As the Shinogi Chess Club launch week continues, so do the fixes and updates! Thanks to more people trying out the game and recording footage I've been able to identify a few important weak points which I wanted to quickly address while players are still in the early chapters.

Update Details

Patch Download Size

• Windows - 23.8 MB
  
• Mac - 16.3 MB
  
• Linux - 17.0 MB
  

Changelog

• Improved scene timings in Chapters 3 & 4
  
• Added new match debugging tools
  
• AI: Minor performance optimizations
  
• AI: Less likely to make poor Spy moves
  
• AI: Adjusted Spawn move and mistake weights
  
• Ambient world sounds no longer play during loading screen
  
• Improved animations for character: Daisuke
  
• Added blinking animation to character: Daisuke
  
• Added tower highlight UI in Shinogi Chess
  

To start with the presentation updates, I can talk a bit about ambient sounds. Since Burden of Proof actually did not feature any ambient world noise, this is a somewhat new problem I've had to solve for Shinogi Chess Club. My earlier solution was simply lower the ambience when a script or cutscene causes the scene to fade out, but that ended up splitting my volume logic across multiple places and left me unable to easily adjust it for other scenarios. This new version now relies on a more centralized code block that detects the current game state and acts accordingly, with overrides in place to still allow external control. With this new change, loading screens now affect the volume of ambient noises which helps to improve the overall polish.

I found that the character Daisuke was lacking a bit in unique animation sets, so I included a new pose and added the blinking layer to his eyes like most other characters use. This should help make him feel more alive and animated in the scene, but there are still a few more characters that may need better treatment in the future too. I also had the idea to make the Tower mechanics more clear in Shinogi Chess by highlighting which squares you need to utilize to get a Capture. So I added in a little icon at low opacity which should do the trick, but further tweaking may need to be done in the future.



Finally, I was a bit unsatisfied with the decision making of AI still and wanted to correct a few issues. This part gets really complicated so I won't say too much, but the easiest thing to explain would be the performance improvements. AI moves may not actually be faster due to the added features but the memory allocation of the algorithm has been reduced, leading to more efficient move making. The likelihood of AI spawning a Pawn was a little too high, so it was reduced for most matches. Sadly this can still result in some bad moves due to this being a constant, but a larger overhaul on this was out of scope for this update.

The bigger change comes with handling of Hidden Pieces. Previously, the AI wouldn't account for subtypes at all, and this is still mostly the case to make balancing easier and lessen the performance hit. But with this update, it will now recognize situations where it may needlessly throw its Spy away by trying to capture something other than a Pawn or King. In previous versions, this was a pretty awful move that a human would never make, even for beginners. Hopefully the adjustment eliminates this from occurring as often, but there are always crazy board states that happen which can throw things off. In addition, this is a new customizable weight setting for each individual opponent, so there is still a small chance for early enemies to make this mistake - call it pity if you'd like.

Later on, I plan to talk more about the technology behind the AI and how that impacts guides & strategies within the game. This update would be a breaking change for anyone relying on guides or walkthroughs, but I haven't seen any so far. There are still quite a few shortcomings in the AI that I couldn't overcome this time around, but I've got many ideas on how to improve the algorithm in the future. Apologies if that was a long and boring writeup!

Community Showcase

Today I'd like to highlight this awesome playthrough of the first chapter by Sixkilla Gaming!



That's all for today! Thanks again to everyone that tried out the game and I'm so appreciative of all the continued support for this project. Don't hesitate to reach out here on the discussion page or on Twitter @RobProductions if you have any questions, and I hope you enjoy the update!
-Matt