Pawnfall

Pawnfall turns chess pieces into a roguelike squad. You build and manage your army, take on tactical encounters one after another, and try to carry it as far as it will go before the run comes to an end.

It draws on four influences: the overland travel and party management of Wartales, the run structure of Slay the Spire, the escalating build-crafting of Balatro and the movement rules of chess. The creator names Cursor as the tool behind this Vibe Jam 2026 entry, which placed 168th of 945 and is rendered in 3D with Three.js.

The pieces move the way you already know, which gives the tactics a readable foundation, and the roguelike framing adds variety from one run to the next. It is a single-player game played in the browser.