Welcome back to Franchise Festival, where we explore and discuss the history of noteworthy video game series from the last four decades. Older entries can be found here.

This week we will be defending the history of Kingdom Rush with towers. Cover art, unless otherwise noted, is from MobyGames. Please consider supporting that website, as its volunteers tirelessly catalog key information and art assets for an often ephemeral medium.

Prior to publication, I reached out to Ironhide Game Studio and got some helpful information on how Kingdom Rush Vengeance was developed and what the studio’s future plans are. In an exciting twist, Franchise Festival is bringing some new information to the world this week in addition to surveying other sources.

Background

Ironhide Game Studios was founded in 2010 by Álvaro Azofra, Pablo Realini, and Gonzalo Sande. The three members of this small Uruguayan outfit were united by a love of video games and an interest in turning their hobby into a full-time career. The barrier to entry for indie game development had decreased in the late 2000s with the rise of digital distribution networks, so securing a publisher and physical supply chains were no longer the impediment that they once had been.

Ironhide quickly settled on browsers as their desired method of distribution. The first of two browser-based web portals that they would focus on was Armor Games. This American studio had been founded in 2004 by Daniel McNeely and would take on the official role of publisher for Ironhide’s first release. Another key distribution channel was Kongregate, a website that had been founded in 2006 by Emily and Jim Greer, securing heavy investor funding with the tagline “video games meets YouTube.”

The integration of Adobe’s Flash application programming interface (API) allowed independent developers to rapidly publish interactive media on both platforms, while the presence of advertisements kept the platforms free to players. This environment was perfect for studios with relatively low overhead, like Ironhide, to broadcast their unique ideas to the world. Following a couple of quickly-produced releases, Clash of the Olympians (2010) and Soccer Challenge World Cup Edition 2010 (2010), Ironhide got down to work on what would become its flagship property.

Kingdom Rush (2011)

A Flash-based version of Kingdom Rush was released on Kongregate and Armor Games in early 2011. Ironhide had opted to develop a tower defense game based partially on the commercial viability of that genre, as titles like Flash Element TD (2007) and Desktop Tower Defense (2007) had flourished on browser-based game portals in recent years. They also believed that the studio could contribute a distinctive approach to a genre threatening to become stale.

Tower defense is characterized by the building of defensive fortifications intended to manipulate and degrade hordes of enemies as they attempt to overrun the player’s home base. Ironhide decided to integrate ongoing building upgrades and a greater emphasis on direct player control than contemporary releases had offered. Players build towers along a pre-established route through which waves of enemies will march, but must also manage tower upgrades and the presence of a hero character. Tower upgrades are purchased using funds acquired from defeated enemies, while the hero character can directly engage foes and be manually moved around the battlefield by the player. The player starts each stage with 20 health points but these diminish with every enemy who succeeds in breaching the player’s defenses.

Kingdom Rush’s graphics are fairly rudimentary. The colors pop but character models and levels, all viewed by players from a bird’s eye view, are comprised of relatively simple 2D sprites. Though players of more visually advanced contemporary tower defense titles like Defense Grid: The Awakening (2008) might have looked down on this simplicity as a step backwards, an uncomplicated aesthetic actually serves to enhance the game’s clarity when the battlefield grows crowded.

The setting and characters are directly inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Players take on the role of an unnamed and unseen general in a medieval fantasy kingdom as he or she fends off an invasion by the sinister wizard Vez’nan. The player’s towers consist first of foot soldiers, archers, mages, and artillery, though upgrades gained throughout the campaign eventually make these more dangerous and technologically impressive. Vez’nan’s forces include a host of stock fantasy villains, including wizards, goblins, orcs, and the like. Despite the Spanish-language origins of the game, towers and characters are brought to life with spirited English-language audio clips referencing pop culture.

