I snagged this as soon as I read about it on the front page. It's a clever hybrid of Lines (move a pieces so as to connect a row of four or more of the same color to eliminate them or new pieces will be added to the board) but in a Chess theme (there are only two colors and the randomly spawned pieces can only move according to their real life Chess piece counterparts). On top of simply the clever gameplay, they take a page from Tiny Wings and offer up dozens of achievements the player can earn to increase the base points multiplier. Recently given a front page feature: http://toucharcade.com/2011/09/14/hipsta-chez-review-a-smart-puzzle-game-that-isnt-quite-chess/ Hipster Chess Daniils Silov Hipster Chess is a smart and addictive time killer, similar to many other match-3 games, but with a clever twist. There'… TouchArcade Rating: Free Buy Now Watch Media DetailsHipster Chess is a smart and addictive time killer, similar to many other match-3 games, but with a clever twist. There's no other player, no checkmate. Line up 4 or more chess pieces to clear them off the board. Sounds simple? The trick is that pieces only move like they do in real chess! - TouchArcade.com - "Hipster Chess goes further than most match-3s in creating a smart and thoughtful experience." - AppAdvice.com - "Hipster Chess turns the game of chess on its head and then has it breakdance." - SlideToPlay.com - "Hipster Chess is incredibly addictive, and also an interesting experiment in genre mash-ups." Even if you never liked chess, remember, Hipster Chess is totally not chess! Its simplicity will amaze and entertain you! - Play for hours or minutes - Smart and addictive gameplay - A Match 3 game on steroids - Blitz game modes for those who dare - Full Game Center integration - Multiple leaderboards and achievements - Unlock achievements to increase score multiplier - Compete in real time with your friends - Line up crazy combos for mega scores Information Seller:Daniils Silov Genre:Board, Puzzle Release:Aug 30, 2011 Updated:Apr 03, 2020 Version:2.0.3 Size:44.1 MB TouchArcade Rating: User Rating: (4) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal DanSilov New Member Sep 15, 2011 4 0 0 #2 DanSilov, Sep 16, 2011 How many achievements did you manage to unlock? Last tier achievements look insanely difficult. But overall this is definitely very addictive. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #3 LordGek, Sep 16, 2011 I'm at the x3 multiplier at the moment as I have yet to do much of the Bliz modes. DanSilov New Member Sep 15, 2011 4 0 0 #4 DanSilov, Sep 16, 2011 I'm x6, but those blitz achievements are tough. Not sure how can you hold for 30 minutes with 5 seconds per move. But the longer you play, easier it gets to spot potential lines. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #5 LordGek, Sep 17, 2011 Some potential new mode ideas! Having my first 8,000+ game of Normal today I realized that past a certain point it may not get easier, but it isn't getting any tougher. I now better understand why the dev appears to have pushed folk towards the various timed modes as then, with the pressure of time limits, it will certainly make things feel much tougher to maintain a good game going for too long. What I think would be nice is something that would increase the difficulty without resorting to time limits and think I have a neat hazard/obstacle that could be introduced in a new untimed mode (heck, this could also have the same timed variants as well, I guess). Siberian Gambit: Every new piece that spawns into the game has a chance of being "frozen" with the odds of getting a frozen piece (or more than 1 even) increasing based on how many moves have been made in the game so far. Frozen pieces can't be moved themselves but can still be a part of a reaction. If used as a piece in a normal grouping, as opposed to disappearing with the other pieces, this piece would lose its frozen status but remain in place. On the other hand, if this piece were to be captured by an opposite colored piece, than it would immediately be replaced (allowing piece capturing as a viable shortcut around this new hazard although, if the capture doesn't result in a clearing, it will still carry that harsh extra piece spawning penalty). One foreseeable problem with all of this is that there easily could become a point where too many of the pieces on the board are frozen. One possible solution then would be to have all frozen pieces automatically thaw all by themselves after 2 turns or so (maybe it should be a longer delay or, if wanting to keep stuff random, maybe each frozen piece only has some ever increasing chance of thawing each turn it is on the board so that their thawing is never something one can easily plan for). If we go with this self thawing idea we also could introduce the concept of a piece only being "half-frozen" (it still can't be moved but if used in a reaction it would be knocked into reserve like any normal piece). So what do you think? Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #6 Silent Apps Team, Sep 19, 2011 LordGek, thank you for the great feedback, this certainly helps knowing that people are finding the game interesting/exciting enough. The idea with frozen pieces is quite interesting. We are considering an "Arcade" mode with various power-ups, but this "Siberian Gambit" can easily be a mode of its own. We will have an internal test of the idea to see if it's feasible and/or interesting enough. As you correctly noticed, the game is not difficult when you get the hang of it, and you can play for hours (or even days, thus some achievements). We submit scores to Game Center every 15-20 minutes of game time, so this creates possibility for long realtime competitions. It will be more interesting when more players try the game. In many ways we depend on the game adoption scale, we can only start working on new game modes if the game picks up a little. At the moment sales are far from great despite a number of very positive reviews. We are working on an update to prepare the game for a promotion in October, and that would be the time to see if we continue working on Hipsta Chez or move to other projects. Gabrien Well-Known Member Nov 24, 2009 5,148 0 36 #7 Gabrien, Sep 19, 2011 I think the problem is this game does not appear to be completely sure of what it's trying to be or whom it's aimed at. Casual puzzle game fans are probably put off by the idea of chess, and are drawn more towards games with more bells and whistles. Chess fans are probably put off by the use of "Chez" and view it as somewhat juvenile. Personally, I've looked at this game a number of times and pondered picking it up, but each time came away with that "neither fish nor fowl" impression. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #8 LordGek, Sep 19, 2011 I sadly understand the reality here and HOPE things improve. As much as I like the game I get how you're in a bit of a tricky spot with this game, casual gamers, no matter how clear you try to make it in the description, will think this is one of those "Chess Puzzle" games and the serious Chess fans will likely take issue that this ISN'T a typical Chess Sim/Puzzle game. Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #9 Silent Apps Team, Sep 19, 2011 Yes, unfortunately we also realize this problem, and have actually realized it from the the very beginning, even before we started. But we loved the idea so much that we decided to give it a shot anyway. That is why we tried to create not-so-serious theme, but so far not successfully. Any advice here would be welcome. I guess in the end we aim mostly at casual players, chess professionals will dismiss the game as a casual anyway, even if call it proper "Chess", plus real chess lovers are sadly low in numbers for any game to become a real success. Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #10 Silent Apps Team, Oct 17, 2011 Hipsta Chez is currently free for a limited time! So we welcome everyone who hesitated before to give it a try. In addition to that we made the app a universal binary, so it plays nice on iPad as well. LordGek Well-Known Member Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze Feb 19, 2009 12,282 141 63 Software QA Engineer Saratoga, CA, USA #11 LordGek, Oct 17, 2011 I can verify that it does indeed now look very sharp on the iPad! I'm also liking that new tweak with pawns (getting a double move if they happen to start on the right row). Now...is there any bizarre way to work in Castling between the King and Rooks? Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #12 Silent Apps Team, Oct 17, 2011 Well, at the moment the only idea that comes to mind is again check starting positions of a king a rook, and if they appear on their proper places, allow castling. The main concern whether or not it complicates things too much. caanerud Well-Known Member Mar 28, 2011 998 0 0 #13 caanerud, Oct 17, 2011 Silent Apps, can you please check and see if your Universal update borked the game somehow? I'm playing on an iPad (4.2.1 admittedly jailbroken) and I'm getting frequest crashes. Crashes when I tap on 'Tutorial,' crashes randomly in-game and when I try to 'resume' it just crashes. May be my fault, being jailbroken and all, but if you could please check your end I'd appreciate it. Cool game...like KnightDefense as a puzzle game instead of a Tower Defense game. sam the lion Well-Known Member Jan 12, 2009 1,456 0 36 Italy #14 sam the lion, Oct 17, 2011 the italian title of the game contains