Shotgun King: the Final Checkmate cover
Shotgun King: the Final Checkmate screenshot
Genre: Shooter, Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Tactical, Indie, Arcade

Shotgun King: the Final Checkmate

Patch notes for v1.515g: German translation update

Hi all,

This is a really tiny patch, since we didn't get any new bug reports since v1.515f! (yay for that!)

When we did the 1.5 update, we tried to have all the translations updated in time for it, and for the most part we succeeded. But sadly the person was going to take care of the German translation had some last minute personal issues to deal with. Initially we decided to wait it out, but after 3 months we finally decided to simply give the job to someone else. And so we have a full German translation again! Many thanks to Raven who ended up being the one to take care of it.

We also got word that the French translation had a few mistakes in it, so we also took the time to fix those as well.

And that's it, this is the full changelog:

  • [LANG] Updated the german translation
  • [LANG] Fixed a few minor issues on the french translation

Since it appears we're finally at a point where the game is as stable as it's gonna get, we'll be sending this version to the console folks, so that they can begin the work of porting the 1.5 update to consoles. Hopefully it won't be much longer until it gets there!

Thanks for playing everyone, and thank you for the many answers to the survey we posted last week! We'll leave it open for another week and then we'll close it and let you know about the results.
Have a wonderful weekend!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux

Take the survey and tell us what you think would make the game better!


Happy new year royals!

2025 is here and while we don't have definite plans yet, we are hoping to do another content update this year. We already have a few ideas, but we figured it couldn't hurt to ask your opinion on what you'd like to see improved!

And so we ask for ~10 minutes of your time to complete this little survey where you may tell us your thoughts, if you feel so inclined. The survey starts with a few questions to help us understand who's playing the game now and how, and then you'll get a few questions about QoL things, and then more specific questions about the different shotguns and ranks in throne mode, about endless mode and chase mode, and then on general gameplay.

Please note that even if you haven't explored the full content of Shotgun King your opinions are still valuable to us and so we encourage you to complete the survey, and maybe tell us why you didn't explore the full content.

A big thank you to Etilon, who built this survey in the first place.

If you're encountering bugs or crashes, this survey is not the place for that. Please come report those on our Discord, it makes it much easier for us to keep track of them and eventually fix them! Our Discord is also a good place to get news from us or be part of the Shotgun King community if you're interested in that!

We're planning to make a lot of games this year, but we're happiest when we know people are having a good time with our past releases as well. Thanks for still showing love for Shotgun King in 2025!

Have a wonderful year! Take care!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Patch notes for v1.515f: Bugfixes and More Stable Saves

Hello royals! Happy new year!

Here's another patch with a few bugfixes, but also with a new and hopefully more stable save system! This new system was built to avoid situations where saves would get corrupted without a safe backup for the game to revert to. It might still happen, but even then, the new system should be able to make it so you can still play the game at least.

Here is the full changelog for this version:

  • [SAVE] Now using a new save system which should be more stable!
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a crash when Lady in the Tower should have saved you from other pieces after landing in their way
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed phrases with no space characters in story screens and in tutorial not showing correctly
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed CRT shader for MacOS
  • [MODDING] Fixed 'require' only returning the first result of the required file

Thanks for playing! Have a great weekend!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Patch notes for v1.515e: More bugfixes

Hello royals!

Here's another patch with a few bugfixes for bugs that were reported after the patch from Monday! Apologies in particular for the text bug that cut off a lot of in-game descriptions for the Chinese, Korean and Japanese localizations. We realize how annoying it must have been, so we tried to fix it as fast as we could.

If you find other bugs, please come report them on our Discord, it's much easier for us to keep track of them there!

Here's the changelog for v1.515e:

  • [BUGFIX] Phrases with no space characters (notably in Chinese, Korean and Japanese) are now properly broken down into multiple lines again
  • [BUGFIX] Pieces will no longer randomly stop acting at all
  • [BUGFIX] Folly shields no longer warn you against safe Sokoban Rooks
  • [BUGFIX] Knockback angle now calculated before strafe movement with Royal Loafers
  • [BUGFIX] Sabotaging the Mangonel card will now cancel prepared mangonel shots

Have some great holidays everyone!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Happy Holidays! Patchnotes for v1.515d: Fixes and new LATAM spanish localization



Hello royals!

