Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEShotgun King
Chess, but you replace your entire army with a royal shotgun. A unique strategy roguelike based on the timeless checkboard classic.
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Community discussion
A turn-based chess-roguelike where you play a lone black king with a shotgun against a full white army, picking paired buff/debuff cards after each stage.
Shotgun King is a well-liked indie: Steam shows about 91% positive across roughly 7,450 reviews (Very Positive), and the store page lists 93% overall at the time of fetch. Players praise the absurd-but-working premise, the card system and the short, replayable runs. Critics are fewer and more lukewarm: Metacritic's PS5 page shows 75 from 5 reviews (Wikipedia lists Switch at 82 from 4), with criticism aimed at difficulty spikes and limited replay value. Metacritic users are noticeably harsher (6.6 from 25 ratings) than Steam players, mostly over RNG-driven card pools and balance. It is not early access; it launched May 2022, got console ports in Aug 2023, and was still being patched through 2025 with the 1.6 Bad Company update and later 1.62x fixes.
What players praise
- High-concept premise (chess king with a shotgun) that keeps chess's planning and tactics while feeling fresh and funny
- Buff/debuff card system: each stage you choose one white card (enemy buff) and one black card (your buff), which keeps runs different and builds interesting
- Strong card interactions and synergies, with many builds on both sides of the board and some combos rewarded with achievements
- Short runs (about 20 minutes) and a low price (around $10), so it is easy to pick up; a demo exists
- Accessible to chess novices and often described as more fun than regular chess because of the roguelike variety
- Fitting retro pixel art, sound design and music
- Lots of content and life: 20 difficulty ranks, endless mode, Chase and Charnier modes, 100+ achievements, Workshop/mod support, free updates
- Developer returned with a large free update years after launch (v1.6, about 30 new cards, 2 shotguns, 5 ranks), which players welcomed
What players criticize
- Heavy RNG in card offers; at high ranks the draws can be anti-player and runs feel decided before you can build anything
- Enemy scaling outpaces the player: enemy health and buffs stack while shotgun damage barely grows, so late ranks feel unfair
- Discovered checks and self-inflicted deaths from firing and opening a line are instant losses and feel cheap, even with blunder shields that only cover some cases
- Card pool bloat: prerequisite cards and large pools make it rare to find synergies you want
- No mid-run saving in a roguelike, which players find painful for long high-rank runs
- Some cards and unlock paths are weak or hidden, and several shotgun unlocks are very hard to earn
- Achievement hunting relies on luck and specific multi-card combos, not skill (a recurring complaint from 100%-ers)
- Some mechanic interactions are undocumented and must be discovered by trial and error
Distinctive features
- You are a single king with a shotgun versus a full chess army, so the chess rules stay intact but your only weapon is the shotgun
- Dual card picks that simultaneously buff you and empower the enemy army, so difficulty is part of the build rather than a separate slider
- Reviewers and players describe it as playing like a turn-based tactics game as much as chess: managing ammo, spread and damage matters more than chess openings
- Shotgun mechanics on a chessboard: firing pushes you back, killing pieces can expose your king, and the AI sets traps with queens, bishops behind pawns, etc.
