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# Jason Rohrer is microdosing chess
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/jason-rohrer-is-microdosing-chess/
- Published: 2026-10-15T18:01:44.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-15T18:01:44.000Z
- Description: The designer whose personal games earned a museum retrospective is back to placing pixels by hand, one 32-color roguelike auto-battler at a time.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: News, Jason Rohrer, chess, Steam, Pixel Art, Chessamphetamine

Jason Rohrer posted [new hand-made pixel art](https://www.instagram.com/p/DdUs2Qqo5T1/?ref=killscreen.com) for *Chessamphetamine*: board tiles and pieces drawn to the 32-color Sheltzy palette, headed for [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4109570/Chessamphetamine%5F%5FDOFAMINMASHINA%5FIZ%5FSSSR/?ref=killscreen.com).  
  
Rohrer describes the game as "a lightning-fast roguelike deckbuilding auto-battler" that "puts the Chess back in auto chess," and the full Steam title carries a Russian subtitle—ДОФАМИН-МАШИНА ИЗ СССР, a dopamine machine from the USSR—which reads to me like a designer labeling the slot machine before you put your money in. It is billed as the first of a new series Rohrer calls MICRODOSE: games that are "Tiny, Cheap, and Deep." As manifestos go, three words is very Rohrer.

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Gameplay from **Chessamphetamine*; the trailer with sound is on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4109570/Chessamphetamine%5F%5FDOFAMINMASHINA%5FIZ%5FSSSR/?ref=killscreen.com). Video: Jason Rohrer

This is the person whose work Killscreen has covered since our first year—[the pre-game interview](https://www.killscreen.com/pre-game-interview-jason-rohrer/) ran in 2010—and whose personal games later [got their own museum retrospective](https://www.killscreen.com/jason-rohrers-personal-games-get-their-own-museum-retrospective/). The argument that a game could be one small, sharp, personal idea largely enters the culture through *Passage*. Watching that same designer hand-place pixels for a chess variant, at an audience size most studios would consider a rounding error, is the argument still being made.

The chess-variant corner of the archive is deeper than you would think—we once covered [*Chesh*, which reinvented chess for the people](https://www.killscreen.com/chesh-reinvents-chess-for-the-people/)—and *Chessamphetamine* looks like the fastest thing ever filed there. No release date yet; the wishlist button works today.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-2.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-3.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-4.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-5.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/09/chessamphetamine-header.jpg)

Screenshots from **Chessamphetamine*. Images: Jason Rohrer

Killscreen has been covering Jason Rohrer since 2010, and the small personal game is still the beat we care most about. The free newsletter keeps you on it.

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