Redesigning the Resource Management Game Kingdom

First I will fix major design flaws and address some minor design flaws within the game’s current philosophy. Then, I will outline a complete redesign for the game according to my personal tastes and design philosophies. I will have roughly 3 categories of redesigning: fixes, which are small, simple tweaks that would fit well within the current game structure; add-ons, which are more extensive alterations that extend the game’s functionality; and overhauls, which completely change part of the game.

Kingdom advertises itself as a “strategy/resource management hybrid with a minimalist feel.” Its graphics are gorgeous, with satisfying animations and coin physics. Its core loop promise is exciting: spend coins to grow your kingdom, earning more coins. You slowly recruit citizen through homeless camps, and by buying professions for them, they help you earn coin. However, after playing it for a few hours, I’ve noticed some major flaws that bog down gameplay.

Resource scarcity during the winter means that there isn’t enough to do, and players can go without gameplay for several in-game days at a time. In Kingdom, unlike some other games, the only thing to do in the game is to spend resources. Therefore, limiting resources means limiting the ability for players to play the game. This wouldn’t be so bad if at times there was still at least some income, but, in our case, we ran out of fish and animals. For the only type of resource remaining in the winter, we did not have the right type of units because the generated structures had not generated the correct structures for the famers we needed.

The simplest fix is to limit resource gathering per day, but not across multiple days. This way, players can be assured that at least they will have gameplay the next day. An add-on would be to allow players to tweak or customize their town and villagers in the game, which could keep players occupied when there is less gameplay during winter. This could be especially valuable since the game is dependent on what structures the player has available to be built.

Another problem is that the 2D sidescrolling elements slow gameplay down. Taking a long time to run over large distances only to recruit 2 more citizens feels very unsatisfying. Having two players can help, but the distances can still feel tedious, and sometimes there isn’t enough to do to keep both players occupied. I would shorten the distances, or, as an add-on increase the density of things to do. Maybe players can find resources along the way that they can bring to their town or citizens.

Some of the minor problems include that there is no way to cancel actions, especially when it is not clear what coins are going to buy. There are problems with irreversible actions like accidentally building a structure near a homeless camp, permanently destroying a source of new subjects.

If I were to completely redesign the game according to my personal tastes, I would make it more of a creative game where the player can connect with characters, like Spiritfarer. I appreciate the way players are managers and caretakers instead of fighters. Perhaps attracting citizens to your town could mean that once in a while, a special hero character generates with a personality and backstory whom you can deploy for special tasks. Each of these characters would specialize in a different set of skills: an advanced knight who blocks monsters while attacking monster portals, or a farmer who can protect the other farmers at night.

I would also add more graphical and gameplay customizability. Players would have the ability to tweak the buildings in the town that are being built. Research trees from the RTS tradition might allow players to specialize in profiting more from one type of profession than the other.

Overall, Kingdom in its current state is nice for a very casual setting, where players may be distracted by other activities. The art and atmosphere is beautiful, but there is not enough for players to do within the game, and, according to my tastes, the game lacks a touch of personalizability.