What if the chessboard fractured under your feet, and the rules no longer held? That’s the premise behind Beyond the Board, an upcoming minimalist puzzle adventure from Fragile Shapes Studio that’s anything but a traditional chess game. Revealed during the OTK Games Expo and launching its playable demo today on Steam, Beyond the Board is a cerebral journey through a surreal, shifting landscape where perception bends and logic is your only ally.
This Is (Not) a Chess Game
At the heart of Beyond the Board is a lone Rook, flung into an unfamiliar dimension after a bolt of lightning shatters a match mid-play. From that moment, the familiar checkered patterns of the board twist into something altogether stranger. Tiles shift, pieces disobey their traditional roles, and forward motion requires a new kind of thinking.
Despite its chess inspiration, the game doesn’t demand any knowledge of the classic strategy game. Instead, it encourages players to approach with curiosity and a willingness to explore. Think Monument Valley’s elegant design meets Limbo’s atmospheric unease, all wrapped in an abstract, logic-driven core.
“Our design philosophy was to create a game that unfolds itself to you step by step, without saying a single word,” says Game & Audio Designer Bruno Mascarenhas.
Puzzles, Pieces, and Perception
Each level in Beyond the Board feels like a snapshot of a world slightly out of phase with reality. Environmental storytelling and ambient sound do the heavy lifting here, building a quiet tension as you navigate fractured kingdoms and pursue a shadowy enemy King. The puzzles twist traditional mechanics –moving tiles, pressure switches, and enemy patterns– to force you out of predictable thinking.
Boss fights and adversaries add another layer of depth. While enemy pieces follow patterns, they aren’t your patterns, and deciphering their logic is part of the challenge. What begins as a contemplative experience gradually shifts into something more perilous as hidden paths and secrets emerge.
Programmer and visual artist Guilherme Gama frames the current demo as “just the beginning,” teasing that the full experience will delve even deeper into the abstract and unknown.
Demo Out Now
If you’re curious to try before you buy, the Beyond the Board demo offers a first glimpse into the game’s quiet mysteries and shifting mechanics. It’s a self-contained experience that hints at a much larger world in the works.
Whether you’re a puzzle veteran or someone drawn in by the atmospheric styling of games like Inside or Echochrome, Beyond the Board looks to offer something both familiar and completely alien. It’s teed up as a game where every move is a question, and the answers are hidden in plain sight.
You can wishlist Beyond the Board on Steam to stay updated as Fragile Shapes Studio continues development.
