At Project House, Leeds over 40 games will be demoing, along with 300+ developers, game industry publishers, investors and platforms in attendance for GaMaYo 26! Join us on the 21st of May for a day full of demos and round tables, networking and more.

This event is brought to you by Game Republic along with their Official Partners Red Kite Games, Xsolla and Double Eleven, with event sponsors Plus Accounting, Kudos Games and Steel City Interactive.

Today we are looking at ‘Chess Rancher’ which is confirmed to be at the event, from Grass Grown Games!

Chess Rancher, by Grass Grown Games

What would be your description of your game?

Chess Rancher merges farming sim with strategic chess battles. Mine, grow and fish your way through high-steak challenges where losing a piece means losing your animals!

How did development start? (Were there any key inspirations or ideas that drove you?)

This game began life as a uni project where we took the combination of evergreen gameplay and unique genres from concept to prototype. The added emotional weight of making your animals the chess pieces was the hook that pushed our project from experimental into a full commercial game, where we have continued development through Tranzfuser 2025 and hope to launch later this year.

Tell us about the team behind the game?

We’re a small but diverse indie team based in Manchester, jumping head-on into the industry after graduating from our Master’s course. The studio was formed to continue developing Chess Rancher, with our win of Game Republic’s Best Game Design 2025 award reinforcing our drive. We have a ground-level approach to development, collaborating closely with our player community to shape and refine a polished final experience.

What kind of experiences do you hope to bring players?

We want players to immerse themselves in the comfortable, long-term planning of the farm phase contrasting the tense chess battles where every animal, move, and victory matters. Our goal is to create a product that welcomes players of all skill levels, while offering enough depth beneath the surface to keep everyone hooked.