Shop Town Dooter Is Out Now
It’s April Fools’ Day and somehow the joke’s on me... Shop Town Dooter is actually finished, and you can play it right now.
Five years. That's a long time to spend on anything. There were stretches where I wasn't sure this would ever come out. There were nights when the whole thing felt broken, and mornings when one small fix made it feel alive again. And sometimes I thought to myself to just release it in any shape and work on something else. And the entire time, the thing that kept me going was the same thing that started the project in the first place: the people on the couch next to me.
I play this game with my family. I play it with my friends. I've played it with strangers at conventions who sat down not knowing what it was, and didn't want to leave. That moment, when a room full of people who were just exploring the game suddenly erupts because someone bought a Mech, or someone killed someone with a ricochet bullet. That moment is why this game exists. I built it because I wanted more of that moment. And I spent five years making sure it could happen every round.
Along the way, something happened that I still can't wrap my head around. People at conventions didn't just play it; they loved it. They came back for the second and third sessions. They brought friends over to the booth. Shop Town Dooter won the DGE Game Award (local game awards), and standing there, hearing the game's name called, felt like someone was telling me that all these years meant something. And the game wasn't just mine anymore.
And now it's yours too.
Shop Town Dooter is a positional top-down shooter local multiplayer game for 2–4 players. Same screen, same couch. (Online is hopefully soon) You and the people you love (or hate, doesn't really matter); your family, your friends, your kids; pick up controllers and play. The rounds are fast, the chaos is real, it is really an easy game to just pick up and play, but you'll be surprised by how long you'll be discovering layers of depth far longer than you would think of a party game.
That's what it was built for. Friday nights. Family gatherings. The moment someone asks, "What should we play?" and with the right settings, you can play it with kids or anyone who is good with controllers. The game is designed to be played with skill gaps when the right settings are in place.
I'm not going to list everything that's in the game here. There's a lot — weapons, characters, modes and secrets and your special Wednesday stuff. You'll find it. And we're going to keep improving the game.
What? No! I don't have tears in my eyes; someone is cutting onions while I am writing this. But IT IS true. This game has been the biggest thing in my life for half a decade. Sharing it with you is the scariest and happiest thing I've ever done.
Now, I need to stop coding and testing... just for a little while, lets just grab a controller and go play the game.