Game progress between individual stages is represented by an overworld map. Menus during these interstitial moments allow the player to exchange stars – one to three are awarded based on the player’s success in each stage – for new hero characters and permanent upgrades to tower stats or spells. Spells can be cast by the player multiple times in each battle to weaken or destroy enemy units but are tied to cooldown timers that prevent their overuse.

Kingdom Rush proved successful on Armor Games and Kongregate, attracting millions of fans over its first few months. Following a serendipitous iPad purchase by studio co-founder Pablo Realini, Ironhide concluded that the touch-based interface of mobile devices would be an ideal fit for their game mechanics. A new deal with publisher Armor Games, along with months spent learning to code for iOS from scratch, allowed Ironhide to release an expanded version of Kingdom Rush on Apple devices by the end of 2011. Android and PC ports would follow in 2013 and 2014 respectively. These versions, which feature overhauled high-definition visuals and more hero characters among myriad other updates, would reach millions of new fans and secure Ironhide a place at the top of the tower defense genre. More importantly for the studio’s immediate future, its seemingly overnight success attracted the attention of several high-profile publishers.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers (2013)

With such a rapid ascent, Ironhide was courted by a variety of mainstream game studios. These included LucasArts, Warner Brothers, and Rovio (the Scandinavian studio behind mobile hit Angry Birds). Fearing that any outside publisher would compromise their vision and lead them back to a condition similar to their pre-2010 status as freelancers, the co-founders of Ironhide opted not to accept any offers. The next title in their series would be released without any corporate oversight.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers revisits what worked in the preceding game – changing very little about the interface or basic game functions – while also building in some functionality that had been lacking in the studio’s original release. Ironhide had taken into consideration fan suggestions during visits to San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference in 2012 and 2013. In particular, they added microtransactions to the iOS and Android releases of the series debut.

Microtransactions are often predatory, especially in free-to-play mobile games, but Ironhide cautiously integrated them without losing balance in the base campaign. Fans had asked how they could spend more on the software, as it was being distributed on Flash sites for free and at a very low price on mobile platforms. Ironhide’s response was to add heroes which could be purchased for an additional fee. These were add-ons to the original game and served to make it easier without upsetting the level design for people who were happy to play with the basic content. Paywall-gated heroes were integrated into development the sequel from its earliest stage of development.

Towers in Kingdom Rush Frontiers are similar to those in its predecessor, though their appearances have been redesigned. Like enemies and environments, towers are now based on a more primitive wilderness aesthetic. They also have branching evolutions once players have upgraded them enough on any given level.

Heroes are more advanced than their predecessors had been. Each has five skills which can be permanently upgraded by using a menu between stages. In keeping with this greater sense of permanent progression, heroes now maintain their level throughout the campaign as they accrue experience points by slaying monsters. Each stage permits the use of a hero chosen by the player, though some feature an additional stage-specific controllable ally.

As suggested by the new tower and stage aesthetics, Kingdom Rush Frontiers is set in a less cosmopolitan region of the first game’s world. The successful elimination of Vez’nan during the conclusion of Kingdom Rush opens up the door for another sinister foe to appear on the kingdom’s border, with the player character battling his or her new antagonist across deserts and jungles. Interstitial comic book sequences now sometimes appear between stages, emphasizing the game’s often-humorous plot.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers would release first on iOS devices in June 2013 and then on Android and Flash platforms later in the year. A PC version would follow in 2016, eliminating all microtransactions in favor of a higher base price. This would represent the final game in the series to be released for free on Flash-based browser portals.

Kingdom Rush Origins (2014)

Kingdom Rush Origins was released for iOS devices only one year after its predecessor. The reduced development time is evident in the relatively low number of revisions made between the series’ second and third entries. Most of the differences are cosmetic, as towers have once again been redesigned with new sprites and the overworld is slightly more colorful than earlier games’ sepia-toned maps.

Each hero is newly enhanced with an ability that can be deployed to augment the player’s standard spell portfolio. These abilities have their own cooldown gauge and opportunity for enhancement through the use of a menu between missions. The hero Lilith represents the first time that fans could see their direct influence on Ironhide, as she originated in an online survey conducted by the studio. Fans could vote on the character’s abilities, background, and more.

