ORIGAMI OCTOPUSGAMES

INDEPENDENT GAMES / A FEW DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

Eight arms. Lots of ideas.

Moody chess pieces. Rowdy animal taverns. Bird overlords. Overgrown spaceships. Quiet neon fish. Welcome to the Origami Octopus game shelf.

Origami Octopus Games: a brightly colored folded-paper octopus

01 / PLAY NOW

Current games

Pick a world. Play online or take it offline.

Rowdy Rooks artwork: a neon lion, raccoon and gorilla behind a glowing green rook on a synthwave chessboard

AUTO-CHESS / ROGUELIKE

Rowdy RooksComing soon to Steam

Chess, but you don't move the pieces. Their moods do.

Every piece has a mood, and the mood makes the move. The Glutton takes anything it can reach. The Coward runs. The Vengeful hunts whoever took its friend. The Zealot charges the King. Draft a club full of personalities, read the enemy's moods, and set your pieces up so their instincts walk straight into your forks. Then press Fight and watch it play out.

Forks, pins, checks and checkmates all score Chips × Mult. Collect rule-bending Openings, survive four Nights at the club, and keep going in Endless while the score climbs into the millions.

Rowdy Rooks key art with the neon Rowdy Rooks logo
  • 188 Openings to collect
  • 24 Grandmaster bosses
  • 12 starting clubs
  • 4 Nights, then Endless
  • Daily run and world leaderboard
  • Synthwave soundtrack
A battle in progress: moody pieces score a Promotion while the move log tallies Chips and Mult
The battle plays itself
The Undertaker's neon sign lights up before a Grandmaster battle
Meet the Grandmaster
The scoresheet after a win: every tactic, its Chips and Mult, and the payout
Read the scoresheet
The shop between battles: buy pieces, Openings and Tactics, then arrange the board
Shop and set the trap
Pick your club: twelve starting armies, each with its own house rule
Pick your club

24 Grandmasters. Each one breaks a rule.

The Tyrant neon sign. A Glutton or Stoic Queen joins the enemy army.
The Tyrant
The Critic neon sign. Each Tactic scores in full once, then at half.
The Critic
The Drunkard neon sign. Every piece on the board is Drunk, yours too.
The Drunkard
The Gambler neon sign. The target is rolled, anywhere from ×0.7 to ×1.5.
The Gambler
The Turncoat neon sign. On turn 20 your most valuable piece changes sides.
The Turncoat
The Mirror neon sign. The enemy army is an exact mirror of yours.
The Mirror
The Pit neon sign. The four centre squares are holes.
The Pit
The Clock neon sign. This battle lasts only 28 turns.
The Clock
The Copycat neon sign. Every enemy takes the mood of the piece you just moved.
The Copycat
The Mob neon sign. All Pawns and Knights, three rows deep.
The Mob
The Wall neon sign. The enemy fields a full row of Sentry Pawns.
The Wall
The Rewriter neon sign. Two of your pieces get random new moods.
The Rewriter
The Undertaker neon sign. Every piece you lose costs you 2 Mult.
The Undertaker
The Bouncer neon sign. Your most expensive piece sits this battle out.
The Bouncer
The Heckler neon sign. Check and Double Check score nothing.
The Heckler
The Fog neon sign. Enemy moods are hidden until a piece moves.
The Fog
The Arbiter neon sign. Moods are suspended for the first 8 turns.
The Arbiter
The Censor neon sign. Your most-studied Tactic is forgotten.
The Censor
The Taxman neon sign. No interest is paid after this battle.
The Taxman
The Miser neon sign. Capture Chips are halved.
The Miser
The Escape Artist neon sign. Checkmate starts at ×1 here.
The Escape Artist
The Collector neon sign. Your first capture of each piece type scores nothing.
The Collector
The Landlord neon sign. Pieces that never left home cost you Mult.
The Landlord
The Heirloom neon sign. No checks while the enemy King keeps 3 or more officers.
The Heirloom

NEW SHORTS EVERY DAY

Watch Rowdy Rooks in action

Fresh clips go up twice a day: Coward armies, drunk bosses, chains that won't stop, and scores that get out of hand. The player shows every Short released so far.

