Shotgun King appears deceptively easy and foolish on the floor: take the king from the so-called sport of kings and substitute his armies with a boomstick. The humorous premise belies a supremely addictive turn-based roguelike, top-of-the-line to return round shortly.
The chessboard’s black king has managed to alienate every bit in his military, driving them to modify sides. With no different possibility, he picks up a Royal Shotgun and swears bloody revenge on the white king and his turncoat topics.
Each stage contains a chess board with more and more troublesome layouts of enemy items for the king to navigate, with an finish purpose of, what else, eliminating the opposing king. The participant’s king can transfer one house in each course every flip or take purpose along with his trusty shotgun. The shotgun follows typical videogame guidelines, being simplest close-up however having a selection on distant pictures which lets you clip a number of enemies with much less injury.
On the finish of every stage, you are offered a alternative between two mutually unique upgrades, every one strengthening the king and the opposing crew in several methods. You would possibly select between a priceless +2 vary enhance paired with a modifier that strengthens enemy pawns, vs. a flat injury enhance connected to a modifier that spawns further rooks, for instance.
It feels unusual evaluating this adaptation of chess to different videogames, however the motion jogs my memory most of Subset’s Into the Breach or Firaxis’ new XCOM video games. Shotgun King has that very same type of oh shit second if you’ve realized you’ve got backed your self right into a nook, the AI’s about to wipe out a profitable run, and you realize you don’t have any one responsible however your self. The normal items of the sport of chess lend the sport a wholesome enemy selection too, in addition to a solution to progressively ramp up issue by introducing increasingly more rooks, knights, and queens.
I additionally should exit of my solution to spotlight Shotgun King’s titular weapon. Videogame shotguns are a venerable artwork kind at this level, and Shotgun King’s is a standout instance even by means of the low-fi presentation. It has a loud, cracking retort, and satisfyingly gibs your opponents.
Shotgun King got here out of a 72-hour sport jam, and that model is out there as a free demo on each itch.io and Steam. Developer Punkcake Déliceaux have additionally expanded it into a bigger sport, obtainable now for $6 on itch.io and releasing Might 12 on Steam.
Punkcake additionally has a Patreon the place it’s trying to place out one new sport each month, with Shotgun King as its newest manufacturing. The crew has additionally launched cozy mushroom-builder Shroomchitecht and card-based Civilization-like Rush for the Ages to this point this yr. The builders at Punkcake set a reasonably blistering tempo for themselves, however have managed to ship some charming and spectacular little video games.