We'd like to wish you some happy holidays and some not-too-horrible family dinners! We know how it is. We thought you might appreciate a new Shotgun King patch. It's mostly fixes, but it's always nicer to play a game without encountering bugs! We also got someone who knows their stuff to review and improve the spanish localization, and someone else to localize it further for Latin American Spanish! Yay for more localizations!

Before leaving you with the changelog, now seems as good a time as any to point out that we have a lot of other games and that they are all on sale right now! We also have a few upcoming games that you can get excited about and wishlist now if you can find it in your heart! You can find all this on our developper page! (consider following it!)

Okay, here's the changelog:

  • [BALANCE] Inquisition bishops are less likely to target Moles and Undercover Mission tiles if other moves are available
  • [BALANCE] Black Mist now teleports you to an actually safe tile even if you are in stealth
  • [BUGFIX] Bishops and rooks will no longer use Tag Team for no reason
  • [BUGFIX] Rooks will no longer use Sokoban for no reason, and are less likely to sacrifice other pieces
  • [BUGFIX] Rooks will no longer use Sokoban on you when you are in stealth
  • [BUGFIX] Sokoban rooks will now actually try to kill you if they have the chance
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug where pieces could stack on top of each other because of simultaneous Sokoban pushes and Tag Team swaps
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a rare crash on aiming with a game controller
  • [BUGFIX] On a gamepad, pressing B no longer triggers special abilities
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed the Discord link on the title screen
  • [BUGFIX] Seer's Orb now positions itself correctly above the boss white king
  • [BUGFIX] Horsemen no longer get buckler and bow when you step on the third Unholy Call pentacle
  • [BUGFIX] Stepping up to the mole as you kill it with Royal Loafers will no longer crash the game
  • [BUGFIX] Folly shields now properly warn you against shooting at a pawn when you have Low-Cost Disguise but a Mangonel rook is about to fire at you
  • [BUGFIX] Mangonel shot line and circle now properly disappear if canceled with Castling
  • [BUGFIX] Sabotaging Vampirism now properly removes blood sucking abilities from queens and leaders
  • [BUGFIX] More precise knockback
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed rendering of kite shields on knightmares
  • [BUGFIX] You can no longer shoot before reloading ends
  • [BUGFIX] King's Shoulders now explicitely excludes blade cards using codex tags
  • [BUGFIX] Moving into an Inquisition bishop's path with holocloak will now properly use up a folly shield
  • [BUGFIX] The correct track is now played after triggering Black Mist during a secret boss fight
  • [BUGFIX] If Lady in the Tower places a promoted rook on a square that blocks another threat to the black king, then you are now actually saved from that threat
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed button hitbox position for reloading the shotgun with the mouse
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug were pieces would appear to slide on the board after getting pushed off the board by a Sokoban rook then saved by Bouncy Castle or Black Mist
  • [BUGFIX] Poor cannonballs can no longer be scared
  • [LANG] The spanish translation was reviewed and reworked
  • [LANG] The spanish translation was further localized into a LATAM spanish translation!

Have a very nice end of the year and don't forget to be naughty next year, gotta deserve that lump of coal!
Love you,
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Patch notes for v1.515: Bugfixes + New Rank Tracking per Shotgun



Hello royals!

Thank you for your patience on this one. There were a lot of bug reports in the last two weeks, thanks for that, it really helps us fixing them! Most of them were pretty minor, and some were more annoying. In particular we're really sorry about the issues that some Steam Deck and gamepad users encountered, some of which were pretty bad. We unfortunately do not have a Steam Deck ourselves to test the game, and the core of our community plays with mouse and keyboard, so we're low on controller-playing feedback.

Nonetheless, we did our best to fix all the issues that were reported, including the ones specific to Steam Deck and controller support. Please let us know how we did!

