Horror game of chance Buckshot Roulette becomes another indie success of 2024, with 6k concurrent players and counting
Buckshot Roulette is a new horror game by Estonian solo developer Mike Klubnika, known for his experimental titles. It offers a terrifying twist on a game of Russian roulette, which, in combination with additional mechanics, creates a strong hook.
Buckshot Roulette replaces the classic six-round revolver with a 12-gauge shotgun. Players have to engage in a deadly tabletop game with an AI dealer, also using various items to gain an advantage in the run. The title is focused on relatively small sessions with high replayability.
Klubnika originally released Buckshot Roulette on itch.io back in December. On April 4, version 1.2 launched on Steam, attracting a new wave of players and offering new features such as online leaderboard and gamepad support. The developer also plans to add a multiplayer mode in the future.
Published by Critical Reflex, Buckshot Roulette received positive reviews from critics, with an average Metascore of 86.
Player reception has also been great so far. At the time of writing this, Buckshot Roulette has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam, with 97% of the 2,145 user reviews being positive. For comparison, Klubnika’s previous release on the platform, free collection of five small horror titles Unsorted Horror, only has 877 reviews (also 97% positive).
According to SteamDB, Buckshot Roulette has already peaked at 6,321 concurrent players, and the number continue to grow. This is a solid start for a small indie title priced just $2.99 (currently 10% off).
This also makes it Critical Reflex’s biggest launch on Steam by a wide margin. The closest title is ORX (925 CCU), followed by Outcast Tales: The First Journey (631 CCU), and Teleforum (230 CCU).
Upon its Steam launch, Buckshot Roulette peaked over 75k viewers on Twitch. According to SullyGnome, English was the top language used in more than half of all live streams. It is followed by Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and German.
Mike Klubnika is an enigmatic indie developer and musician, who has been making experimental games for years now. All of his projects, including puzzle horror titles Carbon Steel and The Other Side, are available on his itch.io page.
