Developed by indie studio Millions of Monsters, Chess Arena takes the logic of chess and rebuilds it from the ground up as a fast-paced, real-time strategy experience.
At its core is a 40-player battle royale mode where every player starts as a King. Instead of turn-based play, pieces operate on cooldowns, the board constantly shrinks, and chaotic fights break out until only one King remains. Beyond the battle royale mode, the game also offers competitive 1v1 matches, a fast-paced 4-player King of the Hill, and a solo Survival mode focused on lasting as long as possible.
Each player picks a champion: unique characters with their own ability kits, ultimates, and passive skills. Outside of the mechanics, there’s a full progression layer: skins, banners, battle passes, spawn platforms, and cosmetic customization at every level.
So it’s chess, but the kind that makes sense on a streaming screen, and that part matters a lot. Chess Arena was co-founded by Alexandra Botez, an international chess master, Twitch personality, and one of the most recognized chess creators in the world, with over 4 million followers across platforms. She’s described the concept as:
“Fortnite and chess having a baby”
That framing tells you everything about who this game is for: people who love chess, people who’ve never touched it, and everyone in between.
Behind the vision are Kartik Trehan, Founder & CEO, and Peet Cooper, Co-founder & Creative Director: two industry veterans who brought the experience and direction to make it real. N-iX Games worked directly alongside their team as a co-development partner, helping turn that idea into an actual game.
Peet Cooper, the Creative Director for Chess Arena, brings over 30 years of industry experience, including time at Blizzard and Riot Games. That background shaped how the project ran: sharp pipeline thinking, a precise eye for what each asset needed at each stage, and fast decisions over premature polish. Our artists matched that standard and kept pace throughout. The creative direction Peet Cooper set was intentionally open, leaving room for a constant flow of ideas from our side. Our concept artists worked within that space to produce a wide range of in-game assets and support the overall art production effort.
Early in production, the art leaned more casual: softer shapes, lighter proportions, a style aimed at broad accessibility. Playtesting changed that. The feedback pointed toward something more considered and adult in tone, detailed enough that players would actually want to own a skin and look at it, not just equip it. That shift touched every level of the work: scale, detailing, and how each asset reads up close versus at gameplay distance.
Over the course of the project, the N-iX Games team delivered:
On the engineering side, N-iX Games embedded directly into the Millions of Monsters development team. We contributed two senior Unity developers alongside a mid-level engineer and a dedicated QA specialist, working within a structure where the client’s own lead managed the overall roadmap.
Our team was responsible for nearly all of the game’s engineering, except backend: gameplay systems, a custom multiplayer solution, a custom launcher, and a range of designer tooling built to support the team’s fast iteration pace. On top of that, we implemented a custom ECS-like framework to support the game’s real-time architecture.
During production, the game also went through several platform shifts: starting as a WebGL build, expanding to mobile at one point, and eventually settling only on Windows and macOS as the target platforms. Each shift meant meaningful engineering work, and the team adapted without losing momentum.
Chess Arena launched on April 2, 2026. Post-launch work continues, with a focus on player feedback, balance updates, and new features. N-iX Games is still actively contributing to the project.
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