Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Voidrider Chess. A 43 square variant with movable spaces. (7x9, Cells: 43) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Jianying Ji wrote on Thu, Jan 2, 2003 10:58 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I was thinking along these lines sometimes ago, but my ideas never geled
into a playable game. So it very nice to see some incarnation of it. 
Absolutely cool!

Glenn Overby II wrote on Thu, Jan 2, 2003 03:50 PM UTC:

Fergus, should I add this to the 43 squares contest page? If so, is it a competing or non-competing entry?

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jan 2, 2003 04:25 PM UTC:

Yes, this is a competing entry.

Mike Nelson wrote on Thu, Jan 2, 2003 09:07 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Highly original and highly playable--a first-rate design. I think that the Bishop and Knight are equal, however, as the Bishop is more easily blocked but is not colorbound in this game.

gnohmon wrote on Sat, Jan 4, 2003 04:48 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

How can you fail to love a game that has a Voidrider?

Nicholas Kuschinski wrote on Mon, Apr 7, 2003 10:17 PM UTC:

The ideas aren't all that original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing: All the other games that use them seem to play pretty well. The voidrunner certainly manages to enhance the potential of a shifting board shape quite a bit, and keeping to ideas similar to those in working variants make the game seem much more playable than any amount of abstract mathematics, which is all my entry to the contest has to go on. The rule that restricts the board to a 7x9 square limits gives satisfactory limitations for the voidrunner, which would otherwise be far too powerful, and an unbalancing factor in play.In general, this looks like a rather commonplace entry, but still well thought out and not so easily dismissed.

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Apr 10, 2003 10:57 PM UTC:

Thanks for your praise of my game. I agree that being unoriginal isn't necessarily a bad thing, though I don't agree that it is unoriginal. One of my design goals for this game was to avoid repeating what I had already done. Compare Voidrider Chess to my previous games, and you will find that I have never made another game like it. When you speak of the other games that use the ideas of this game, what you say is misleading. Although Voidrider Chess draws inspiration from several other games, it is a novel synthesis of different ideas that, to my knowledge, have not all been united in one game before.

Nicholas Kuschinski wrote on Fri, Apr 11, 2003 09:59 PM UTC:

True! I cannot possibly accuse you of making an unoriginal game. I can, however, accuse you of having ideas that are not extremely novel in and of themselves. If you look, for example, at amoeba chess, you'll see what I'm talking about. Still, You have done a good job making seemingly unrelated ideas come together very nicely.

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Apr 12, 2003 01:25 AM UTC:

As I mentioned in the introduction, Amoeba is one of the games that inspired this game. The idea that you would accuse me of using ideas I did not originate myself is silly. What I mean is that it is silly to make an accusation out of it, as though it is a bad thing. Although I consider originality to be an important design goal, I do not consider originality so precious that I would pass up on the good ideas of others just to make sure my game was completely original. Indeed, my art has frequently been the art of synthesis.

Nicholas Kuschinski wrote on Sun, Apr 13, 2003 09:24 AM UTC:

Accusation is just the term I chose at the moment. I certainly do not mean to suggest you stole ideas from someplace, nor do I intend to insinuate any other form of shady activity at all. i fear you have misinterpreted my comments.

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Tue, Jun 17, 2003 12:20 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Excellent playability. The game play is surprisingly more interesting than it appears at first.

carlos carlos wrote on Sun, Feb 24, 2008 08:43 AM UTC:

can a voidrider take across a void?

je ju wrote on Sun, Feb 24, 2008 12:21 PM UTC:

Yes.  In Fergus' demonstration game seen on the voidrider page, move 39 has a voidrider put the opposing king in check when there is a void between them.  If the voidrider were not able to capture after passing through the void, this wouldn't have been check.

Julian wrote on Mon, Mar 30, 2015 01:05 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

How do Pawns promote? Can they promote to Voidriders? Where do they promote if the spaces move so much?

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Mar 30, 2015 02:59 AM UTC:

On the Game Courier preset for this game, I described the rules more concisely, and I wrote "Upon reaching the last rank, a Pawn may promote to a Voidrider, Rook, Bishop, or Knight." Since a Pawn can move its space forward if there isn't a space in front of it, its movement forward is not impeded by spaces moving around.