Sandhi | Dynasty Chess

Sandhi is a four-player strategy board game inspired by Chaturaji, the ancient Indian predecessor to chess. It explores how contested histories, unstable alliances, and ideological differences can coexist within a shared system.

Rather than rewarding domination, Sandhi reframes victory around negotiation, restraint, and cultural synthesis.

This project sits at the intersection of game design, history, and political storytelling, using play as a way to engage with complex pasts, without simplifying or sanitizing them.

Sandhi | Dynasty Chess

Sandhi is a four-player strategy board game inspired by Chaturaji, the ancient Indian predecessor to chess. It explores how contested histories, unstable alliances, and ideological differences can coexist within a shared system.

Sandhi | Dynasty Chess

Sandhi is a four-player strategy board game inspired by Chaturaji, the ancient Indian predecessor to chess. It explores how contested histories, unstable alliances, and ideological differences can coexist within a shared system.

Rather than rewarding domination, Sandhi reframes victory around negotiation, restraint, and cultural synthesis.

This project sits at the intersection of game design, history, and political storytelling, using play as a way to engage with complex pasts, without simplifying or sanitizing them.

Why This Project Exists

In contemporary India, history is not neutral.

Dynasties are remembered differently depending on who tells the story. Celebrated by some, contested or erased by others. These tensions appear in textbooks, monuments, and public discourse, turning historical memory itself into a site of conflict.

In contemporary India, history is not neutral.

Dynasties are remembered differently depending on who tells the story. Celebrated by some, contested or erased by others. These tensions appear in textbooks, monuments, and public discourse, turning historical memory itself into a site of conflict.

Challenge

Challenge

What we're trying to fix.

How do we engage with India's multi-layered history when each dynasty represents contested meanings in the present?

How do we engage with India's multi-layered history when each dynasty represents contested meanings in the present?

How do we engage with India's multi-layered history when each dynasty represents contested meanings in the present?

How can design create space for multiple historical narratives to coexist without forcing false unity or erasing legitimate differences?

Question

Question

What we're trying to do.

The Vision

Set on an 8x8 Chaturaji-style board, you command one of four foundational dynasties.

Your goal is not military conquest, but achieving Cultural Synthesis and Diplomatic Mastery.

The mechanics are built around non-violent influence and a complex Alliance System constantly tested by Historical Friction.

Success depends on your ability to use the game's inherent tensions to forge necessary, yet unstable, partnerships.

Set on an 8x8 Chaturaji-style board, you command one of four foundational dynasties.

Your goal is not military conquest, but achieving Cultural Synthesis and Diplomatic Mastery.

The mechanics are built around non-violent influence and a complex Alliance System constantly tested by Historical Friction.

Set on an 8x8 Chaturaji-style board, you command one of four foundational dynasties.

Your goal is not military conquest, but achieving Cultural Synthesis and Diplomatic Mastery.

The mechanics are built around non-violent influence and a complex Alliance System constantly tested by Historical Friction.

This game doesn't ask you to choose which dynasty was 'right.'

Instead, it invites you to inhabit different strategic mindsets simultaneously, understanding how each approach to power had its own internal logic.

The friction you'll experience in gameplay mirrors the friction these histories create in contemporary discourse.

That discomfort is the point.

This game doesn't ask you to choose which dynasty was 'right.'

Instead, it invites you to inhabit different strategic mindsets simultaneously, understanding how each approach to power had its own internal logic.

The friction you'll experience in gameplay mirrors the friction these histories create in contemporary discourse.

That discomfort is the point.

This game doesn't ask you to choose which dynasty was 'right.'

Instead, it invites you to inhabit different strategic mindsets simultaneously, understanding how each approach to power had its own internal logic.

The friction you'll experience in gameplay mirrors the friction these histories create in contemporary discourse.

That discomfort is the point.

Recent Designs

Recent Designs

Recent Designs

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Comic & Webtoon Lettering

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Professional lettering services for digital and print comics, including dialogue, SFX, and sound effects.

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Comic & Webtoon Lettering

Starting from $4/page

Professional lettering services for digital and print comics, including dialogue, SFX, and sound effects.

Publication & Editorial Design

Contact for Quote

Book covers, magazine layouts, editorial design, and complete publication packages.

Custom Projects

Contact for Quote

Illustration, animation, video editing, and specialized creative projects tailored to your needs.

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