Across the world of indie games, Kingdom stands out for its contemplative take on the strategy genre and its distinctive visual style. At the core of Kingdom’s development was a collaboration between Thomas van den Berg from Amsterdam and Marco Bancale, an Iceland-based developer. Together, their efforts helped create a series that would attract millions of players.
An understated approach to strategy
Originally released as a Flash title in 2013, Kingdom’s full version arrived for Windows, macOS and Linux on 21 October 2015. Its gameplay is as much about restraint as about action. Players take on the role of a randomly generated monarch, king or queen, who rides through a two-dimensional pixel landscape. Collecting coins from scattered landmarks and loyal subjects, the monarch must carefully decide how to allocate resources, deciding when to hire new followers, invest in defences, or upgrade structures. The coin-based system limits direct control, forcing players to think strategically about each decision.
The challenge ramps up each night, as increasingly dangerous creatures appear to attack the fledgling kingdom. Loss of coins can become catastrophic if it means a defender is unprepared, and if a monster captures the ruler’s crown, the game ends. These mechanics encourage players to balance risk and caution, expansion and defence.
From Flash beginnings to a growing series
The partnership between van den Berg and Bancale, who use the aliases noio and Licorice, respectively, brought together Dutch and Icelandic perspectives on game design. The first major standalone release expanded on van den Berg’s original Flash prototype. With assistance from Sweden-based publisher Raw Fury, the game launched on multiple platforms and gained enough immediate success to fund further development within a single day of release.
Kingdom’s popularity led to expansions and sequels. In August 2016, Kingdom: New Lands added new explorable zones and a seasonal climate system, aiming to tackle some repetitive aspects noticed by critics. Subsequent versions stretched the game’s reach even further, with ports for platforms including Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. In December 2018, the sequel Kingdom Two Crowns was released, introducing co-developed content and new downloadable expansions, such as Norse Lands. Most recently, Kingdom Eighties: Summer of Greed, developed by Fury Studios, launched in October 2023 for Windows, showcasing the continuing appeal of the distinctive Kingdom formula.
Throughout its growth, Kingdom received praise for the atmospheric blend of pixel art and chiptune music, which together provide subtle cues to players. Despite some reviewers finding the game’s lack of direct instruction and later repetition challenging, its unique mood, slow-burn strategy and enigmatic Icelandic-Dutch roots have made it a standout example of independent game development. By May 2019, over 4 million copies of Kingdom games had sold globally.
