Killer Queen video game
Killer Queen is a multiplayer team-based video game that was released as a physical arcade machine in 2013 and released for home computers and consoles in 2019.
The original arcade machine version of the game is a 10-player game with 2 teams of 5 playing against each other. The home version is for 8 players, with 2 teams of 4.
In the arcade machine version, there are 2 screens – one for each team, with each team gathering around their shared screen.
Rules
2 teams
Each time has 1 queen and 3 or 4 workers (depending on whether arcade or home version)
At the start of the game each player may choose to play as a queen, a worker, or either
The game is played on a single 2D playing field
Each queen has 3 lives
When a worker is killed, they respawn at the team start point
A worker may transform into a warrior by carrying a berry to a transformation pod
When a warrior is killed they revert to a worker and respawn at the team start point
A warrior may not collect berries
There are 3 win conditions
Military: kill the queen 3 times
Economic: collect berries
Snail: drive the snail to your team's goal
What's Interesting About It?
Multiplayer, where team members must work together
It has relatively simple controls, but relatively deep strategy
Movement
Jump/Fly
Attack
Play takes place on a single shared playing field, with the same information available to all players:
Location of all players
What state each player is in: worker vs warrior
The number queen lives remaining on each side
The number of berries collected by each side
The position of the snail and who is currently driving it
It is possible to lose because you didn't pay attention to something on the playing field (for example that the other team had the snail at their goal) but that information is always available – no game state is hidden or needs to be deduced or remembered
There are no errors, or illegal moves
This is common in video games, where the game limits the actions of the player to those that are supported/legal
This is generally not true in text-based programming languages where a variety of error conditions are present, such as syntax errors or run-time errors like index out of range
Block-based environments like Scratch use differently shaped blocks to limit block combinations to only those that are supported – blocks that are not compatible do not physically fit together
While definitely not a programming language, there is interesting interaction between different parts of the Killer Queen world
Berries provide both a win condition by collecting them (Economic), and are used to transform a worker into a warrior
As a warrior, you can't collect berries
The queen is both the most powerful and the most vulnerable player
Pursuing one win condition is likely at the expense of others
While information about the current game state is visible, some information must be learned/taught/discovered
The game win conditions
How to transform a worker into a warrior
For the home version, the controls (that you can jump and which button to press) – in the arcade version, the physical controls are labelled