Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate

It is always fun to see something interesting come out of the woodwork. Indie games are easily starting to rival Triple-A games in the terms of creativity. A lot of ideas are born from interesting constraints, examples include the technical fog from from the early silent hill games, "Nobody Breaks Out of Hell" story mechanic of Hades, or as in this situation a challenge prompt from a "Ludum Dare" game jam with the prompt of "Delay the Inevitable."

What are you to do when the your chess opponent continues to pile an infinite reinforcement of pieces on the board. You "Delay the Inevitable."

Shotgun King's story is light at best. A horrible Chess Piece King has lost all his subject pieces, abandoning him and labeling him a "Bad King." With the king deciding he doesn't need the help of his pieces and putting his trust into his trusty shotgun. Although it is a threadbare story, I must admit I did laugh at that on victory, the game admits that the "Royal F***er with a Shotgun" has truly learned nothing and that the events of the game are doomed to repeat. Much of the story arises from the player themselves when they get into great positions and trouble with the gameplay itself.

The art style is charming and does the job nicely, I quite like the fixed limited palette that they worked with opting to use 4 shades with a contrasting red. I have seen another similar style shown by Youtuber and Developer Miziziziz for 3D which has given me my own inspiration for a project I am working on currently. Although a CRT filter is not for everyone I found the extra depth it granted to the fixed colour palette rather pleasing, although the option to remove it has also been provided. I also like that although it is a 2D game it is rather cute seeing chunks of enemy pieces falling off the chessboard into the abyss.

Chess is an Iconic game, With pieces moving exactly as you would expect it makes the AI's movements and strategies instantly recognizable to those who know how to play. You begin to learn how to utilize the power the power, range, firing arch and can additionally add both knockback and piercing stats. One of my favourite builds being a set where I was knocking back myself and enemy's with each shot of a massive firing arc. It also gives fun opportunities where eliminating pieces will put you at risk of other pieces, the realization hits hard and the run is finished prematurely. Defeating their king, No matter the pieces remaining on the board grants you victory allowing you to perform some clutch maneuvers at times which is immensely satisfying especially when killed foes grant you their "soul" allowing you to move into advantageous positions.

With each additional round you are presented with a choice granting you black and white cards giving you both a method to buff yourself and the army against you.
There is a fun balancing act of doing damage control and trying to outweigh the benefits from the risk's. The idea of "Picking Your Poison" comes to mind when a great buff gets paired with a not so great debuff. Boons include increases to stats with other more specific ones like giving you the ability to move an extra tile when an enemy knight exists and risks that compile into large webs of caveats from adding extra enemy pieces to the extreme of removing the king entirely and making all the bishops into your targets (Named Theocracy.) Resulting in some incredibly fun and compelling combinations that get you hooked game after game. Although with randomness does come the ugly situation where you just have games where you are delt an incredibly bad hand and have to make the most of it, however the opposite creates a satisfying "God Run" where everything just falls into place. The sound effects seem to have used a sort of 8bit type aesthetic, with the music taking a ominous almost warlike drumbeat with synths. While my musical ability is next to nothing all I can say is I enjoy the music with highlights on the victory and the ominous theme of the game over screen.

Shotgun King has a lot of heart and the folks at PUNKCAKE Délicieux deserve some of your attention for the work they have done with a free demo available. Although appearing to take a Hiatus throughout the year of 2023 to maintain their current library, I am looking forward to see their return for 2024. If you are a big fan of chess or interesting indie game experiences, Go check out Shotgun King.

This is my first post, I would love to continue to push these out. If you are seeing this that means you are a member and I am super greatful for your support.

I will continue to create content and hope to make something everyone can enjoy!

Goodnight all!

-Nathaniel