Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate News

Hi royals!

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs on our Discord! We did a first quickpatch on Tuesday to fix one hard crash and instances of the game crashing on launch on Linux and Mac. Now we take care of the more minor stuff. Here's the changelog for this one!

• [BUGFIX] Elusive now works properly with pieces than are blocked
  
• [BUGFIX] Pieces no longer update their move timer while they're stunned
  
• [BUGFIX] Only the first rat hitting a bleeding piece during the same turn gets the bleed bonus
  
• [BUGFIX] No more double sound on pause exit
  
• [BUGFIX] Stun now transfers to morphing pieces
  
• [BUGFIX] Adjusted deepwater description (Knight can't attack from moat)
  
• [BUGFIX] Commoner's Reign now adds a knight to the white army
  
• [BUGFIX] Sokoban rooks can't push leaders anymore
  
• [BUGFIX] False Kings morph to knight AFTER bouncing back to board with Bouncy Castle
  
• [BUGFIX] Monarch's Confidence doesn't give negative firepower for overfed shotgun anymore
  
• [BUGFIX] Triggering Spy with Black Mist won't result in multiple disrupt panels and deafening sound
  
• [BUGFIX] Militia is now properly removed from pawn when sabotaged
  
• [BUGFIX] Seer's Orb attack target is now updated after holoking's death
  
• [BUGFIX] Humiliation achievement is now fixed
  
• [BUGFIX] Finer arrow detection for folly shields
  
• [BUGFIX] Lifting the Seer's Orb's target with King's Shoulders now sends the Seer's Orb to some other piece
  

As usual, thank you all for the love and support! We hope you're enjoying the new content!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hello royals,

We hope you had a good summer! We spent much of our own summer working on this update, beta-testing it, fixing it, and localizing it. It was so much work that it's coming a little later than we previously anticipated, but no matter, it is here now!

Some highlights from this big update: new improved AI, 2 new shotguns, improved controller and Steam Deck support, 27 new achievements, and 43 new cards with brand new mechanics, such as pushing pieces off the board, new grenades, new stealth tactics, the Seer's Orb, re-rolling cards, unicorns, mangonels... and much, much more.

Plus we're also adding three new localizations: Dutch, Romanian, and Vietnamese! These were done on a voluntary basis, and so we thank Thijmen Zuiderwijk, Etilon and Phạm Đức Minh for translating and testing the game in these languages.

All the previously existing translations were also updated, with the exception of German but we do have a translator working on it and so we expect to update the game's german localization very soon.

Before I leave you with the cumulative changelog for this update (cumulative from all 23 of the beta versions that we put out in the last two months!) here is a brand new trailer we made with the newest version of the game, and with the work of our newest recruit, Julia, who is now making illustrations for us! (the queen illustration above is from her also!)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here is the changelog:

• [NEW] +43 cards
  
• [NEW] +2 shotguns
  
• [NEW] added 4 disruption effects
  
• [NEW] improved AI
  
• [NEW] 27 new achievements!
  
• [NEW] Added new Dutch, Romanian and Vietnamese localizations!
  
• [GAMEPAD] Fixed, improved and updated controller and Steam Deck support
  
• [GAMEPAD] New inspection controls for controllers and Steam Deck
  
• [BALANCE] knockback can now push pieces off of the board
  
• [BALANCE] Force-feeding also gives +1 firepower while your gun is full, +1 ammo bonus removed
  
• [BALANCE] +100% Knockback on Imperial Shot Put
  
• [BALANCE] Analysis Paralysis now lets you recycle cards
  
• [BALANCE] Iron queen now removes a queen (need 2+ queens to spawn)
  
• [BALANCE] Throwing grenades doesn't spend a turn anymore and their damage is increased to 3
  
• [BALANCE] Kingly Alms only gives 1 grenade now
  
• [BALANCE] Bunker, Throne, Hunt, Buckler and Dagger now work on any leader
  
• [BALANCE] Guillotine and cards mentioning leaders are now excluding each others
  
• [BALANCE] Caltrops now has 10% chance to inflict bleeding on moving pieces and bleeding pieces lose 1 speed
  
• [BALANCE] Caltrops doesn't delay backup cards anymore
  
• [BALANCE] Kingly alms now inflict +2 dmg on center square
  
• [BALANCE] Small Fry Harvest now have +1 blade instead of +1 ammo_max
  
• [BALANCE] Healers now heal poison and bleeding
  
• [BALANCE] Saddle doesn't need Cavalry anymore
  
• [BALANCE] Jump from Taunting Hop is now a stat you can stack. You have to choose different targets for each jump on a single turn.
  
