Meta-Chess — Live Gameplay
Full Match — VR Gameplay Recording
PCVR · Lumen GI · Blueprint Chess Logic01 — The Concept
Intellectual Warfare.
At Stadium Scale.
Core Loop
"Two players enter opposite Command Towers, 40 metres above a 100m × 100m stadium field. Using a Holographic War Table, they command giant abstract chess pieces that slide, collide, and dissolve — live, in front of a roaring crowd."
Genre
VR Strategy / E-sports Simulation
Platform
PCVR — Pico via Streaming
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Mode
1v1 Online Multiplayer
The Cerebral Colosseum — final UE5 render
The Commander
You Are the Mind
Isolated 40m above the chaos in a moody sci-fi Control Room. Your only window to the field is the giant observation pane and the Holographic War Table at your centre.
The Pieces
They Are the Muscle
Abstract low-poly geometric chess pieces standing metres tall. They slide across real UE5 grass, kicking up dirt particles. Glossy Obsidian Black vs Matte Arctic White.
The Audience
They Are the Stakes
Towering stands of concrete seating fade into the darkness. A live Caster Channel broadcasts a spectator commentator's voice stadium-wide — like a real esports event.
02 — The Arena
The Cerebral Colosseum
A brutalist, high-tech stadium built solely for Intellectual Warfare. The world is split into two visual styles — the sterile Mental Sanctum inside your tower, and the thundering Physical Arena outside.
The arena — black vs white, 100m × 100m glowing board
Zone A
Command Tower — Blue
The Player's Spawn Point. 40m above the North end. Houses the Holographic War Table and Observation Window. Represents the isolated "Mind" of the commander, elevated above the chaos.
Zone B
Command Tower — Red
The Opponent's mirror location on the South end. Visible from across the field, but the interior is hidden — adding mystery to the enemy's plans. You can see the tower; you cannot see inside.
Zone C
The Field
100m × 100m realistic UE5 grass with wind interaction. Giant abstract pieces slide rapidly across it, kicking up dirt particles. A "No Man's Land" that players can only affect remotely — never enter.
In-Game Jumbotron Billboard Advertisement
Shown on the stadium Jumbotron screens during gameplay⚠ This video is AI-generated — created to simulate the kind of brand advertisements that would play on the Jumbotron screens inside the Cerebral Colosseum during live matches.
03 — The Command Tower
The Mental Sanctum
Your immediate surroundings are dark, clean, and sterile — minimising distractions during the Thinking Phase. The Holographic War Table at your centre houses a miniature replica of the board.
Diegetic UI — No HUD
There are no health bars or 2D overlays on your face. All information — Timer, Score, Connection Status — is displayed on floating holographic screens anchored in 3D space.
Floating transparent screens you can grab and reposition.
Hold Trigger → view narrows to inspect the opponent's formation.
Golden particle swirl on the piece in your hand — private UI, invisible to opponents.
Acoustic Contrast
The game relies on the difference between two sonic environments — the quiet interior and the thundering exterior:
In-Tower (Mental Sanctum)
Sounds are dampened and high-tech — soft hums, electronic beeps. A "focus zone."
In-Stadium (Physical Arena)
Massive, reverb-heavy. Pieces sound like falling buildings — not plastic chess pieces.
During Thinking Phase
Minimalist dark ambient — a low throbbing synth drone (Dune / Tenet-style).
04 — Game Mechanics
Blueprints & Board Logic
All chess move validation, piece possession, AI opponent logic, and multi-board synchronisation built with Unreal Engine 5 Blueprints. 32 pieces tracked, three boards managed simultaneously.
Gameplay Demo — Live Match
Blueprint chess logic · AI opponent · VR interaction
Move Validation
3-Board System
Player Board, Opponent Board, and ChessBoardMain all synchronised in real-time. Legal move calculation runs on each piece pickup event.
Piece Interaction
VR Grab + Snap
Pieces are grabbed in VR, snapping to valid grid squares. The Golden Swirl particle effect activates on possession — private to the holding player.
AI Opponent
Blueprint Chess AI
A single-player opponent for practice. Moves are logged as coordinate pairs (e.g. AI: (7,6)→(5,5)) in the debug channel for testing and iteration.
05 — Visual Development
Greybox → Full Colosseum
Three stages: white geometry blockout to establish scale and camera → material prototyping → full UE5 Lumen lighting with realistic grass, neon reflections, and particle effects.
Greybox — Colosseum Scale & Camera Path
Pure white geometry. Establishing stadium dimensions, tower heights, field footprint, and viewing angles.
Material Prototyping
Testing piece material variants — matte, glowing grid wireframe, emissive circuit patterns for the Obsidian Black & Arctic White teams.
Final — Lumen GI, Niagara Particles, Realistic Grass
UE5 Lumen global illumination, physically simulated grass, neon board grid reflections, crowd fill, Jumbotron displays.
