Fragile Shapes Studio announces Beyond the Board, a minimalist puzzle adventure coming very soon to Steam. In this surreal, chess-inspired world, you’ll guide a lone Rook through a land of shifting tiles, searching for answers and the rest of your party as you solve puzzles within a game turned existential maze. Imagine Monument Valley meets Limbo in a checkered universe.
Unveiled during the OTK Games Expo with a first look at gameplay, Beyond the Board breaks the boundaries of the chessboard. Here, pieces defy the grid, puzzles twist perception, and the path forward is anything but linear. No chess knowledge required—just curiosity, and a willingness to lose yourself in the unknown.
In Beyond The Board, players take control of a lone Rook, cast adrift after a bolt of lightning shatters a match mid-play and sends the board spiraling into a new dimension. As you pursue the enemy King through collapsing kingdoms and cursed lands, each step forward becomes a puzzle to solve — with shifting tiles, hidden pathways, enemy pieces, and powerful boss battles standing in your way.
Inspired by evocative puzzlers like Monument Valley and Limbo, Beyond The Board unfolds as a minimalist, immersive journey.
Its story is told not through dialogue, but through visual storytelling, atmosphere, and sound — inviting players to make sense of this surreal world piece by piece, through mood, movement, and the spaces in between.