Kingdom Rush Origins’ narrative is set long before the series’ first title. It focuses the player’s attention on a new continent, where he or she takes the role of an unnamed general in an army of elves attempting to rescue their princess and protect the elves’ most precious artifact, the Tear of Elynie. In the end the player’s efforts prove only partially successful, as the antagonistic Twilight elves are defeated but the Tear is still corrupted. This directly leads to the rise of Vez’nan, Kingdom Rush’s original villain.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance (2018)

While Kingdom Rush Origins was as well-received as earlier series entries had been, its lack of innovation seems to have prompted Ironhide to explore new ideas following its 2014 release. The studio primarily flexed its creative muscles by developing an entirely new real-time strategy IP called Iron Marines (2016). Following this, the studio opted to modernize its flagship property’s next iteration in some interesting ways.

Visual and audio design is no major leap forward, as the game still favors 2D sprites viewed from overhead and pithy pop culture references, but the player character is a significant departure. Players now take on the role of Vez’nan as he returns from his apparent defeat in the series’ debut and seeks to take over the continent explored in the first two Kingdom Rush games. Enemies are drawn from the heroic armies previously commanded by the player in earlier series entries. Heroes, on the other hand, are similar to foes fought by the player character in the original Kingdom Rush.

Stages now display the routes that enemy waves will take when moving towards the player character’s base. This is a simple update, but one that permits the player to engage in more confident tower building. The risk that a player might build his or her towers in awkward locations and need to restart the stage is heavily mitigated.

The mechanism by which players upgrade their abilities and towers has also been revisited. Following the lead of so many other series, Ironhide integrated a branching skill tree that allows players to make decisions about how abilities or towers are permanently strengthened between stages. Branching paths force the player to make harder choices, particularly early in Kingdom Rush Vengeance’s campaign while resources are scarce. Much of the updated user interface is directly influenced by the studio’s work on Iron Marines.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance offers the most significant overhaul to tower building in the series so far, as Ironhide sought to enhance the level of personalization available to players without compromising the franchise’s core identity. A loadout of five distinct structures can be selected for use within any given stage, and more towers are unlocked as the campaign progresses. Four towers represent the series’ classic structures – infantry, archers, mages, and artillery – while the remainder are more specialized in their functionality. A total of sixteen towers eventually become available, though five are locked behind a paywall in a manner similar to premium hero characters.

Kingdom Rush Vengeance was released on iOS and Android devices in November 2018. The critical response was positive, though not without some concerns over the series’ new mechanics. A PC version has not yet been released (as of January 2019) but seems quite likely.

Conclusion

Ironhide Game Studio built a tower defense kingdom on the foundation of their own passion for video games. In less than a decade, the studio has evolved from Álvaro Azofra, Pablo Realini, and Gonzalo Sande working out of a back room to being Uruguay’s preeminent video game developer. Kingdom Rush was a key part of this transformation.

In targeting a popular browser/mobile genre and infusing it with their accumulated experience, all the while engaging with fans across the globe, Ironhide was able to produce one of the mobile platform’s most consistently excellent franchises. The studio is currently planning an as-yet-unannounced new IP while still improving the experience for owners of Iron Marines and Kingdom Rush Vengeance. There is no official word on the next entry in the Kingdom Rush saga, but fans can rest assured that the studio remains dedicated to its beloved tower defense franchise.

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What is your favorite Kingdom Rush game? How do you feel the series compares to other tower defense titles? Which tower do you find to be most effective? Just how much do you hate flying enemies? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Next week we’ll be jumping into the history of the Mario series. There is so much to cover with Mario that I’ll be splitting it up into two separates articles: an entry covering the 2D titles will be published at 9:00 AM EST on February 8 and an entry covering the 3D titles will be published at 9:00 AM EST on February 15. I hope you can join us for both.