishop should stop at d3 or continue to b5, and the way you make this choice is by controlling the order in which things happen.


• A piece can do two things in one turn in no situations except the two mentioned above.
  
  If a Pawn's momentum carries it in to be promoted, you cannot move the new Queen until next turn because it still has the Pawn's momentum, and the autostop won't happen until next turn. The new Queen still has the Pawn's momentum because Rene Descarte tells me it's still the same object despite its altered form.
  
  Notice that a piece does not make a momentum move and an autostop both on the same turn.


• Kings do not have momentum.
  
  However, when you Castle, the Rook has momentum.


• Momentum could force you to expose yourself to check; after 1.e4; 1...d6??; 2.Bb5+!,e6; 2...c6,d5; 3.Qh5; Black is in check because the Pawn at c6 must continue on to c5, so the only way to avoid mate is 3...Qd7,c5,d4; which is obviously hopeless.
  
  Notice that 1.e4; 1...d6??; 2.Bb5+!,e6; 2...Nc6,d5; 3.Qh5?!; 3...d4,B:e6; is a bit better for Black because the Pawn at d4 stops the Knight on c6 from continuing on its way and exposing the King.


• It can be hard to see check. If you allow your King to be captured, you have lost the game.

Attribution: http://www.chessvariants.org/d.betza/chessvar/inertia.html

Okay, with the base, let me expand on it.

• If a piece moves perfectly horizontally, then there is no momentum. (We're simulating gravity flipping here, not an ice rink.) Only if pieces move forwards or backwards at all do you have momentum.
• There is probably no castling in this game.
• You cannot use a move to stop a piece with momentum. You can "steer" pieces while they are moving though:
  
  
  
  • Imagine a Rook at a1. It has no momentum.
  • At turn 1, someone moves the Rook to a2. Now it has momentum 1.
  • At turn 2, someone moves the Rook to b2. At the end of the turn, momentum kicks in, pushing the Rook to b3.
  • At turn 3, someone moves the Rook to b1. At the end of the turn, momentum kicks in, pushing the Rook to b2.
  • And so on.
• Pieces can lose their momentum in the following situations:
  
  
  
  • When they cannot jump over other pieces, but their momentum tells them to go through a piece, or land on a piece.
  • When their next move makes them cross the edges of the board.
• Pieces cannot lose their momentum in the following situations:
  
  
  
  • When their next move makes them cross the spike-lined edges of the board. In this case, unless steered, the piece will cross the spikes and die.

I need some help clarifying this though, so ask questions and I'll attempt to make more examples.

[Sendy]

This is ingenious! (even though I understand less than half of it  )

I've always thought that all games can be improved by adding spikes or lava, and this just proves my point!

[Isoraķatheð]

This is ingenious! (even though I understand less than half of it  )

I've always thought that all games can be improved by adding spikes or lava, and this just proves my point!

Which bits you don't understand? Try your best to specify a part so that I could improve my wording.

[PJBottomz]

In the first post, you say that if a piece is on a sqaure with spikes, it'll be captured. But in the screenshot, you have spikes right where some pieces will go, and one on the king.

Wouldn't that just end the game?

[Isoraķatheð]

In the first post, you say that if a piece is on a sqaure with spikes, it'll be captured. But in the screenshot, you have spikes right where some pieces will go, and one on the king.

Wouldn't that just end the game?

Ah, you're right. Continuity error.

Once again, I'm stuck with examples. Let's imagine now, a Rook on a4 with momentum of "one square southwards". There is a spike line at the bottom of a1, but the bottom of b1 is spike-less.

• On move 1, the Rook falls to a3.
• On move 2, the Rook falls to a2.
• On move 3, the Rook falls to a1. It is not dead yet.
• On move 4...
  
  
  
  
  
  

  4. Rb1	4. something else.
  The Rook's momentum carries the Rook to...	The Rook's momentum carries the Rook to...
  "b0"	"a0"
  But as momentum pushes the Rook there, it encounters...	But as momentum pushes the Rook there, it encounters...
  A wall	Spikes
  Which ends up...	Which ends up...
  Resisting the Rook's momentum, pushing it back to b1 and making it lose all its momentum.	Capturing the piece.

That is how is works. I'll edit the post to reflect that change.

Also, the only reason why I repeated the text is because there's no "colspan" property on the [::td::] BBCode tag. Also there is no [th] tag I think?

EDIT: aaaa it parsed the [::td::] tag. I thought BBCode was supposed to prevent that?

[PJBottomz]

Uh... Yeah. Sure. (Has no clue what the hell you just said)

[Sendy]

So basically spikes are safe, unless momentum pushes you into them?

[Isoraķatheð]

Yes. That's right.

Now, I'm thinking about the pieces. In the meantime I'm making a small presentation about the spike/momentum mechanic.

[Isoraķatheð]

Pieces: 1: The King

The King has a jetpack. He does not have momentum, vertical or otherwise.

The King has a jetpack. He moves one square in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal.

The King has a jetpack. He is the only one who can float in midair.

One of the Rooks made the jetpack. The bearing of this fact of the game is up to the player, and will be dealt with in the Rook section.\

The King starts on g1 and g12.

(He's very braggish about the jetpack.)

Anyway, the only reason why I gave the King a way to cheat the gravity-flipping system is because the game gets confusing otherwise.

The lack of momentum of the King is also useful for stopping other pieces from falling too much, e.g. into spikes.

[Isoraķatheð]

Pieces: 2: The Rook



The Rook may move any number of squares horizontally without momentum, or any number of squares vertically with momentum.

[Isoraķatheð]

Hey guys, I made the complete starting array. I decided to keep it simple, so no scary new piece types to remember.