Dread Chess

Dread Chess is a narrative puzzle game built around chess. You can explore its story and search for different endings, or set asymmetric rules in a sandbox and play against the AI or a friend.

Narrative mode

You confront the God of Madness, who poses three life-or-death riddles. Enchanted chess matches play themselves, and watching them unfold helps you discover the answers. Your choices lead to different endings in a gothic pixel-art world, while successes and failures also shape the branching narrative. Autonomous matches can reveal hidden truths and secret paths.

Sandbox mode

You can customize asymmetric rules, giving one side unfair advantages or crippling handicaps, then watch those rules play out. The sandbox includes several ways to play:

• Card Mode: Choose one of three options—bad, average or good—for each move.
• Tarot Cards: Apply global conditions that change the rules of the game.
• Dice Mode: Roll a die to determine which chess piece you must move.
• Classic Mode: Play classic chess with direct control.

Watching matches

In spectator mode, you can watch the AI play against itself or share the match online. The game also features unsettling soundscapes and lets you use Latin as the main language, with the phrase “Mortales ludunt, dii rident”.