Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate News

Hi everyone!

It's here! The big update we announced 10 days ago is now live! You'll find the complete changelog further below, here are a few important points:


We replaced the old difficulty system and it's 5 levels (easy to king) with 15 ranks of incrementing difficulty. The goal here is to give you a much smoother diffulty curve than before so that the higher difficulties wouldn't feel as frustratingly tough as they used to.

This does mean your old save is not compatible with the new version, since the difficulties you completed no longer exist. But we hope the various new unlockable things will motivate you to get blasting from the start again!
The game should create a copy of your old save in case you want to keep it for personal use.


The update also adds a new shotgun system! When starting a Throne run, you can select a shotgun to play with, with unique stats per shotgun. It's kindof like a character selection thing, except the character is still our beloved yet equally despicable Shotgun King, and you're just chooseing what shotgun he'll be working with.

There are 5 different shotguns, 4 of which you will have to unlock. We'll let you figure out the unlock conditions on your own, but here's a hint: try to select cards to max out specific stats. Good luck!


The update adds some 42 new cards to the game! Some white, some black, we're sure you'll find some pleasant and some less pleasant surprises in there.

However, simply expending the card pool would mean pretty bad things for the balance of the game, since it means making it even more unpredictable. To remedy this, we made it so you'll have to get specific cards to unlock others in that run. That way the initial pool isn't too large, and you get a nice depth to explore. And to encourage you to explore it, we've added...


The Codex is a new cozy little interface available from the main menu, where you can see all the cards you've had in the game so far, plus the unlock conditions for them! Will you be able to find 'em all?


The update also adds a brand new game mode. You'll have to reach level 15 of Endless mode to unlock Chase!

Chase mode is a sort of survival mode where white pieces continously come onto the board from all sides to challenge the black king. Every time you kill a white king, you get to choose one of three black cards and then continue your onslaught. But you can only have 5 cards at a time, when you get your 6th card, your 1st one gets destroyed. How far will you make it?


We've also added 46 new Steam achievements! Some of them are like the old ones where you have to win a run with a specific combination of cards, but most of them are more original, like recomposing a classic chess army on the white side, or killing an iron queen, or even stealing the white queen!

We've also added difficulty achievements now that we're happier with the new system!


The game already supported modding but we've added a whole new set of possibilities, including new card effects but also custom game modes! In fact the existing game modes use the new system, so that you could recreate them yourself. But we're sure you'll prove much more creative than that, as some of you already have with the previous version of the game!

We still don't have support for the Steam Workshop yet but we plan to work on it. In the meantime, we're hosting the mods on our Discord server! Come join us!


Before this update, the game supported a few different languages thanks to community-made translations. That was very generous of those translators and we're extremely grateful to them for this. However, the update does add a lot of new things so we felt this was a good time to switch to professional translations, especially now that thanks to you we have the funds for it!

But unfortunately the new translations aren't quite ready just yet, so the update is only fully available in english for now. The translations should be coming sometime this week. There will be all the languages from before the update plus some three newcomers! We can't wait to announce them, stay tuned for that!


As announced in our previous post, the game's price goes up to 9.99$ today, or regional equivalent, from 5.99$ previously. It was that or make the update a DLC. We prefered this option better: this way all previous owners get the new content for free and we still get compensated for the extra work with the new purchases! We hope you'll find this agreeable!


Ok, that about covers it all, kinda! It's a pretty big update! Here's the changelog!

Complete Changelog:

• [NEW CONTENT] A codex has been added so you can track your cards statistics and try to catch'em all
  
• [NEW CONTENT] +42 new cards
  
• [NEW CONTENT] New shotgun selection system with 5 different shotguns (4 unlockables)
  
• [NEW CONTENT] New difficulty system for Throne mode, featuring 15 ranks to complete. Replaces old 5-level difficulty system.
  
• [NEW CONTENT] New Chase mode
  
• [MUSIC] New track for endless mode
  
• [VISUAL] Added a proper animation for soul reaping
  
• [VISUAL] Theocracy is now torn up when boss fight begins
  
• [VISUAL] Backups countdown is now visible on card
  
• [Balance] Knight speed -1 (they will now move every 3 turns like bishops)
  
• [Balance] Grenade dmg is now 2 and has its own ammo type
  
• [Balance] Grenade big bounce (2 squares away) is removed, but grenades can now fall off board or sink in the moat.
  