- Steam Workshop and Lua modding support plus many modes (endless, Chase, Charnier raiding mode)
Divided opinions
- Is the difficulty fair? Many Steam players say losses feel deserved and skill-based, while others say late ranks are pure luck
- Replayability: Steam players praise it as highly replayable, while critics (PLAY, Push Square) and Metacritic users call it repetitive
- Update direction: the 1.6 content update was celebrated, but the removal of the check-tile highlight and a censored tutorial line drew negative reviews from some longtime players
- Whether it is really chess: some say it becomes a turn-based shooter rather than a chess game
Repetition and friction
- Repetitive loop: commentary from critics and Metacritic users is that you see most of the game's content within the first ~20 rounds
- Slow, stressful board-scanning at high ranks when you can no longer easily see which tiles are dangerous
- Hitting a hard wall around rank 7-9 or 10+ where losses feel RNG-driven rather than earned
- Achievement and codex grinding that depends on drawing specific card combos
- Losing a long run with no save to a single misclick or discovered check
Hoped-for improvements
- Restore or add a proper toggle that highlights dangerous/check tiles (the middle-mouse highlight was removed in an update and moved behind a cheat/mod, which players see as an accessibility loss)
- Give players more control over draws: card banishing, more rerolls, or smarter offers so the pool does not bloat
- Rebalance late ranks and some cards/units so player scaling keeps pace with enemy scaling
- Add mid-run saving
- Improve progression and unlocks (especially alternate shotguns) and make achievements less luck-dependent
- Better in-game explanation of card interactions and warnings for discovered attacks; fix controller/Steam Deck issues such as grenades
Launched on PC May 12, 2022 to very strong Steam reception; PC Gamer is quoted on the store page calling it a supremely addictive turn-based roguelike. Console ports (Switch, PS4/5, Xbox) followed Aug 24, 2023, with physical Switch/PS5 editions shipping Apr 25, 2025 after delays (per Wikipedia). The v1.6 Bad Company update (April, anniversary update) added roughly 30 cards, a Charnier raiding mode, 2 shotguns, 5 ranks and 10 achievements; v1.62x patches through summer fixed softlocks, AI bugs, Steam Deck and macOS control issues. Some recent negative Steam reviews cite the removed check-tile highlight, card-pool bloat and a censored tutorial line. Steam lists no Metacritic score (the PC version is not scored); Metacritic only has console scores. Steam-revenue-calculator estimates about $1.89M gross and about $556k net; SteamSpy owner estimate 200k-500k (order-of-magnitude only). Publisher is listed as PUNKCAKE Delicieux on Steam and Headbang Club on Wikipedia. OpenCritic page could not be located; WebSearch budget was exhausted, so the score is null.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (18 each): RNG, removed highlight feature, achievements, praise for card design ↗
- Steam appid, review counts (91% positive, 7,454), tags, SteamSpy owners, revenue estimate ↗
- Steam store page: features (20 ranks, modes, mods), overall 93% and recent 91%, PC Gamer quote ↗
- Patch history: v1.6 Bad Company update and v1.619-1.623b fixes ↗
- Community forum topics: card tier lists, launch/unlock bugs, frustration with self-elimination ↗
- Metacritic PS5 Metascore 75 (5 reviews), user score 6.6 (25 ratings), outlet scores and summaries ↗
- Metacritic user review themes: limited replayability, enemy scaling, biased power-ups ↗
- Gameplay, modes, release history, console ports, Metacritic Switch 82 and PS5 75 ↗
- Estimated gross/net revenue via Boxleiter method ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Shotgun King is a chess roguelike where you play only the king, armed with a shotgun, clearing boards of white pieces. Each new board grants abilities that usually come with a downside while enemies also get stronger. He respects the unique, funny, low-seriousness concept and calls it a chill, simple game good for casual play such as on a Steam Deck. His main complaint is that the board never changes, so it gets boring, and that there is one boss and only minor unlock variety. He places it in C tier (ASR 'a scene').
What the creator praises
- Unique, funny concept: chess merged with a roguelike and a shotgun
- Per-board abilities change how each run plays despite the same board
- Upgrades paired with downsides while enemies scale up, which keeps it interesting
- Chill, simple and casual, well suited to Steam Deck play
- Does not take itself seriously
Issues raised by the creator
- The chess board never changes, which becomes boring and tiring over time
- He thinks the board itself should have been altered, since the roguelike already rewrites the chess rules
- Only a single boss, so the run ends abruptly
- Unlocks are minor: new guns are not very different from each other, giving weak meta-variety
- Small game he is unlikely to return to
Design observations
- Chess rules turned into roguelike systems with extra caveats and rules
- Playing as the king with a shotgun inverts the usual chess dynamic
- Design lesson: if a roguelike rewrites the rules, it should consider varying the arena too