• [BALANCE] Disrupt effect Stab now only works on king (invisible if no king on board)
  
• [BALANCE] Engraved Scope now has search +1
  
• [BALANCE] Theocracy now needs 2 bishops to spawn
  
• [BALANCE] Wand of Wrath can't be used on leaders in general instead of just kings
  
• [BALANCE] Black Mist may bring you unexpected opportunities
  
• [BALANCE] AI now has difficulty levels which increase at ranks 4 and 10
  
• [UI] new interface for disruption effects (undercover mission)
  
• [UI] All temporary bonus/malus to firerange/firepower/fire arc now display in white/red
  
• [UI] Changed wand selection instructions and FX
  
• [UI] Fright range now displayed in left panel
  
• [UI] Wand selection now lets you see target hp
  
• [ERGO] Can now speed through the gameover animation after resigning by clicking anywhere
  
• [BUGFIX] pikes now work through moat
  
• [BUGFIX] Added a reset stats button in the codex
  
• [BUGFIX] Pieces with no possible actions will no longer shake
  
• [BUGFIX] grenade icon is now hidden when no grenade available
  
• [BUGFIX] Flipping Secret Heir now works properly
  
• [BUGFIX] Codex now displays achievements and completion correctly
  
• [BUGFIX] Healer can't heal allies above hp_max anymore
  
• [BUGFIX] Ammunition Depot rooks will now properly give you free ammo when they die, whatever the cause of death
  
• [BUGFIX] Re-fixed Fool Companion spawning requirements
  
• [BUGFIX] Lifting the last piece with king's shoulders does not end the level anymore
  
• [BUGFIX] Pieces now take full damage before knockback is applied
  
• [BUGFIX] Fixed pluralization of pieces on a few card descriptions
  
• [BUGFIX] Iron pieces no longer look like regular pieces when held with King's Shoulders
  
• [BUGFIX] Messages announcing backups now use the localized version of the card names
  
• [BUGFIX] Strafe shots now use parameters from before moving
  
• [BUGFIX] Killing the last leader with bushido while holding a piece no longer results in a soft lock
  
• [LANG] Corrected and modified some texts
  
• [LANG] Replaced all instances of "bullets" with "pellets" which should be less confusing in all cases
  
• [LANG] Ensured card effects will always be described in the same order
  
• [LANG] Updated the French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Catalan translations!
  

Thank you all for your support, we hope you enjoy the update!
Have a lovely week, long live the Shotgun King!

-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hello royals!

Earlier this year we announced we would update Shotgun King over the summer. Well, we've been working on it! We already have a few small spoilers for you and the outlines of a timeline!

Note that all these spoilers were posted on our Discord server over the last few weeks! If you want to see the next ones before everyone else, then that's definitely the place to be!

[hr][/hr]



Say what you will about pawns, the white king sure has a way to inspire them, and to avoid the quick death they deserve for stealing your kingdom! Better practice some good old social distancing with pawns whenever this card is in play!



I don't know about you but I'm a big fan of trebuchets, even the word is nice. And what better way to transform any old battlefield into a frantic dancefloor! Rooks simply weren't deadly enough!



But I don't want you thinking we're only adding things on the white side, so here's a brand new ability for our beloved and ever-so-clairvoyant black ruler: the Seer's Orb!

Predict an enemy piece's next movement... and lock it down so you may safely move elsewhere!



Okay but let's come back to making the white side a bigger pain to deal with! Here's something fun! Remember when you were a kid and your ultimate strategy was to sweep all the pieces off the board with your arms in a fit of frustration because this f*cking game is so hard to play? Well it seems the white king was watching you from just under the kitchen table, and they made sure to take notes...

Honestly, if this really was an illegal move, they would have invented a chessboard with little walls. Change my mind. You can't.

Also yes, the white side is actually getting smarter, as in we're improving the AI. Hang tight.



And finally, we thought some whimsy couldn't hurt, so here's a unicorn! It's like a regular knight, but they have a horn and they just love ramming into black kings walking a little bit to close to the edge of the board! What wondrous magical beasts!

Wait what's this? A new shipment of royal shotguns was delivered to the castle?! The delivery man will have to be shot for being late, dreadful but it's as fair as the King's justice gets. But look! It seems some new abilities are at hand!



Any idea what this shotgun might do? Let us know in the comments what you think, you might well give us some other ideas to implement too! I'll give you a clue though, this is our answer to something that's been complained about a fair bit ever since the game got on Steam!

[hr][/hr]

And that is all for the spoilers we've shared on Discord so far! So when is all this coming into your hands?

We're hoping to have a beta phase starting sometime during the end of July, and then we're aiming to release the update proper during the second half of August!

We're going to do our best to update all the localizations in time for August as well, but there may be a small delay, these things just take time sometimes. We were also made aware that the current Chinese localization is quite far from perfect, so we will try to get that looked into as well.

If you're interested in joining the beta, it will be available right here on Steam, but please make sure you join us on Discord so we can tell you how to access it and you can tell us about any bugs and issues you might find!

And if you have any friends who don't own the game yet but might be interested helping out with the beta, or simply playing a ridiculous version of chess, then let me point out this is a great time to pick up the game as it's 30% off for the Summer sales! And by the way so are most our other games, you should check them out they're pretty good too!!

