What if Pokémon team-building became an auto-battler? A competitive browser game concept inspired by Pokémon, TFT and Magic Chess—built around drafting, positioning and the decisions that happen before a battle begins.
Coming Soon · Not public yet
Role
Product Designer / Game Systems Designer / Developer
Focus
Game Systems / UIUX / Frontend / Competitive Multiplayer
Year
2026
Status
V1 Prototype / In Development
The V1 working surface: decisions on the board, information at the edges, and economy within reach. Captured from a documented midgame QA fixture.Swipe or use the arrow keys to explore the full interface.
01 — The design challenge
Keep the identity. Reduce the complexity.
Pokémon arrives with hundreds of creatures, types, evolutions, moves and relationships. Recreating all of that would bury the strategy. Checkmate translates familiar identities into a smaller, legible system: five combat roles, stable family traits, five gold tiers and one signature move per Pokémon.
The galaxy premise brings Pokémon and Trainers from different eras into one arena. Players recruit partners, build compositions and adapt to escalating encounters. The challenge is reading a team—not managing four moves for every creature.
02 — The core system
One loop. Different decisions.
01
Recruit
Spend gold on a five-slot draft.
02
Position
Put each role where it can matter.
03
Synergize
Build bonuses across unique families.
04
Battle
Let the team act autonomously.
05
Evolve
Turn matching copies into stronger forms.
06
Adapt
Rebuild around rewards and rivals.
Gold and interest create a reason to wait. The shop creates a reason to spend. Held Items strengthen one partner; Wishes change the direction of the whole lineup.
03 — Evolution as progression
A star upgrade you can recognise.
Evolution becomes the visual language of auto-battler progression. Three equal-star copies merge into the next form: three Dreepy become Drakloak, then three Drakloak become Dragapult. Nine original copies complete the family.
1★
Dreepy
1 copy
2★
Drakloak
3 copies total
3★
Dragapult
9 copies total
Two-stage families keep their final form at 3★ with stronger stats. Legendaries use a separate two-copy upgrade rule. Ditto is a bench utility that supplies one normal copy, with explicit restrictions.
04 — Composition over commands
Two ways to connect a team.
Type traits—Fire, Water, Dragon, Ghost, Steel and others—cross with Attacker, Speedster, All-Rounder, Defender and Supporter roles. Only unique deployed families count, making diversity a strategic choice rather than rewarding duplicate stacking.
The detail panel keeps HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense readable. Starting energy, attack range and a signature move give each partner a distinct job without recreating traditional Pokémon battles.
One selected partner connects composition, combat identity and item choices.
05 — Trainers above the team
A different strategic starting point.
Trainers act as commanders: a passive shapes the run, and a charged power changes the next decision. Red rewards discovering type synergies. Cynthia favours higher-cost partners and can prepare one ally for the next fight. May supports economy; N rewards surviving partners.
Red / Adaptability
Explore combinations. Earn gold for activating new type synergies, then empower a carry.
Cynthia / Preparation
Invest deliberately. Strengthen elite partners and choose the ally that needs a Champion’s protection.
06 — From planning to a working surface
Build the rules before the spectacle.
The source planning had overlaps and a cut-off prompt. The first step was consolidating a V1 contract: 24 normal families, utility Ditto, four gated Legendaries and a seven-by-six board. Pokémon data was separated from combat logic so balance could change without rewriting the renderer.
The first complete interface proved the shop, bench and placement loop. Later passes tightened board proportions and touch targets, while preserving the Checkmate wordmark, Galaxy subtitle and lavender cosmic palette.
Actual development capture: the early shop and bench working together. The later pass reduced vertical travel between the board and market.
07 — Making combat trustworthy
One set of rules. Two ways to play.
A deterministic TypeScript engine handles movement, targeting, attacks, energy and ultimates. Practice runs it locally. Private multiplayer rooms use a Node/WebSocket server that owns purchases, the shared pool, combat seeds and outcomes; clients render the resulting battle timeline.
Player actionServer validationShared rules + seeded combatBattle playback
Twelve rule and integration tests cover merges, inventory, deterministic combat, eight-player rooms, reconnect and persisted placement. Three browser scenarios check the practice loop, mobile interaction and two-browser round synchronization. These are prototype validation results, not a claim of production-ready ranked play.
08 — Interface under pressure
Keep the next action readable.
Desktop separates the board, team synergies, selected Pokémon and market. On mobile, the same hierarchy becomes a vertical flow with larger bench targets and stacked recruitment cards. Click/tap positioning provides an alternative to drag-and-drop.
Battle effects expose what the engine is doing: movement, attack trails, damage, health, energy and automatic signature moves. The player’s control stays in preparation, where it can remain deliberate.
Actual seeded combat, captured from the final QA fixture. Mobile playtest evidence is archived alongside the source.
09 — V1 result
A playable foundation for balance.
V1 demonstrates the complete preparation–combat–reward loop, with enough real interactions to test a composition rather than click through a mockup.
Drafting, gold, interest and XP
Board positioning and bench management
Evolution and Ditto transformation
Type and role synergies
Four Trainers, ten Held Items and six Wishes
Automatic combat and cosmic reward choices
Pokémon details and searchable roster
Private 2–8-player rooms and guest-seat standings
A real shop command turns the ninth family copy into 3★ Dragapult. The interface reflects the evolved form, updated stats and preserved formation.Swipe or use the arrow keys to explore the full interface.
Next / Beyond V1
Room for another season.
Public online hosting, authenticated ranked matchmaking and a roguelike campaign come next. The generic trait system leaves room for regional forms, Paradox Pokémon, Ultra Beasts and stranger Wormhole encounters. Those are future directions; current Legendaries are available only through the practice lab flag, with campaign unlocks still to come.
Coming Soon · Not public yet
Pokémon Checkmate is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project created for design and development exploration. Pokémon and related properties belong to their respective owners.
