Homicidal All-Stars is now called Showgunners, releasing in May

Homicidal All-Stars, the turn-based strategy game set inside a dystopian, Running Man-style TV show, has both a new name and a final release date, publishers Good Shepherd Entertainment have announced today. Releasing on May 2nd, Homicidal All-Stars will now be known as Showgunners, and... I dig it. It's much snappier than Homicidal All-Stars, and feels more in keeping with its deadly reality game show setting. And to really hammer home its reality show audience vibes, developers Artificer have released a new Steam demo today with a dedicated Twitch mode, letting streaming audiences vote and meddle with the game's action in real-time.

In case you need reminding, Showgunners is a turn-based tactics game set in a distant future where folks who are down on their luck can compete in a deadly TV show in order to win a chance at fame and glory. Provided they don't get pulped in the middle of it, that is. Indeed, said pulping can happen in a variety of ways - you can either get minced during its tight, XCOM-like tactics battles, or you might get fried or impaled as you make your way around the deadly arenas in its third-person puzzle sections.

It's a fun mix of lots of different strategy games, and I had a great time with an early preview build of the game at the end of last year. Of course, I was just playing on my lonesome at the time, wondering what its malicious host Orion Ford would throw at me next.

For streamers and budding Twitchers, however, they'll also have the option of letting their viewers shape their game as well, thanks to that dedicated Twitch mode I mentioned earlier. Here, audiences will be able to act as their own kind of showrunners, voting on events they'd like to see in the game in real-time across a variety of maps. The devs say there will be plenty of opportunities for them to help you out, if they're feeling kind, but let's face it, I think we can guarantee that this feature will probably end up being used to make life as miserable as possible for streamers, just for giggles.

I should note that the Twitch mode is technically a separate thing to the main single-player campaign, and Artificer have confirmed that your progress in the campaign doesn't impact what options are available to you when playing in Twitch mode. So something for everyone, I guess.

Showgunners will also be coming to GOG when it launches on May 2nd, but if it's the demo you're after, you'll have to make do with Steam for now.