White House shooter Cole Tomas Allen made a video game and it’s still available to see on Steam.
At the weekend, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly tried to enter the White House Correspondents Dinner armed with multiple weapons, with the apparent intention to attack the attendees, including US president Donald Trump.
Although he did open fire on a security guard, he never got anywhere near the dinner and nobody was killed. Subsequent investigations identified the suspect as a teacher from California, although it’s also believed he made at least one video game.
Allen seems to have been a part-time indie developer and released at least one game on Steam, in 2018, which has naturally garnered more attention now than it ever did when it came out.
The game is titled Bohrdom and is described as a ‘skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality.’
Based on the trailer attached to its Steam page, it seems to be some kind of top-down shooter, albeit an incredibly basic one with very simple graphics. It doesn’t seem particularly interesting, but it’s about what you’d expect from a first time solo developer.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
Plus, given Allen’s profession, it was likely made more as an educational tool than as a proper video game.
The game was discovered through Allen’s LinkedIn profile and widely reported on by outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, although the profile no longer appears to be available for viewing.
Even so, the game’s Steam page credits ‘Cole Allen’ as its developer and no other Cole Allen has come forward to claim the game is their creation.
According to SteamDB, Bohrdom launched to only one or two players, but in the wake of the shooting, its all-time peak player count catapulted up to… 22 players.
Player numbers have quickly dwindled into the single digits within the last 24 hours, although that’s no doubt because Bohrdom is no longer available for purchase.
On its Steam page, there is no option to buy or download the game, suggesting Valve removed it sometime yesterday or in the early hours of Monday morning.
And yet Valve isn’t trying to scrub its existence, since the Steam page itself is still available and, at the time of writing, SteamDB shows that three people are playing Bohrdom right now.
Additionally, Bohrdom has seen a surplus of player reviews but, naturally, very few of them are actually about the game’s quality and even the ones that do mention it still make jokes about the attempted shooting.
The top-rated review simply reads, ‘When I’m in a ‘weirdest way to get publicity for my game’ competition and my opponent is this developer.’
Another reads, ‘Decided to pull the trigger, and give this game a shot. Not the most competent shooter. It feels rushed, and the strategic elements are poorly planned out.’
The consensus appears to be that the game isn’t particularly good anyway, with one review saying, ‘Bohrdom is not going to blow you away. Buy if only for the memes, and to own a piece of history. That is the only reason why I decided to pull the trigger and buy it.’
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.