Remember Killer Queen Arcade? We have been following some news on this one for a while but I had not heard much about it until I received an email today from Fun Company (who builds the cabinets for company behind the game) providing an update. I thought that the game has been going through the testing phase still but as it turns out, it is actually available to purchase for private or public use.
To refresh your memory, this is an independently designed game where you have two teams of five players have to work to either “bring the giant snail god home, fill their hive with nectar, or execute a triple assassination of the enemy Queen.” Here is a tournament in action from August last year:
They also received some press from the NY Times this past weekend.
I think it is great to see some more independent development happen in the sector as it is a huge challenge to create something like this for the arcade industry. Indie gaming publication on home platforms has never been easier thanks to various digital distribution programs like Steam but with an arcade, you need to build the hardware too, which requires hardware development know-how + dollars and a completely different distribution model. So here is a little more info on it that I have noticed while poking around the KQA website:
Locations – The Killer Queen website currently lists three locations to feature the game, which I imagine will increase as knowledge about the game’s availability spreads. Those locations are Ground Kontrol (Oregon), Logan’s Arcade (Illinois) and Waka Waka (New York).
Cabinets – Any location to grab the game will need a bit of space as this uses two huge cabinets that support 5 players each; a 6-player cabinet is in the works according to the KQA website which might help in terms of limited space venues and limited budgets. They also have some cabinet upgrades available with different lighting effects to give the cabinet a little more spunk.
Getting one – Normally you pick up arcade games from arcade distributors but I have not heard about this using traditional distribution channels yet, so for the moment there is this email address to contact for anyone interested in picking one up; I’m not sure what the MSRP is.
Last but not least, one thing that has been mentioned to me by Fun Company is that they provide services to assist small developers like this in getting their game cabinets from concept-to-creation, so keep that in mind anyone out there looking to jump into the industry. Of course there will be various costs involved in something like this, which I am not 100% sure what those might be but if you have the budget and the game, it would be great to see it join the long list of arcade releases over the years.
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That Killer Queen cabinet had a continual crowd of people around it the entire weekend of California Extreme (CAX). A really well designed multi-player arcade game.