Buckshot Roulette is a 2023 short indie tabletop horror video game developed and published by Mike Klubnika on itch.io. It was released on Steam by Critical Reflex on April 4, 2024, to coincide with a new update. The game has been likened to the 2021 roguelike game Inscryption, featuring gritty and industrial visuals as opposed to Inscryption's more rustic and mythical style. Klubnika developed the game in the Godot game engine, and also composed the game's soundtrack.[non-primary source needed]
| Buckshot Roulette | |
|---|---|
 The game's cover art, taken from the Steam page. | |
| Developer(s) | Mike Klubnika |
| Publisher(s) | Mike Klubnika (itch.io), Critical Reflex (Steam) |
| Engine | Godot |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | December 28, 2023 (itch.io) April 4, 2024 (Steam) |
| Genre(s) | |
| Mode(s) | |
Released on December 28, 2023, Buckshot Roulette became popular online in early 2024 and was praised by critics and players for its strategic gameplay and replay value.
The Steam release reportedly sold a million copies in two weeks.
Gameplay
The game involves the player playing a modified game of Russian roulette in an underground nightclub with a mysterious entity known as "the Dealer", using a pump action shotgun instead of the revolver traditionally used in Russian roulette.
The game consists of three rounds. At the start of each round, the computer-controlled Dealer loads the shotgun with a certain number of red live shells and grey blanks in a random order. The player then chooses to either shoot the Dealer or themselves. Depending on whether the player chooses to shoot themselves or the opponent, if the shell is live, then either the player or the Dealer loses a life; but if the shell is blank, the player either continues their turn or forfeits the shotgun to the Dealer, who plays their turn. The player and the Dealer have a certain amount of lives, represented by defibrillator charges administered by a scorekeeping machine, starting with two charges on round 1, four on round 2, and five on round 3; a charge is depleted if the player or Dealer is shot by a live shell, and the first party to deplete all of their charges loses the round. The player and the Dealer can respawn indefinitely during rounds 1 and 2, but during round 3 the defibrillator's wires are cut if a party has two or fewer charges left, with the affected party entering a "sudden death" mode that forces the player to restart from the beginning if they lose. If the magazine is emptied and neither party has lost all their charges, the Dealer loads the shotgun again with another load of shells.
Starting on round 2, a set of items is distributed to each party along with every load to give different advantages; two are given during round 2, and four are given during round 3. The items are:
- A magnifying glass, which reveals the shell currently loaded in the shotgun.
- A cigarette pack, which restores one charge (non-functional during round 3's sudden death).
- A can of beer, which safely racks the shotgun, ejecting the loaded shell without consequences and effectively skipping a turn.
- A handsaw, which converts the shotgun into a sawed-off shotgun that takes two charges if the shell is live.
- A pair of handcuffs, which forces the opponent to skip their next turn.
The following items are exclusively in the Steam version:
- A burner phone, which tells whether a random shell, excluding the current shell, is live or blank, and its position in the chamber (i.e. the fourth shell in the gun is blank).
- An "inverter", a device that switches the current shell's "polarity" (e.g. the current live shell becomes blank).
- An injection of adrenaline, which allows the user to steal one of the opponent's items, using it immediately.
- A box of expired medicine, which has a 50/50 chance to restore two charges, or lose one charge.
Update 1.1, which released on January 12, 2024, added a new endless game mode known as "Double or Nothing", accessed if the player takes optional pills at the beginning of the game, unlocked after the player beats the Dealer normally at least once. In Double or Nothing, a random number of items is given at the start of every round, along with a random number of charges, rather than the game's item and charge counts being determined. Upon beating the Dealer, the player is prompted to either leave normally or continue the game and double their earnings until they run out of charges, which will force the player to restart regardless of what round they were on. On April 4, 2024, along with the release of the Steam version, four new items exclusive to Double or Nothing were introduced. Namely, the burner phone, the inverter, the adrenaline, and the expired medicine.
Reception
Buckshot Roulette quickly gained popularity on Twitch and TikTok, which subsequently led to increased popularity on YouTube. It has been noted for its similarity to Inscryption, with multiple reviewers commending the strategic element introduced by the game's item system.