So a week back I released a major upgrade of Theseus with new graphics. The hypothesis was that the old “characters” didn’t have enough character, so players couldn’t relate to them in any meaningful way, and that the new more lovable Theseus and the now meaner looking Minotaur would engage the player more.
I never really figured I needed characters, since I classified this game in the same genre as chess or some such. Chess usually doesn’t have real characters (which laugh or cry). Then again Theseus is a bit less known than chess (just a hint). Having good characters shouldn’t at least take away from the game.
After a week I haven’t seen any difference in downloads, but maybe a slight decrease in bounce rate. The people I asked liked the direction of the new graphics and no one has complained thus far.
Old
New
To see more just check the screenshots on android market
The best and most loved game of chess I have ever played is Battle Chess. All of the pieces were characters, and when they moved, or took another piece, they had their own animations.
I played this version of chess as a kid and still remember it fondly to this day, because of the characters. I even tried to get a simulator version running on my PC a while back, but had no luck.
When a knight checked a king he’d do a mark of zorro and apparently fail to harm the king, who began to jeer the knight – Then the king’s robes fell of and he covered himself and ran off the board in humiliation. The bishops had a secret blade hidden in the base of their staffs, and I think the big troll-castles would usually eat the kicking, screaming queens.
Yeah I remember playing the same for the Amiga. I don’t remember if I ever played a serious chess game with it though – I mostly enjoyed feeding the different characters to each other.
Archon was a battle-chess like game that ran in the 8-bit era. I played it more than chess and a big draw was the personality of the game characters. They were monochrome 8×8 pixels but with animation and sound, they had a LOT of personality.
Vintage Computing article here: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/44