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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Altus Chess-Archaic Beginnings
Arcane Architecture Limited · Published by Arcane Architecture Limited
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Classical chess plays one move at a time. Altus plays in resonance. Link pieces through quantum-inspired entanglement and trigger cascading resonance reactions across the board. A premium single-player chess experience that preserves every classical rule while dramatically raising strategic depth.
£22.49
Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Casual · 2026 · More £15 - £30 games
About this game
Altus Chess: Archaic BeginningsClassical chess. Evolved.What if the greatest strategy game in history could be taken even further?Altus Chess: Archaic Beginnings is the first chapter in a bold new chess franchise, built on the proprietary Tier & Multi-Dimensional Chess Engine. It takes the timeless rules and strategic depth of classical chess and adds one transformative innovation: piece entanglement and resonance mechanics.Linked pieces share state across the board. A single move can now trigger elegant chain reactions, resonance effects, and cascading consequences that classical chess has never seen. Your grandmaster intuition, openings, tactics, and endgame knowledge still apply 100% — but the depth ceiling has been dramatically raised.Classical chess plays one move at a time. Altus plays in resonance.Key Features
Piece Entanglement System — Strategically link pieces so they share state and influence each other across the entire board
Resonance Mechanics — Paired pawn dependencies, slip-gate repositioning, aura-based mass state changes, and powerful cascade reactions
Multiple Board Configurations — High replayability through varied setups and entanglement choices
Classical Foundations Fully Preserved — All standard chess rules, piece movements, and strategic principles remain intact
Premium Single-Player Focus — Deep, thoughtful play designed for chess enthusiasts who want more than online blitz or puzzles
100 Puzzles & Puzzle Builder - 100 Puzzles of varying difficulty all focused around a 1 or 2 move checkmate; and a Sandbox/custom puzzle developer engine for creatives and those who enjoy a side of puzzles with their multi-dimensional chess expansion!
Built from the ground up with mathematical continuity and rule depth rather than reactive balancing, Altus Chess delivers the systems-driven gameplay that defines the Poly-Logic philosophy of Arcane Architecture.Whether you are a casual player seeking beautiful tactical “wow” moments or a serious competitor hungry for unsolved strategic territory, Archaic Beginnings offers a sophisticated evolution of the game you already love.The beginning of something much larger is here. Developed by Arcane Architecture Limited — creators of the shipped deck-builder Royal Flux and the Differential Engine.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit (2004 or later)
- Processor: 4-core / 4-thread @ 3.0 GHz+ (Intel i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen 3 2300X or equivalent)
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated with Vulkan 1.2 (Intel UHD 630, AMD Vega 8, or equivalent)
- Storage: 2 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 60Hz display
Recommended
- OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
- Processor: 6+ cores / 12+ threads @ 3.4 GHz+ (Intel i5-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or better)
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Dedicated GPU with Vulkan 1.3 (GTX 1660 / RX 5600 XT / Arc A380 or better)
- Storage: 2 GB available space
- Additional Notes: High-refresh display benefits from uncapped render
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
DLC Castling
The DLC had a small disconnect with the castling mechanic on both boards. This Update fixes that issue.Read full article on Community Announcements (runecaster723)Patch NotesOfficial
Small Visual Fix
In preparation for the DLC store release there was a minor visual correction.Read full article on Community Announcements (runecaster723)Patch NotesOfficial
Crash patch
During the DLC update there was a crash issue which should now be fixed.Read full article on Community Announcements (runecaster723)Patch NotesOfficial
Combat Response, King Reach & Match Review Fixes
Gameplay Fixes - Defensive responses now punish only the guilty piece. Shadow, Mage, King Pawn, and through-Gate defense could previously threaten pieces that had nothing to do with the triggering capture. A response now fires only at the square of the capture that triggered it. - The King keeps its full reach on domain squares (18x18). Standing on a domain sigil square no longer shrinks the King's two-square movement down to one. - Match Review now keeps your full game history in saves. Saving mid-match used to store an empty review timeline, so a loaded game could only be reviewed from where you resumed. Mid-match saves now carry the complete move-by-move history, and your existing saves are repaired automatically the first time you load them. Quality of Life - The Play and Observer save-slot pickers now show full save details on occupied slots (board type, move count, piece counts, and save time) so you never overwrite a save blind. Coming Soon: Altus Chess - Urban Play You'll spot a new DLC button on the main menu. Two compressed tournament boards, 12x8 and 18x12, are on the way as our first board pack: the full piece rosters you know, with tighter ranks and much faster contact. The store page is in review now, and purchasing will light up the moment it clears. Everything above is free for every owner, board pack or not.Read full article on Community Announcements (runecaster723)Patch NotesOfficial
The Puzzles Update — 100 Checkmate Puzzles, a Puzzle Creator, and a UI Overhaul
Description: A major update: Altus now has a full Puzzles mode, plus a visual overhaul across every menu in the game. NEW: PUZZLES There's a new Puzzles entry on the main menu with four ways to play. Preset Puzzles gives you 100 hand-verified checkmate puzzles spread across all three boards, from gentle openers on the 8x8 up to the deep end on the 18x18. Your progress saves per puzzle, so you can leave mid-solve and pick it up later, and solved puzzles are marked in the list. Create a Puzzle lets you build any position piece by piece, then record the solution yourself by playing both sides to checkmate. Your recording becomes the puzzle's answer key, and anything you make shows up under Play Custom Puzzles with 50 save slots. There's also a Sandbox Board, a fully freeform board where you can place anything, anywhere, on any board size, with saving and loading. A short "Creating a Puzzle" guide is built right into the Puzzles menu, including a note on how recorded solutions work so your custom puzzles play the way you intend. INTERFACE OVERHAUL Every screen in the game now carries the full art treatment. Puzzle menus, save and load grids, settings screens, end-of-game cards, and the move picker all match the game's look, with one unified font throughout. Quitting no longer dumps you to the main menu. Backing out of a match, an AI Challenge, or a puzzle now returns you to the screen you launched from, so when you finish a puzzle you land back at the puzzle list, ready for the next one. Also in this update: redesigned result cards with clearer actions, screen transitions that fade through the game's key art, and fixes for a missing background on the Game Review controls, and font inconsistencies across menus. Enjoy the puzzles! The first forty puzzles are gentler than they look. The last twenty-five are not.That's the clean version — same content, zero markup, just headings in caps and plain paragraphs that read the way a person would write them. Paste it straight into...Read full article on Community Announcements (runecaster723)