That's it for now! We hope you're excited for the coming update, we're having a lot of fun working on it so far!

Thank you all for your support, see you soon, and long live the Shotgun King!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hi everyone!

This is a quick post to let you know we just added native MacOS and Linux support to all our games, including Shotgun King and 17 others!

PSA: If you've already been playing on Linux with Proton you may have to disable Steam Play to be able to play the game now that we have native support. This is a Steam bug, unfortunately we cannot fix it, but we hope Steam takes care of it eventually!

To celebrate the news, we're holding a sale for almost all our games with 20% or 25% off on each of them! Go here to see them! We've also reworked the various bundles grouping the games and made a few new ones.

We're looking at fixing a few minor bugs in Shotgun King shortly, and maybe give modding some more love, then we'll have new games for May, June and July, and then the Shotgun King content update we promised you at the start of the year! Exciting stuff!

Until then! We hope you're having a nice week! -PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hi punks!

Thank you all so much for the love since the 1.4 update dropped! It's really heartwarming to see all the new positive reviews, it makes us feel like you appreciate the work we put into all this, and it's a very nice feeling! Plus it's so cool to see the mods popping up on the Steam Workshop, we're thinking of highlighting some of them soon!

There's been quite a few minor bugs reported since the update dropped. Thankfully it seems we did manage to fix the major stuff during the beta week, so that's nice. There was also some unfinished business on the modding side, so we took care of that too. The patch notes are quite long as a result, so we recommend wearing your reading glasses if you're really going to read all of it. (nerds)

Here are the full patch notes for v1.41:

• [ERGO] You can now read mods' descriptions (or at least the start of it) in the mod menu.
  
• [LANG] Fixed a typo in Bloodless Coups' english description.
  
• [FIX] Fixed controller rumble not initializing correctly on launch.
  
• [FIX] Fixed some controls counting twice or too early for both mouse controls and gamepad.
  
• [FIX] The shotgun and rank menu arrows now light up red again.
  
• [FIX] Attempting to use blade on iron pieces now triggers a folly shield.
  
• [FIX] Restored mouse drag controls for King's Shoulders.
  
• [FIX] Analysis Paralysis now properly pauses the timer.
  
• [FIX] Mod menu buttons won't get misplaced anymore if you spam-click the arrows.
  
• [FIX] Fixed switch back to gamepad controls on game over when using a mouse and a gamepad is plugged in.
  
• [FIX] Fixed a bug on the level up screen where a choice's descriptions sometimes wouldn't go away if clicking too fast.
  
• [FIX] Cannonballs are no longer affected by Saddle.
  
• [FIX] Catalan language was added back.
  
• [FIX] In settings the back button will now translate every time the language is changed.
  
• [FIX] Mod menu buttons are now always drawn with the pixel font, showing the correct icons.
  
• [FIX] Fixed an issue with game mode descriptions when scrolling.
  
• [FIX] Title will no longer appear behind the play menu when coming back from the tutorial and mods are present.
  
• [FIX] Game will now switch back to the default language if a modded language was previously selected but is no longer available.
  
• [MODDING] Mods can now access mouse controls variables
  
• [MODDING] Both local and workshop versions of a same mod will now be loaded up.
  
• [MODDING] Made the mod menu's upload buttons a little nicer.
  
• [MODDING] If an upload fails it will now tell you why and also print the reason in the log.txt.
  
• [MODDING] 'run' function now allowed in mods to restart the game.
  
• [MODDING] Empty mods (no language, game modes nor script) will no longer be loaded up.
  
• [MODDING] Fixed append and prepend so that they wouldn't crash if multiple mods use them. (or any, in the case of prepend)
  
• [MODDING] Now properly allowing global variable replacement for a set of variable names. (check 'gimme("replaceable")')
  
• [MODDING] Mods can now use newbnk, bset, bget, and savbnk to safely save players' progress to a mod-specific save.
  
• [MODDING] Custom pieces can now have custom movement, custom attack, custom draw, and custom debris.
  
• [MODDING] Added "cond_only_pieces" in language keys.
  
• [MODDING] Replaced deprecated function table_from_file with quarentine_req and quarentine_req_env.
  
• [MODDING] Fixed unhelpful "Error in error handling" error message when a mod's code crashes the game.
  
• [MODDING] Added support for custom pieces' souls.
  
• [MODDING] Shotgun sprites are now mode-specific. (load your spritesheet in initialize())
  
• [MODDING] Fixed custom pieces effects not showing in card descriptions.
  
• [MODDING] Fixed the Saddle carry effect when applied to non-knight & non-rook pieces.
  
• [MODDING] Added piece properties nocarry and freelift, they can be given with custom cards.
  
• [MODDING] Added support for custom game mode scores.
  

We hope you keep enjoying the game! We'll be back with some more news soon!
Have a lovely day!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