• [Balance] Bodyguard now give knights +1hp
  
• [Balance] Conscription now spawn pawns every 5 turns (was 4)
  
• [Balance] Conclave and Cavalry delay decreased from 20 to 15 turns
  
• [Balance] Pikemen now removes one pawn from the white army
  
• [Balance] Backups now behave like conscription, they spawn on the backline only
  
• [Balance] Percing Truth no longer removes 1 firerange
  
• [Balance] Black Mist now removes 1 firerange while the card is face up
  
• [Balance] Scouting now only add two pawns instead of three
  
• [Balance] Pikemen now gives pawn +1 hp but pawns can now longer attack diagonally
  
• [Balance] Knockback now prevents pieces from attacking you on the turn they are moved.
  
• [Balance] Wands are now limited to 3.
  
• [Balance] Zealots is now flipped if there's no bishop.
  
• [Balance] Ritual Dagger now has blade +1 but lowers king hp by 2 instead of 3
  
• [Balance] Lookout Tower now decreases backup timer each time you kill a piece
  
• [Balance] Pierce mechanic now works like knockback with a % chance for each bullet to pierce its target. Piercing Truth doesn't decrease firepower anymore.
  
• [Rework] Unfaithfull Steed: +1 move range, flip this card if there's no knight on the board
  
• [Rework] Taunting Hop: Once per turn, jump over a nearby piece dealing it $0 dmg without ending the turn. Now also works with soul moves.
  
• [Achievements] Added 56 new Steam achievements.
  
• [Achievements] Wizard achievement now only requires 3 wands.
  

Thank you once more for all the love and support so far! We hope you'll enjoy all the new content!
If you encounter bugs or just want to chat about the game, or discover mods, please do come by on our Discord server, we're nice!

Have a great week!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hi everyone!

We're happy to announce we're almost finished with the first big new update to Shotgun King since the Steam release back in May!

An update that adds half again the current game's content and then some more, bringing the game's card count above 100, from 66 currently, and adding one brand new game mode alongside Throne and Endless.

An update that adds an entirely new difficulty system, hopefully answering the most blistering critiques we've had so far.

An update that adds a whole range of new modding possibilities.

An update so big, in fact, that we almost made it a DLC!! That is genuinely something we considered. But we couldn't be bothered, so instead this is what's going to happen:

On November 14th, all owners of the game will get the full update for free and we'll bump the game's price to 9.99$. (from the current 5.99$)

That way we can bring the game's price to a place that is more representative of the added value, but without actually making anyone who already got the game pay anymore for it. At PUNKCAKE Délicieux we don't like to simply see the glass half-full, we want our glass positively filled to the brim, overflowing even, drowning the entire room in both cleverness and magnanimity!

That also means that if you haven't bought the game yet, or if you know someone who has been on the fence about it, well we'd recommend telling them, or yourself, to buy the game before the price increase and get free friendship (or self-love) points with that person!

What's more, we're even doing a sale from now up to the 14th, exceptionally bringing the game's price below 5$! (or regional equivalent)

With all this out of the way, here is a short gameplay gif of the new Chase mode that is coming to the update!



We hope you're excited! See you very soon!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hi all!

We're very happy to bring you more languages for Shotgun King!! Korean, Russian and Ukrainian have just been added to the game!

The translations were made by Otiel, Trek, Drugon, and NamorSom who we thank very much for their help!

We have 3 more translations which are awaiting approval. They are complete but need to be tested before we can add them to the game. If you can read Romanian, Polish or Brazilian Portuguese and you would like to help out, please come to our Discord server to download them and test them!

Since the last News Post we also did two very small quickpatches, so here are the changelogs:

v1.253:

• [Lang] Added Korean! Thank you Otiel and Trek!
  
• [Lang] Added Russian! Thank you Drugon!
  
• [Lang] Added Ukrainian! Thank you NamorSom!
  
• [Bugfix] Fixed text beeps playing for longer than the actual text in non-latin languages.
  

v1.252:

• [Engine] Fixed an issue that resulted in a heavily slanted screen.
  
• [Engine] Fixed an issue where audio wouldn't properly initialize, leaving the game silent - or crashing.
  
• [Ergo] Restored the old card description animation on card choice.
  
• [Bugfix] Fixed the little pause at the end of each line of the story texts for languages that use non-latin characters.
  

Once more, thank you all for your support! We are working on a bigger update, so stay tuned for that! :)

Have a nice week!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Hi all!

