Lone King
An experimental game. Simultaneous turn-based sci-fi combat. Simple controls, deep gameplay inspired by chess. Designed for randomised, 10 minute, low-stress, tactical matches to make you think. Play the first chapters and the arcade mode for free. Support development with feedback.
Developer
Publisher
Release
July 4, 2020
6 years and 29 days ago
Steam Reviews
Positive21 reviews95.2%
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Game contextLatest: IGF Team
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|---|---|---|
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Developer scaleThe operating scale of the game's developer. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Publisher scaleThe operating scale of the game's publisher. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Publisher statusHow the game's publishing relationship is classified. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Creative controlWho appears to retain creative control of the game. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Release statusWhether and how the game has been released. |
Media
30 itemsAbout the Game
Please offer feedback for final release.
Simultaneous-turn-based tactics with a single mech against a small army. Simple controls inspired by chess. Play the first two story chapters and arcade mode for free, and comment in the Steam forums to voice your opinion on problems and suggestions.
Choose your Maniple and give it a single order: where to move. Attacks, abilities, hacking, and environmental effects are contextually triggered, and each Maniple moves and attacks differently. The challenge of this game's design was to offer strategic depth with a simple control scheme.
Levels are randomly generated with random combinations and positions of enemies, enemy abilities, and terrain. The game is designed around quick matches that last around 5-10 minutes. You can instead customise the setup, or just remove game modes, stages, and characters from the random rotation if you don't like them.
- Two chapters are available for free
- Learn how to play while jumping into the ending of one story and beginning of another
- Simple cinematics
Point and Click?
- Return to the station for a brief first-person point and click experience
- Get to know the characters and explore your base of operations
All-Random mode
- Remove game modes/locations/characters from the random rotation
Custom Setup
- Default game mode/location/character can be set
Campaign Mode
- Play 8 missions, one in each stage
- Select which maniple to deploy on which mission. Maniples cannot be reused.
- Conduct rescue missions to save fallen maniples
- Initiate retreat protocol and escape to the exfiltration point to avoid falling
- 8 stages to play on with unique environmental hazards, terrain styles, and aesthetics
- 8 player characters with unique weapons and movement, and unique active, passive, and defect abilities
- 8 game modes with and without boss units, with and without normal enemies, waves of respawning enemies, destroying the VIP, and a testing mode
- 8 difficulty levels that give your characters interesting weaknesses, give the enemy new abilities, add mechanics like enemy pathfinding and weapon lock-on, and increased environmental hazards
- 8 enemy units with unique weapons and equipment like missiles, shields, mines, backup weapons, and cover to block your path
- 8 enemy boss units that are harder to kill and pose a greater threat
- Adds two active abilities to each character for a much needed variety of gameplay options
- Play with multiple characters together at the cost of a health penalty
If you enjoy the game, please consider giving feedback. Your opinions are essential in improving the game.
