Hello there! This post will probably be my last post about Exodus Checkmate before the game releases in 20 days, so I'd like to share some of my thoughts on this project now that it's almost finished.

I started working on Exodus Checkmate back at 2022 because of a friend. He sent me a meme of two guys playing chess on the floor of their bathroom and said "Hey Cadu, imagine doing a Chess 2 game? That'd be so funny haha" and... I did. I was playing Mary Skelter on the time and already thinking "Huh, it'd be cool to do a First Person Dungeon Crawler." and the ideas just merged and clicked. Now, almost 2 years over, there really is a First Person Dungeon Crawler RPG with Dating Sim and Visual Novel elements based on Chess. What a ride.

This project took a lot of time and effort to be done. Sometimes I lost the will to keep going with it, but every time I saw someone playing it made me want to continue. Doing the more than 200 enemies and several characters was the best part of it all! Some of you may know that I'm mainly an artist on twitter, so having the chance to create and draw that many new designs really made my days. You can even the evolution of my artstyle through the arts in early game and nowadays lol

I'm now finishing the playtest, so I'd like to share some comments on the final game for anyone willing to play when it releases.

• It takes about 17h to finish the game (20h if you're doing all the side-content)

• There are a total of 13 main dungeons in the game (considering the normal ending. The True Ending adds another dungeon, but this one is really small and more similar to a side-dungeon in size.) I tried to put different gimmicks in each to make the experience fresh, like the party splitting on the Ranch Gameboard or the player having to traverse the submerged paths on the Water Temple Gameboard. My personal favourite is the new Gameboard coming in chapter 5 based on a Chemicals Factory, so I hope you like this one too XD

• From the 4th Chapter onward, I had a new member on the team helping with the original songs. Their compositions are amazing and there is one track that he even made an alternative, deluxe version just to use in their original album as their "favourite works"!

• The interactions with the girls were some of the parts I had the most fun with. Also, by testing, I can garantee. You can max every girl Affection Level in one playthrough, but it's not an easy task. I was affraid of not putting enough points to everyone or too much points to trivialize their interactions. But it's all there, good luck. You can even unlock a secret CG if doing so...

• The bosses here, just like in Chapter 4, are peak! Eveyone have a different strategy to test your skills, so good luck fighting them! Algo, there are 2 optional bosses that WILL make sure to put the players on their knees if your group is not prepared enough. But also, I noticed that some character builds are just FIRE! Using the correct skills, equipment and Exodus Crystal to the right characters will make them absolute war machines! Have fun building your party!

• Some of the new additions like the Checkmove cut-ins are some things I intended to implement back at Chapter 1, but couldn't think or get time to do so. However, they're there now and they're slaying! I loved doing those arts for both the Black and White pieces alike! Hope you enjoy them too! That also aplies for the new animations for the skills and weapons XD

Well, I guess that's it for today. Don't forget, Exodus Checkmate Chapter 5 releases on June 27th with a ton of new content!