On top of all these fixes, we also added a new thing that was requested on our Discord server: each individual shotgun now tracks the best rank you've won with it! We were not saving this progress before this patch, so you'll have to win at least one run to see it in action, but we hope it'll motivate you to play the game with the shotguns you don't usually pick up!

And finally, this patch brings two new languages to the game: Italian and Brazilian Portuguese! Thank you to Primo Vinicio Calabrese and Emerson P. Machado respectively for making the game accessible to even more people!

Here is the full changelog:

  • [NEW] You can now track your best rank won on each shotgun in Throne mode
  • [LOCA] Added Italian and Portuguese localizations!
  • [BALANCE] Rooks can no longer protect the king with Castle when stunned
  • [BUGFIX] Tentative fix for a bug on controllers where the right stick stops responding
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug on controllers where confirming your first move would send you to inspect your cards
  • [BUGFIX] Move squares no longer flash at the start of your turn if you're holding right stick
  • [BUGFIX] First choice on level ups no longer flashes when the appearing animation ends
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug where receiving ammo at the same time as you reloaded
  • [BUGFIX] Further refined arrow folly shield detection
  • [BUGFIX] Tentative fix for a bug where arrows kill you when they hit the square you just moved from
  • [BUGFIX] Prevented level up screen duplication
  • [BUGFIX] Bleeding buffs every separate shot from Unjust Decree
  • [BUGFIX] Force-feeding now properly capped to 8 shells, even with Yvan IV
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed piece %hp bonuses
  • [BUGFIX] Mausoleum now gets the leader tag as intended
  • [BUGFIX] Castle, Theocracy, Commoner's Reign, and Heir cards now all get the leader tag
  • [BUGFIX] Can no longer get sanctified bishops' souls with the Wand of Souls
  • [BUGFIX] Extra kings now get leader bonuses during the boss battle
  • [BUGFIX] Removed irrelevent delay after white piece moves when there is no bow and arrows
  • [BUGFIX] Vampire boss king can now properly suck the blood off the pieces surrounding it on all sides
  • [BUGFIX] Codex back button now always shows above card descriptions
  • [BUGFIX] Black Mist should no longer move you into arrows
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug where some achievement-tracking stats were not properly reset on hitting try again on the gameover
  • [BUGFIX] Kite Shields now properly block and get used up by rats and taunting hops
  • [BUGFIX] Castling now properly protects the king from rats and taunting hops
  • [BUGFIX] Seer's Orb no longer lets you cycle through a piece's options
  • [BUGFIX] Grenades will now always trigger Castle before doing damage to any pieces
  • [BUGFIX] Castling now protects the king from bleeding
  • [BUGFIX] Ambush no longer gets the grenade tag
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed the Humiliation achievement so that it only triggers when killing a king by hopping on him
  • [BUGFIX] You can now use grenades again right after refilling them with a disruption effect
  • [BUGFIX] Can no longer shoot after resigning while being stuck in Analysis Paralysis
  • [BUGFIX] Mangonels won't show the targetting line if they're not about to attack because of Selective Listening
  • [BUGFIX] Unicorns no longer charge you if you're in stealth mode
  • [BUGFIX] Plural forms of words now properly reset when switching languages
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug that prevented Sokoban rooks from trying to push you
  • [BUGFIX] Folly shields now detect Sokoban rooks who can push you off the board
  • [BUGFIX] Fixed a bug where Sokoban rooks or the pieces they push wouldn't fully register as going to their destination if the piece previously at that destination was just pushed off the board, resulting in other pieces being able to move to that same destination and stacking with the piece that just got there
  • [LANG] The Royal Hunt's description now mentions the shooting speed increment on stack
  • [LANG] Low-Cost Disguise's description now says "when a pawn dies" instead of "when you kill a pawn"

Thank you all for the support! Long live the Shotgun King!
-PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Patch notes for v1.514: Bugfixes!

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 🥞

Shotgun King v1.5 Content Update: New Cards, New Shotguns, New Mechanics & More



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!)



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 50% 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 🥞

Summer Content Update news and spoilers!



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!






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!




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 🥞

Shotgun King and our 17 other games now available for MacOS and Linux!



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 🥞