Strategy stays at the centre.
The game build provides a playable chess board with legal moves, an opponent and a camera you can move around the arena. Alongside it, dedicated animation builds develop the pieces’ signature attacks.
GAMBIT CHESS / SHOWCASEIN-ENGINE CAPTURES + CINEMATIC SEQUENCES
A 45-second showcase combining recorded Unreal animation builds with AI-assisted cinematic sequences, identified on screen. The latest transformations are shown in their individual animation builds. Sound on for impacts and plasma fire.
Have an idea? Talk to DavidThink ahead.
Finish in style.
GAMBIT CHESS / AN ORIGINAL NEXT GAMBIT PROJECT
The discipline of chess. The presence of a fighting game. Sculpted pieces become combatants, captures become encounters, and the final move gets the finish it deserves.
Created by David at Next Gambit. Game logic, visual direction and mechanical animation, brought together in an original game in development.
THE PROJECTOriginal game in development
THE ENGINEUnreal Engine
THE WORKGame systems · Art direction · Animation
01 / THE EXPERIENCEA familiar game.
A familiar game.
A different presence.
Pieces with character.
Mechanical transformations give the fighters their own silhouettes and capture styles. The rook tears and slams. The queen transforms for a plasma barrage. The king’s battleship gives an earned checkmate a spectacular victory sequence.
A world built around the board.
Obsidian surfaces, acid-green glass and a sculpted chamber give the game its identity. Lighting, motion and framing bring the finishing moves into focus.
02 / INSIDE THE BUILDEvery piece.
Every piece.
Its own presence.
Go closer with three individual Unreal animation builds. These recordings show the transformations and effects running in the engine, with their original sound.
IN-ENGINE CAPTURE
The queen’s plasma barrage.
The queen unfolds into a hovering mechanical fighter, locks on and fires before returning to the board.
IN-ENGINE CAPTURE
Weight behind the move.
A towering transformation, a deliberate approach, and the lift, tear and slam that gives the rook its weight.
IN-ENGINE CAPTURE / CHECKMATE CELEBRATION
Checkmate. Make it count.
The idea is simple: earn checkmate through the rules of chess, then make that victory feel extraordinary. The king’s battleship transformation celebrates the winning move with a full-board spectacle of plasma fire and a final beam. The strategy earns the win. The animation gives it impact.
03 / THE CRAFT
From the first idea
to a world you can play.
Gambit Chess brings together game logic, custom visual direction, 3D assets, animation and a working Unreal Engine build. It shows the range of a Next Gambit project: shaping the experience, building the system underneath it, and carrying the details through.
Plan your own build04 / YOUR IDEA, BUILTStart with the idea.
Start with the idea.
Define the first move.
A game, an interactive experience or a custom product. Work directly with David to shape what it needs to do and how the first build should work.
What do you want to create?
Start with the people using it, the experience you want to give them and the platform it needs to run on.
Make the scope clear.
Agree the first milestone, deliverables, budget and dependencies before committing to the build.
See the work take shape.
Review the working experience as it develops, with feedback at agreed stages and a clear plan for handover.
YOUR NEXT BUILD
Have something
ambitious in mind?
Tell David what you want to create, who it’s for and what you need it to do. We’ll work out a useful first step together.
Email David directly at david@nextgambit.com.au
MORE FROM NEXT GAMBITA different challenge.
