Shell of a King v2.0 Is Now Available!

Super excited to announce that Shell of a King v2.0 is finally here, and with that, we are officially departing Early Access! It's been a long journey, and I wouldn't have made it here without everyone's support. So thank you, and I hope you enjoy v2.0 of Shell of a King! :)

Note that the price of Shell of a King has been raised to $10 to reflect the finished state of the game. Shell of a King Soundtrack is also now available for purchase! Alternatively, you can find it on my youtube channel!

What's next for Shell of a King?

I consider Shell of a King in its current state to be very much a complete game. I'll of course fix bugs as needed, but aside from maybe a harder difficulty or a boss rush mode, I don't really have any future content planned. However, something I would like to add is translations for other languages. I'd do this properly by hiring actual native translators, which would take sizable financial resources. So to help support this, if Shell of a King continues to have new players over the next month, I will add translations for at least Spanish, French, and German, with more to follow.

Potential Sequel?

A Shell of a King 2 is something I'd really like to make, and I have a good idea of what a sequel would look like. It would take place following the events of the true ending, and focus on retrieving the 4 elemental souls to halt the crumbling, exploring the entire world of Agathara. Starting fresh would also give me the opportunity to push Shell of a King's visual style to something a bit more refined. That being said, because I'm starting to feel old, I likely wouldn't start a project of this magnitude unless the support is there for it.

Some Final Yapping

I started working on Shell of a King about 4 years and 2 months ago. It's basically my first game, and I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. For better or for worse, it far exceeded the initial vision I had for a short, challenging bullet hell game. It may not seem like a huge game, but it's become exceedingly difficult and time-consuming to manage as a solo developer. These past few months have been particularly mentally grueling, but I'd say overall I've had a lot of fun making this game, and am overjoyed to hear that some people have enjoyed playing it as well. So thanks again for all your support, and for reading this essay lol. I hope Shell of a King has inspired you in some way, and that my future projects will do the same.

All the best, ~ Rosune

If you'd like to report a bug or get in contact with me for any reason, Join the Official Shell of a King Discord! v2.0 Change List:

• Add a new Shattered King alternate ending obtained by returning to the throne with all 3 of the King's holy relics. There is a new Steam Achievement for this as well

• The Neutral Ending is now more distinct and has a unique end screen

• The Bad Ending is now more distinct and has a unique end screen (I might get cooked for this one lmaoo)

• Pricilla destroying the Wishing Well now has a unique end screen

• Pricilla now presents you with a destroy-wishing-well option

• Not sparing Sthena when given the choice no longer gives the Bad Ending and instead gives the Solo Neutral Ending

• Killing Slider and Zeke is now an act of negligence and forces the Bad Ending

• Slider and Zeke now should always follow you for the True Ending

• Slider and Zeke can now no longer be fought after True Ending

• Chibifi the Magus boss

• Add more playtesters and more attributions to the credits

• Add the yield phase to Slider and Zeke boss if Sthena is alive and Serpent Hunter is not equipped

• Add new Slime Titan poses

• Add some lore murals to the King's Puzzle

• Add VSync graphics settings option

• Add Ultrawide and QHD resolution settings (I couldn't test these, so hopefully they just work)

• Add an edit toggle to gamepad stick settings to prevent accidental changes

• Add more various particle effects

• Add some sorting to the File Stats Boss list

• Add a new Deep Sewers song that alternates with the current one

• Add a new Small Room song

• Add a new song for the Chalice and Throne areas

• Add a new song for Chapel and Chapel stairs

• Add a new song for the Shrine of Silence

• Redo Pricilla's location songs

• Finish the Rock Snakes boss song

• Finish the Congealed Soulmass song

• Finish the Grand Library song

• Finish the Grand Archivist boss song

• Mix the Queen's Pet boss song a bit better

• Nerf the firerate modifier of the Staff of Horror from 1.1 -> 1.02

• Buff Gregory boss HP 18k -> 20k, damage 35 -> 45, Eye HP 2k -> 2.5K

• Buff Sahn the False King defence from 10 -> 11 lol

• Rework the Grand Archivist 2nd phase to have significantly less invulnerability. This can allow 3-4 elemental phases at once, depending on how fast you choose a book.

• Adjust the volume of many boss sounds

• Improve the wall avoidance of some enemies

• Change normal credits music to a new soft main theme

• Clean up some of the Sthena ending cutscenes

• Clean up the Last Supper cutscene drawings a bit

• Redraw some Mobius sprites

• Name Sthena's 3rd phase

• Small optimizations

• Fix a bunch of poorly looping songs

• Fix shadow settings not working correctly with new environment objects

• Fix buggy slime ball behavior

• Fix music stuttering in the Swallowed Caves currents

• Fix Greg's NPC music interfering with Auri

• Fix Greg's NPC music messing up song fades

• Fix the fishing rod cast range not working on gamepad

• Fix rancid bug allowing you to double-load files

• Fix being able to zoom during certain cutscenes

• Fix being able to overdamage Auri during phase transitions

• Fix many visual bugs

• Fix some weird behavior with the Disable Item Visuals setting

• Many other bug fixes

• Various Internal changes