Very quick message to let you know we've patched some bugs and issues that appeared after yesterday's update.

Here's the changelog:

• [Bugfix] Black mist can't be triggered twice with the same grenade
  
• [Bugfix] King's shoulders can't lift two pieces at once anymore
  
• [Bugfix] fixed joust extra turn when you kill a knight with a throw
  
• [Bugfix] killing heir and king in a single shot won't crash the game
  
• [Bugfix] Fixed access to the secret boss
  
• [Lang] It's now possible to add any fonts to the font folder
  
• [Lang] lang file : added font_size, font_line_height, font_offset_y to adjust font's settings
  
• [Lang] removed "depixel" font, replaced with "Terminus" which is smaller and supports more characters
  

Thanks to people who reported problems!

And as always thank you all for your support! Take care!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

The Chinese text reads "Shotgun King now available in Chinese!"

Hi all!

We've just uploaded patch 1.25 for Shotgun King!

It contains a lot of bugfixes and some minor improvements and balance changes. And it adds simplified Chinese to the game's available languages!

We've spent a lot of time working on our game engine so that it would support unicode characters, and then so that it could display them at a different resolution without utterly butchering the game's looks. And now that it's done, it means we can support many more languages. Chinese is the first to come to the game but we have plans for more, more info further below!

We also took the time to add back accents and special characters to the existing French and Spanish translations, as well as rework the French translation a little bit.

Here's the complete changelog:

• [Controls] SPACE shortcut to reload
  
• [Controls] King Shoulders now use drag & drop to be activated
  
• [Balance] Castle now stuns king and rook so they can't attack you right after swapping
  
• [Balance] Castle now offers +1hp to rooks
  
• [Balance] Secret Heir is now theocracy compatible
  
• [Balance] Theocracy and throne room now exclude each other
  
• [Engine] Grenades now explode right after being launched.
  
• [Engine] Surrender now happens on last leader death. It won't happen anymore if there's no leader in the level setup.
  
• [Engine] Taunting Hop can now override Folly Shields if it kills its target
  
• [Engine] Folly Shields now take extra damage from Unjust Decree into account
  
• [Engine] Sacred crown now ignores Folly Shields when you use a soul.
  
• [Visual] Heir animation is skipped if there's only one pawn.
  
• [Visual] Moat floating animation is now compatible with flying bishops and spotted heirs
  
• [Bugfix] reloading shotgun now waits for full ammo regeneration
  
• [Bugfix] Folly shields now check for 3 dmg (not your firepower) if you throw a piece at close range with King's Shoulders
  
• [Bugfix] You can now throw pieces with King's Shoulders even if your shotgun is empty
  
• [Bugfix] Pause is now activable only during your turn
  
• [Bugfix] White Pieces and Black King starting their turn in the moat can now move within the moat without constraint
  
• [Bugfix] Thrown pieces can't overlap knocked back pieces anymore
  
• [Bugfix] Folly shield now take account of the Royal Loafers target
  
• [Bugfix] HP Bar now display correctly when 10hp+ pieces fall below 10hp
  
• [Bugfix] Theocracy bishops can now be thrown at each other, without Castle's rooks crashing the game.
  
• [Bugfix] Exorcised steam achievement doesn't block the unlocking of Avenged steam achievement anymore.
  
• [Bugfix] using black mist to escape a grenade won't make you invicible to other grenadas.
  
• [Lang] added Chinese translation!
  
• [Lang] reworked the French and Spanish translations
  
• [Lang] "souls" has been added to translation file
  
• [Lang] difficulty mode now displays correctly in the game footer
  

Thanks to everyone who reported bugs and issues with the game! We hope you'll appreciate all the fixes and changes!

As usual, all these changes also apply to the demo which we just updated as well.

And now that the game supports non-latin characters, we're looking to add more translations. We already have a few community-made translations that we'd like to officialize, including Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Romanian! Those all need to be updated for the new version, and more importantly they need to be tested by other players who understand the language before we can add it in.

If you'd like to help test out new translations, or that you'd like to propose a new one, please come to our Discord! That's where we're storing all the translations right now and where we coordinate everything. Your help would be more than welcome!

We're excited to make the game accessible to more players all around the world with your help!

Once again thank you all so much for your support and for making Shotgun King the success it is! It's been barely four weeks since the release and we're still overwhelmed with how well it's been doing! Thank you!! ❤

Have a great week!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