32 players. One infinite board. Every move happens at once.
$pixel is a real-time chess battle royale: 32 players each control a single
chess piece on an infinite wrap-around battlefield, all moves resolve
simultaneously every 5 seconds, and the match ends when a king falls.
Chess is the most recognizable rule system on Earth — everyone already knows
how a knight moves. $pixel keeps that literacy but removes the two things that
make chess inaccessible as a spectator sport and a casual game: turn waiting
and solo responsibility for the whole army. The result plays like a 90-second
action round built out of chess rules: a shared objective (the king), a safe
zone (the board), risky excursions (exile), and a clock that never stops.
Core rules
World: a 64×64 toroidal field with a classic 8×8 board at the center — the safe zone.
Players: 32 pieces, 16 per team, one piece per participant. Empty seats play as bots.
WE-GO turns: 5-second planning window, then every piece moves at once.
Strict chess movement: real pawn/knight/slider rules, fully enforced.
The king is the win condition: lose your king, lose the match instantly.
The Defector rule (signature mechanic): any piece outside the board is "exiled" and gets a bonus move — but re-entering the board flips it to the enemy team. Loyalty is a resource you can spend.
Match length: average 1–2 minutes, 40-turn hard cap, shrinking storm forces the endgame.
What already exists
Single-player
Complete, tested vertical slice vs. utility-AI bots — one self-contained HTML file, zero dependencies.
Multiplayer
Authoritative Node.js server (zero npm dependencies, WebSocket implemented from scratch), seat management, mid-match join, AFK enforcement, in-memory leaderboard.
Presentation
Full 8-bit look: hand-drawn sprites, custom bitmap font, procedural terrain, retina-exact pixel rendering, drag-to-pan camera, original soundtrack.
Validation
Rule set validated by automated simulation — 400+ bot matches per build with invariant checks.
Why it's investable
Zero rules-teaching cost — the entire planet already knows chess.
Session length fits mobile perfectly (1–2 minutes).
Shared team objective creates spontaneous cooperation between strangers.
The Defector rule generates its own clips and stories — built-in word of mouth.
Trivially cheap to run: one small Node process serves a full 32-seat match.
The empty-room problem is already solved — bots fill every seat, so the first human player never waits.
In active development
A new game mode is in progress: pieces gain special powers and can eliminate
other pieces beyond standard chess capture rules. Design and implementation
ongoing — details will be added here once the mode is playable.
On-chain rewards (planned)
The team plans to implement wallet-based rewards on Solana — players
connect a wallet (e.g. Phantom) and earn tokens tied to match participation
and outcomes. Design and rollout details still in progress.