Castalea

How far a die may travel is decided by the number currently facing up. And because it tumbles over its edges as it moves, that number is different afterwards. What was a long stride this turn may be a single step the next. Every move changes the position — and your options along with it.

How it plays

Each side commands nine dice, one of them the king. There are two ways to win: checkmate the enemy king, or walk your own king onto the golden square at the centre of the board.

The rules fit into four lines:

• A die moves exactly as many squares as the pips facing up — straight, or with at most one turn.
• It never jumps over other dice.
• If a move ends on an enemy die, that die is captured.
• The king always moves exactly one square.

Everything else is foresight: which number will be on top after this move? And after the next?

What's included

• Guided introduction — five short lessons that teach the game on the real board.
• Play against the computer — several difficulty levels.
• Online play against friends — with Elo ratings for your matches.
• Local two-player — on one device, taking turns.
• Statistics — wins, streaks and your Elo history.
• Light and dark mode — two fully designed colour worlds.
• Five languages — English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese.
• Assists — king protection, check warnings and threat preview can each be switched on or off.

Installation

Download the file for your system and unpack it. No installation required.

• Windows: unpack Castalea_Windows.zip, run Castalea.exe.
• Linux: unpack Castalea_Linux.zip, make the file executable, run it.
• macOS: unsigned build - right click the app ach choose open the first time, then confirm.

For online play: one player hosts, the other enters the host's IP address. On the same home network this works directly; over the internet the host needs port forwarding set up.

A note on the build

Castalea is made by one person in Godot. If you run into a bug or have an idea, leave a comment — I read all of them.