A blood-thirsty video game that encouraged players to take part in a school shooting has been pulled by the publisher after it triggered a furious backlash.

'Active Shooter' was marketed on its ability to allow players to take on the role of a gunman on a murderous rampage inside a school, as well as a SWAT team member trying to stop the bloodshed.

As the lone gunman, players would be shown a tally of the number of civilians and police officers they managed to kill during their simulated shooting spree.

Anti-gun violence charity Infer Trust described the game as 'horrendous' and in 'bad taste' given the recent mass shootings in the US.

An online petition calling for the game to be scrapped gained more than 194,700 signatures.

In response to the backlash, Valve – the company behind the Steam online games marketplace, where Active Shooter was due to launch on June 6 – has dropped the title.

Players in 'Active Shooter' were set to be shown a tally of the number of civilians and police officers killed during their simulated school shooting spree. However, the distributor for the controversial video game has since pulled the title

In a statement, Valve said: ‘This developer and publisher is, in fact, a person calling himself Ata Berdiyev, who had previously been removed last fall when he was operating as “[bc]Interactive” and “Elusive Team”.

‘Ata is a troll, with a history of customer abuse, publishing copyrighted material, and user review manipulation.

‘His subsequent return under new business names was a fact that came to light as we investigated the controversy around his upcoming title. We are not going to do business with people who act like this towards our customers or Valve.

'The broader conversation about Steam's content policies is one that we'll be addressing soon.'

In response to the decision to pull Active Shooter, the publisher, who used the name Arthur Belkin in correspondence, told the BBC: 'Ata is my good friend, but past games I've created are mine.

'I'm still waiting for Steam's reply regarding the whole topic.'

The developer had previously promised to add a ‘civilian survival mode’ shortly after the launch of Active Shooter, which would challenge players to survive for as long as possible inside a school environment with a gunman on the loose.

Plans to add children into the virtual school environment were also discussed by the developer in the forums for the game.

Anti-gun violence charity Infer Trust told the BBC: ‘It's in very bad taste.

'There have been 22 school shootings in the US since the beginning of this year.

The developer had promised to add a ‘civilian survival mode’ after launch, which would challenge players to survive for as long as possible inside an active school shooting

'Active Shooter' was designed to also enable players to take on the role of a SWAT team member tasked with trying to stop an ongoing school shooting

‘It is horrendous. Why would anybody think it's a good idea to market something violent like that, and be completely insensitive to the deaths of so many children?

‘We're appalled that the game is being marketed.’

The controversial video game was set to launch less than a month after 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed eight students and two substitute teachers with a shotgun in Santa Fe High School, Texas.

Following the shooting in Santa Fe, Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick blamed the creators of violent video games and films for promoting a ‘violent culture where we’ve devalued life’.

Patrick told ABC News: 'Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that students are desensitized to violence, have lost empathy for their victims by watching hours and hours of violent video games.'

WORST SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN THE LAST 20 YEARS The bloodshed in Florida was the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at U.S. schools and colleges. Below are some of the worst U.S. school shootings in the last 20 years. BENTON, Kentucky, Jan. 23, 2018 - Gabe Parker, 15, kills two fellow students, both also 15, at Marshall County High School in western Kentucky with a pistol and wounds 14 others. Four other high schoolers suffered non-gunshot wounds in the ensuing panic. AZTEC, New Mexico, Dec. 7, 2017 - William Atchison, a 21-year-old man, disguised as a student enters the local high school, kills two students and then shoots himself to death. SAN BERNARDINO, California, April 10, 2017 - Cedric Anderson dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing his estranged wife at North Park Elementary School where she worked. An 8-year-old student is also shot to death. ROSEBURG, Oregon, Oct. 1, 2015 - Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, opens fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College, killing nine people before he is shot dead by police. MARYSVILLE, Washington, Oct. 24, 2014 - Freshman student Jaylen Fryberg, 15, at Marysville-Pilchuck High School fatally wounds four students in the cafeteria before killing himself. SANTA MONICA, California, June 7, 2013 - A onetime digital media student, John Zawahri, 23, fatally shoots his father and brother, sets their house on fire, and then kills three people at Santa Monica College. The gunman kills himself. NEWTOWN, Connecticut, Dec. 14, 2012 - Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shoots his mother, then kills 20 children and six adults before killing himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It was the deadliest mass shooting at either a high school or grade school in US history and prompted renewed debate about gun control in the United States. OAKLAND, California, April 2, 2012 - One L Goh, a former nursing student, kills seven people and wounds three at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college. CHARDON, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2012 - Seventeen-year-old student Thomas 'T.J' Lane at Chardon High School kills three students and wounds three in school cafeteria. He received three life sentences on March 19, 2013. In 2014, Lane, along with two other inmates, escaped from Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, but he was recaptured the following day. HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, Feb. 12, 2010 - Amy Bishop, a biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville opens fire during a staff meeting, killing three faculty members and wounding three. DEKALB, Illinois, Feb. 14, 2008 - Steve Kazmierczak, a former graduate student, kills five students and wounds 16 at Northern Illinois University before taking his own life. BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, Feb. 8, 2008 - Nursing student Latina Williams at Louisiana Technical College kills two classmates and herself in a classroom. BLACKSBURG, Virginia, April 16, 2007 - Gunman Seung-Hui Cho slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech. At the time it was the deadliest shooting carried out by a single gunman in US history. NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania, Oct. 2, 2006 - Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot eight out of 10 girls, killing five in a one-room Amish schoolhouse, before killing himself. SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia, Sept. 2, 2006 - 49-year-old Douglas Pennington shoots himself and his two sons Logan, 26, and Benjamin, 24, to death during a visit to the campus of Shepherd University. RED LAKE INDIAN RESERVATION, Minnesota, March 21, 2005 - A 16-year-old high school student Jeffrey Weise, kills seven people including his grandfather, a tribal police officer, and wounds several others in a shooting rampage after killing two people off-campus. He then kills himself. COLD SPRING, Minnesota, Sept. 24, 2003 - Fifteen-year-old student John Jason McLaughlin, fatally shoots a freshman and a senior at Rocori High School. TUCSON, Arizona, Oct. 29, 2002 - Failing student Robert S Flores Jr, 41, shoots and kills three professors and then himself at the University of Arizona School of Nursing. GRUNDY, Virginia, Jan. 16, 2002 - Nigerian immigrant Peter Odighizuwa, a recently dismissed graduate student aged 41, kills a dean, a professor and a student at the Appalachian School of Law and wounds three others. SANTEE, California, March 5, 2001 - Charles Andrew Williams, a student at Santana High School kills two students, wounds 13. He is currently serving life in prison. LITTLETON, Colorado, April 20, 1999 - Two teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold rampage through Columbine High School, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before killing themselves. The personal journals of the duo document that they wanted their actions to rival that of the Oklahoma City bombing. JONESBORO, Arkansas, March 24, 1998 - Two boys Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, fire on their middle school from woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 11 others. Advertisement

The developer behind Active Shooter, known via the moniker ‘ACID’ on the Steam online store, published a statement in response to the backlash earlier this week.

‘Since this games storefront has been live, I have been stormed with accusations and heavy critics from people across the globe,’ it read.

The developer claimed the game would not ‘promote any sort of violence’ before highlighting the description of the title as a ‘dynamic SWAT simulator’.

Active Shooter is scheduled to launch on the Steam video game store worldwide on June 6. The developer has not confirmed whether the content will be altered following the backlash