Demo · The Chess Board

Same engine. Two personalities.

Both boards are rendered by the same 2D graphics engine (PixiJS) using custom-drawn pieces — no PNG assets, no stock sprites. Click any piece on either board to capture it. The plain board is quiet. The gamified board shows one simple effect, as a taste of what the cosmetic economy layer makes possible without touching the chess engine underneath.

Mode 1
Plain board

The default experience. Custom pieces, warm palette, smooth interactions — but no cosmetic flourishes on top. This is what Phase 1 ships.

Click a piece to capture it.
Mode 2
Gamified board

The same chess engine with a cosmetic skin layered over it. One simple capture effect — a particle burst with a little bounce. Phase 2 expands this to pizza pawns, koala knights, and black-hole captures.

Click a piece to capture it.
Why this matters architecturally: the capture effect on the right board is a pure cosmetic layer that knows nothing about chess rules. The chess engine (Phase 1) and the cosmetic economy (Phase 2) are cleanly separated modules — adding personality to pieces doesn't require touching the game logic, and vice versa. That's the "three independent systems over one shared foundation" commitment, made visible.