the word "sibellino" which is not actually an existing italian word. May I help you change it with a real word? What were you trying to say? caanerud Well-Known Member Mar 28, 2011 998 0 0 #15 caanerud, Oct 17, 2011 'Hipsta' and 'Chez' aren't exactly existing English words either. sam the lion Well-Known Member Jan 12, 2009 1,456 0 36 Italy #16 sam the lion, Oct 17, 2011 Yes, but it's slang and you can understand what they mean. The word is in the "comment" after the title - as if they thought that "sibellino" means "addicting" in italian. But it's not even slang, I have never heard the word, you totally can't understand what they mean. EfratBarTal Well-Known Member Mar 5, 2011 2,351 17 38 Female CEO Tel-Aviv #17 EfratBarTal, Oct 17, 2011 hey, this game's pretty cool! Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #18 Silent Apps Team, Oct 17, 2011 Thanks for the tip, this only shows that one can never trust a hired translator. We will make the change with the next update, unfortunately Apple only allows to change the name when creating a new version of the game. There are a couple of minor issues that we will fix soon with 1.1.1., so hopefully you won't have to see this non-existing word for long Silent Apps Team Member Sep 19, 2011 12 0 0 http://hipstachez.com #19 Silent Apps Team, Oct 17, 2011 Really sorry to hear about crashes. We will definitely check if there are any issues, but we have tested this update quite extensively and there were no crashes. We'll try to find an iPad with iOS 4.2.1 to see if this version is somehow affected. One thing you can try in the meantime (if you don't have a long existing game going) is to delete the game and reinstall fresh from the App Store. Unfortunately, this will reset your score multiplier. sam the lion Well-Known Member Jan 12, 2009 1,456 0 36 Italy #20 sam the lion, Oct 17, 2011 Hope you didn't pay the guy, or not too much.. I read the rest of the description and while you can understand what it means, it's far from perfect. Also "divertenza" is not a word, it should be "divertimento". (You must log in or sign up to post here.) Show Ignored Content Page 1 of 2 1 2 Next > Share This Page Tweet Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now. Yes, my password is: Forgot your password? Stay logged in
How many achievements did you manage to unlock? Last tier achievements look insanely difficult. But overall this is definitely very addictive.
I'm x6, but those blitz achievements are tough. Not sure how can you hold for 30 minutes with 5 seconds per move. But the longer you play, easier it gets to spot potential lines.
Some potential new mode ideas! Having my first 8,000+ game of Normal today I realized that past a certain point it may not get easier, but it isn't getting any tougher. I now better understand why the dev appears to have pushed folk towards the various timed modes as then, with the pressure of time limits, it will certainly make things feel much tougher to maintain a good game going for too long. What I think would be nice is something that would increase the difficulty without resorting to time limits and think I have a neat hazard/obstacle that could be introduced in a new untimed mode (heck, this could also have the same timed variants as well, I guess). Siberian Gambit: Every new piece that spawns into the game has a chance of being "frozen" with the odds of getting a frozen piece (or more than 1 even) increasing based on how many moves have been made in the game so far. Frozen pieces can't be moved themselves but can still be a part of a reaction. If used as a piece in a normal grouping, as opposed to disappearing with the other pieces, this piece would lose its frozen status but remain in place. On the other hand, if this piece were to be captured by an opposite colored piece, than it would immediately be replaced (allowing piece capturing as a viable shortcut around this new hazard although, if the capture doesn't result in a clearing, it will still carry that harsh extra piece spawning penalty). One foreseeable problem with all of this is that there easily could become a point where too many of the pieces on the board are frozen. One possible solution then would be to have all frozen pieces automatically thaw all by themselves after 2 turns or so (maybe it should be a longer delay or, if wanting to keep stuff random, maybe each frozen piece only has some ever increasing chance of thawing each turn it is on the board so that their thawing is never something one can easily plan for). If we go with this self thawing idea we also could introduce the concept of a piece only being "half-frozen" (it still can't be moved but if used in a reaction it would be knocked into reserve like any normal piece). So what do you think?