All Rowdy Rooks Shorts on YouTube ↗

Play the free demo in your browser now (Nights 1 and 2). The full game is coming soon to Steam.

Play free at rowdyrooks.com Coming soon to Steam
Critter Cantina: Animal Bar artwork

DECK BUILDING / TAVERN MANAGEMENT

Critter CantinaAnimal Bar

A deck-building tavern management game where an ever-growing cast of animals show up each turn. Seat and serve them—then find out how the drunks mess up your bar!

Saboteur Sasha's Drunk Check: tips and drunk animal effects
Drunk Check
Closing time: bar value, closing receipt and run statistics
Closing Time
Build your bar: buying tables, drink capacity and new workers
Build Your Bar

Play in your browser, or download the offline-compatible app from the game site.

Play or download the app Critter Cantina on itch.io ↗
Neon Reef artwork

CREATIVE / AMBIENT AQUARIUM

Neon Reef

A quiet tank. Draw a shape and it becomes a creature in a calm, musical tank: your outline decides how it moves, sings, and plays!

Part idle game, part simulator, part zen garden, part lofi jukebox, part screensaver. No goals, no score, no timers—just a tank that keeps living whether you're watching or not.

Neon Reef gameplay: hand-drawn neon creatures swimming through a living aquarium
Watch the Neon Reef trailer on YouTube

Play in your browser, or download the offline-compatible app from the game site.

Play or download the app Neon Reef on itch.io ↗
Ostrich Overlords: Fit for Duty artwork

SQUAD MANAGEMENT / FITNESS

Ostrich OverlordsFit For Duty

A fitness tracker disguised as a squad-command campaign. Your steps, water, reps, and square meals become the radar, medi-kits, and firepower your soldiers take into battle against the flying alien-enhanced ostriches!

The browser game is available now. Step tracking uses the Android app; store release is in preparation.

Ostrich Overlords gameplay: radar, squad resources and an active recovery mission
Play Ostrich Overlords

02 / IN THE WORKSHOP

What's taking shape

Works in progress. Plans can change.

IN DEVELOPMENT

GRAFT

BULLET HELL / ROGUELITE

GRAFT title screen: Reyes in black armor faces a glowing turquoise garden in an overgrown spacecraft

A colony ship has been swallowed by the Bloom. Fight through its overgrown decks and graft the enemy's biology onto your own body. Every new power brings you closer to the thing you're fighting. The dead officers ride along as salvaged neural chips, advising you, judging you, and watching you become it.

A developing game with no announced release date.

Watch the GRAFT preview on YouTube

03 / THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PLAYTESTS

Thank You

I'm a life-long gamer making games for other gamers. So if you're reading this, you have my sincere thanks.

Whether you've been here since the early builds, or don't even know me IRL, this all exists because friends kept showing interest, sharing ideas, finding bugs, and helping me make better games. That's a gift I don't take lightly. I appreciate you being here!!

04 / THE PERSON BEHIND THE GAMES

About me

Chris M. playing a video game as a child
Been at this a while.

Chris M. (@AndLoHeSpoke)

Father / Game Designer / Bullet Chess / Writer / Lebanese / Mecha'thun Druid / Golgari / MortarBait / Proxy Hatch / Alekhine's Defense / Haqqislam / Dahshat Company / Jinteki / Anarchs / DnD 3.5 / knights > bishops / Rogue (Black Control) Decks / Urgot / Faust + Zappa + Venom+ / Ganondorf / HP Stack Pyg / Maokai Mill / Bombs for Hands / Lifelong Gamer ////

THE STUDIO

Origami Octopus Games

Independent games by Chris M. A growing collection of strategy, strange creatures, small experiments, and worlds worth coming back to.

Instagram @origamioctopusgames ↗
Facebook @origamioctopusgames ↗
YouTube @OrigamiOctopusGames ↗
Get in touch ↗
Thank You
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