Game Dev Diary - Hnefatafl

I was asked last year to see if an online version of the Viking chess game Hnefatafl could be built with the intention of showcasing it at a local history event. I love this game and if you've never heard of it (I hadn't until a year ago) go search it out. It has proved a difficult challenge but has led me down a familiar and enjoyable rabbit hole, that paved the way for my participation in the Sega game jam last month, in which I achieved third place.

Learning the rules was a difficult challenge but soon learnt them, along with some basic tactics and techniques of play. I was able to put a working prototype together but the next challenge came when trying to make it two player over a connection. A few moths down the line, I had a reliable working single player version with rather sketchy two player functionality.

The last few months have been busy with work and other projects but over the past few months I've been able to dip into the Hnefatafl build and apply a great deal of polish, concentrating on getting the single player version improved and tested. The video below is a quick demo of what's been achieved so far.

I love how this game is developing, I only wish I was better at music composition and editing instead of relying on free to use libraries. I would also like to try and develop this further into a more tactile game, maybe installing a screen into a wooden stand for tabletop play between two people sat opposite one another.