LordGek, thank you for the great feedback, this certainly helps knowing that people are finding the game interesting/exciting enough. The idea with frozen pieces is quite interesting. We are considering an "Arcade" mode with various power-ups, but this "Siberian Gambit" can easily be a mode of its own. We will have an internal test of the idea to see if it's feasible and/or interesting enough. As you correctly noticed, the game is not difficult when you get the hang of it, and you can play for hours (or even days, thus some achievements). We submit scores to Game Center every 15-20 minutes of game time, so this creates possibility for long realtime competitions. It will be more interesting when more players try the game. In many ways we depend on the game adoption scale, we can only start working on new game modes if the game picks up a little. At the moment sales are far from great despite a number of very positive reviews. We are working on an update to prepare the game for a promotion in October, and that would be the time to see if we continue working on Hipsta Chez or move to other projects.
I think the problem is this game does not appear to be completely sure of what it's trying to be or whom it's aimed at. Casual puzzle game fans are probably put off by the idea of chess, and are drawn more towards games with more bells and whistles. Chess fans are probably put off by the use of "Chez" and view it as somewhat juvenile. Personally, I've looked at this game a number of times and pondered picking it up, but each time came away with that "neither fish nor fowl" impression.
I sadly understand the reality here and HOPE things improve. As much as I like the game I get how you're in a bit of a tricky spot with this game, casual gamers, no matter how clear you try to make it in the description, will think this is one of those "Chess Puzzle" games and the serious Chess fans will likely take issue that this ISN'T a typical Chess Sim/Puzzle game.
Yes, unfortunately we also realize this problem, and have actually realized it from the the very beginning, even before we started. But we loved the idea so much that we decided to give it a shot anyway. That is why we tried to create not-so-serious theme, but so far not successfully. Any advice here would be welcome. I guess in the end we aim mostly at casual players, chess professionals will dismiss the game as a casual anyway, even if call it proper "Chess", plus real chess lovers are sadly low in numbers for any game to become a real success.
Hipsta Chez is currently free for a limited time! So we welcome everyone who hesitated before to give it a try. In addition to that we made the app a universal binary, so it plays nice on iPad as well.
I can verify that it does indeed now look very sharp on the iPad! I'm also liking that new tweak with pawns (getting a double move if they happen to start on the right row). Now...is there any bizarre way to work in Castling between the King and Rooks?
Well, at the moment the only idea that comes to mind is again check starting positions of a king a rook, and if they appear on their proper places, allow castling. The main concern whether or not it complicates things too much.
Silent Apps, can you please check and see if your Universal update borked the game somehow? I'm playing on an iPad (4.2.1 admittedly jailbroken) and I'm getting frequest crashes. Crashes when I tap on 'Tutorial,' crashes randomly in-game and when I try to 'resume' it just crashes. May be my fault, being jailbroken and all, but if you could please check your end I'd appreciate it. Cool game...like KnightDefense as a puzzle game instead of a Tower Defense game.
the italian title of the game contains the word "sibellino" which is not actually an existing italian word. May I help you change it with a real word? What were you trying to say?
Yes, but it's slang and you can understand what they mean. The word is in the "comment" after the title - as if they thought that "sibellino" means "addicting" in italian. But it's not even slang, I have never heard the word, you totally can't understand what they mean.
Thanks for the tip, this only shows that one can never trust a hired translator. We will make the change with the next update, unfortunately Apple only allows to change the name when creating a new version of the game. There are a couple of minor issues that we will fix soon with 1.1.1., so hopefully you won't have to see this non-existing word for long
Really sorry to hear about crashes. We will definitely check if there are any issues, but we have tested this update quite extensively and there were no crashes. We'll try to find an iPad with iOS 4.2.1 to see if this version is somehow affected. One thing you can try in the meantime (if you don't have a long existing game going) is to delete the game and reinstall fresh from the App Store. Unfortunately, this will reset your score multiplier.
Hope you didn't pay the guy, or not too much.. I read the rest of the description and while you can understand what it means, it's far from perfect. Also "divertenza" is not a word, it should be "divertimento".
