Suspected White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooter Had a Steam Game That Nobody Played
- Sagar Mankar
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
A man arrested at the 2025 White House Correspondents' Dinner had previously released an indie video game on Steam that received almost no attention during its seven-year existence on the platform.
Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California, was taken into custody on the night of April 26, 2025, after allegedly opening fire near a security checkpoint outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.
One Secret Service agent was shot at close range but was saved by a bulletproof vest. President Trump was escorted away by Secret Service agents and later posted on Truth Social that Allen "has been apprehended," calling him a "lone wolf whack job."
As people began digging into Allen's background in the hours that followed, his Steam profile surfaced and quickly became a point of fascination for the gaming community.
The Game: Bohrdom
Allen released a game called Bohrdom on Steam back in December 2018. According to the Los Angeles Times, he had even registered a trademark for it in 2019. The game's own Steam description gives a sense of what it is:
"This is technically a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality. Alternatively, think of it as a hybrid of a bullet hell and a racing game, with the inclusion of self-propelled pinballs. If you love chemistry or physics, you'll probably enjoy this. If you hate chemistry or physics... you'll still probably enjoy this."
It is, in short, a multiplayer electron-and-nucleus fighting game that leans more into educational design than competitive gameplay. The game listed support for up to 13-player multiplayer and was priced at just $2 on Steam.
For years, it sat in almost complete obscurity. As per SteamDB data, Bohrdom's all-time peak concurrent player count sat at just one or two throughout its entire lifespan. On release in 2018, the peak barely hit two players. Before the night of April 26, 2025, it had collected only two user reviews in total.
Once Allen's identity became public, Bohrdom's Steam page saw a sudden and chaotic surge of activity. The game's discussion forums quickly turned into a hub for political commentary and meme-making.
By the following day, the numbers told their own story:
Bohrdom went from 2 reviews to over 134 user reviews
The overall rating shifted to a "Mixed" 50/50 split
The Steam discussion board filled up with 10 pages of new threads
The concurrent player peak hit 22
Many of the latest reviews came from players with less than 30 minutes of playtime. The top-rated review on Steam says:
"When I'm in a "weirdest way to get publicity for my game" competition and my opponent is this developer."
"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. With a bit more time and thought, I think the lone developer may have achieved their aims. It was a good attempt, but better luck next time. I look forward to this developers next project, whenever that appears. Probably in about 25 years to life."
"Real boring, makes you feel like bringing a rifle to a press correspondence dinner."
"Man these marketing campaigns are getting more complex everyday."
"This game is really a miss. As a shooter, it seriously fails. Also buying it might make you an accessory after the fact. If it gets enough sales, will it pay for his legal defense? Also no joke the game is VERY scuffed."
"The game is much of a failure as Cole Allen is an assassin."
"This game plays well on Steam Deck, the only target the author managed to hit. Everything else just misses the mark. Bohrdom doesn’t just lean into boredom—it fully commits to it. It pulls the proverbial trigger and keeps going. The game overall seems very poorly planned out and I did not appreciate being forced into the tutorial. The music is not great either. Overall, Bohrdom is not going to blow you away. Buy it 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."
"Abandon ware, dev abandoned the game recently as he decided to try a different career. However he also failed in that career. I will be refunding."
It is worth noting that Bohrdom appears to have since been delisted for purchase, though its Steam page remained live at the time of reporting.
Who Was Allen?
On LinkedIn, Allen described himself as a "Mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth." He held a degree from Caltech and had been working part-time as a teacher for a test prep and tutoring company called C2, which, according to CNN, had awarded him "Teacher of the Month" as recently as December 2024.
His LinkedIn page also detailed how much work had gone into Bohrdom. He stated that he had "designed and built the C++-based video game Bohrdom, including several custom musical pieces and over seven hundred and fifty custom graphics," and that he "formulated and wrote Bohrdom's advanced 2D elastic collision physics engine, including custom collision detection functions and the capability to accurately resolve rotational components of collisions."
Beyond Bohrdom, Allen had also been working on a second game with the working title "First Law," described as a top-down shooter and RPG built around realistic 2D physics-based space combat. It was previously known by the names Artifact and then Endgame, and had not been released publicly.
A Familiar Pattern
This is not the first time an accused perpetrator of political violence in the United States has had a visible gaming footprint. Suspected Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson had over 2,000 hours logged in Sea of Thieves on Steam, which drew similar public scrutiny at the time.
In Allen's case, there is nothing in Bohrdom itself that points to motive or ideology. The game is, by most accounts, a quirky and technically ambitious passion project that never found its audience.
Allen is expected to face federal charges including use of a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, according to the BBC, citing U.S. Attorney for Washington Jeanine Pirro.