Killer Queen is a real-time strategyplatform video game for up to ten players, developed by Josh DeBonis and Nikita Mikros, the co-founders of BumbleBear Games. It premiered in 2013 at New York University's fourth annual "No Quarter" exhibition for indie arcade games. A new game inspired by Killer Queen, called Killer Queen Black was released in 2019 on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch, and will be released later for Xbox One. The game is based on a physical game created by the same people. The game is designed to be played arcade-style by ten players in two teams of five. Two teams, each led by a powerful Queen, face off to be the first to bring the giant snail god home, fill their hive with berries, or execute a triple assassination of the enemy Queen.
Gameplay
Killer Queen is a team-based competitive game for up to ten players. The two teams, Blue and Gold, consist of up to five players each, with one player playing as a Queen while the other players play as Drones. Drones can pick up berries found in the arena and take them to transformation gates. Gates start off unclaimed, but can be turned one team's color by a Queen. Depending on the gate, these transform a Drone into either a Speed Drone, who can move around faster, or a Warrior, who can fly and attack with a sword. Once transformed, however, Warriors lose abilities unique to Drones, such as picking up/carrying berries and riding the snail. Drones will respawn infinitely when killed, but each team's Queen only has three lives, represented by eggs in their hives. The game features three victory conditions that teams must be cautious of: Military, Economic, and Snail. A Military Victory is achieved when the opposing team's Queen is killed three times by attacks from either the Queen or Warriors. An Economic Victory is achieved by using Drones to collect berries and place them in all the holes in their team's hive. Finally, a Snail Victory is achieved by using a Drone to ride a slow-moving snail into their team's goal. The snail will stop briefly to eat enemy Drones, but can move more quickly when ridden by a Speed Drone.
''Killer Queen Black''
A home release of the game, Killer Queen Black, was announced for Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows at E3 2018 on June 12, 2018. The game features eight players instead of ten, with a different art style and online multiplayer, along with additional weapons and movesets. The game was released on October 11, 2019, and will be released on Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass at a later date. The game won the award for "Game, Original Sports" at the 2020 NAVGTR Awards.
