SaaF

CHECKFIRE is built under SaaF, Software as a Fact. This page lists which parts of the manifesto apply to a game, and how the game meets each one.

What guides this game #

SaaF is a constraint for building complete software: the software exists to do its job, not to capture, extract from, or hold the user hostage. For a game, the job is the experience. Read the full manifesto.

The manifesto's line for games is the one CHECKFIRE is designed around: games may be sticky, difficult, unfair and full of "one more try", but no game loop may reduce to money, and failure must never become a payment prompt.

What this means for CHECKFIRE #

The promise: complete by default

Everything the game offers ships in the game. Checkfire Match against the AI, a friend on the same screen or online; Operation Broken Crown; Last Pawn Standing; Classic Chess with the built-in engine and the optional Stockfish tier; the daily operations; the Army Wizard for your own armies; the field manual. No mode, class, skill, palette, board or difficulty is locked behind a purchase.

No artificial scarcity

The limits in CHECKFIRE are rules of the game, and none of them can be bought off.

• One daily attempt per day. A shared daily board is only fair if everyone gets the same single try. Missing a day costs nothing; the regular modes are always open.
• Squad size. Broken Crown squads hold up to sixteen. In Last Pawn Standing the cap starts at six and grows by one every four boards cleared, up to sixteen. You raise it by playing.
• Field Pack. Six slots, because choosing what to carry is the decision. Supplies come from clearing patrols, never from a store.

Local first

Every mode runs on your machine with no account and no connection: the AI, the chess engine, Stockfish, saves, army packs. The game is whole offline.

No ads

None. Not in menus, not between boards, not as a way to continue.

No hostage features

No tiers, no premium currency, no paid speed, no paid undo, no paid comfort. Hints, the field manual, board rotation, the minimap, coordinates, the CRT display and every other setting are free and remembered.

SaaF for games: failure leads to gameplay

This is where CHECKFIRE is most deliberate.

• A lost squad goes to the debrief and a new operation, not to a continue screen. The score stands (and, on a daily, is filed to the board); nothing is sold to undo the loss.
• Last Pawn Standing is built on the fail state. There is no way out and no way to buy one: the run ends when the commander falls, and the score is what you made of it.
• Recovery is gameplay. Recovery Kits, Recruitment Beacons, captured bunkers and the reward offer after every cleared patrol are how a run comes back. All of them are earned on the board.
• Randomness stays inside the game. Hit chances, patrol composition and reward offers are seeded game systems. None of them touch money.
• Decompression through play. Between fights, Broken Crown has the operation map, exploration and the field pack; Last Pawn Standing has the debrief and the reward choice. A different rhythm, never a lockout or a timer.

Data minimalism

No accounts, no analytics, no behavioural profiling, in the game or on this site. The only data that leaves your machine is what the optional daily board needs: a random installation identifier, the callsign you choose and the result you file. Online rooms relay moves and forget both players when the room empties. Details: Privacy.

Server features must be optional

The daily boards and online match are the only hosted features. Both sit outside the core game, which is complete without them. If the service is down or gone, every other mode is untouched.

Ongoing fees require ongoing costs

There are none. The daily service and the online relay are run by the studio and carry no fee.

Honest payment

Pay once, own the game: US$12.99. Platform and release date will be announced. One price, the whole game, no DLC, no premium currency, and no fee for the daily boards or online play the studio keeps running.

The demo: whole in itself

A demo can be a broken free tier, the thing SaaF rejects: the first chapter of a run, a timer, a locked save, a nag screen. CHECKFIRE's demo is a whole game with an honest name: CHECKFIRE: Last Pawn Standing (listed on the store as Checkfire (DEMO)). It is the full Last Pawn Standing mode, the endless operation that ends only when your commander falls, with the tutorial, the field manual pages that teach it, and the Daily Last Pawn Standing board, shared with the full game. No time limit, no locked settings, no reminders mid-play, and nothing on screen that the demo does not include. It is complete in itself; the full game is more of CHECKFIRE, not the rest of this.

Updates are not toll booths

New modes, objectives, supplies and fixes arrive as updates. A feature does not become a purchase because it is good.

Purchased things stay purchased

Your saves, army packs, callsign and filed results are yours. Army packs are plain files in a folder you can back up, share or edit.

Honest origins

CHECKFIRE was designed, directed and art-directed by one person who cannot code and could never have hired a team of programmers, illustrators or musicians. The code was written with Claude and ChatGPT. The unit sprites were drawn by hand from generated concepts; their rotations, recolours, the environment, the logo and the music were made with AI tools and then cleaned up, redrawn or produced by hand. Every tool, library and asset source is named in the credits.

No one was replaced in making this game, because no one would have been hired. If you reject it because of how it was made, that is a fair position, and it was never hidden from you.

The challenge #

Can a game be compelling without becoming a trap? CHECKFIRE is one attempt at an answer: tense, unforgiving, built for one more try, and never once asking for money to try again.