Kingsway
Image of an old operating system window, depicted inside it is an image of a crown with a stylised logo spelling "Kingsway" in front of it.
Steam storefront header
Publisher(s)Adult Swim Games
Designer(s)Andrew Morrish
Platform(s)Windows
Release
  • WW: 18 July 2017
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single player

Kingsway is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Andrew Morrish and published by Adult Swim Games.

Gameplay

Kingsway is a fantasy role-playing video game presented through the interface of a 1990s operating system, similar to Windows 95.[1] [2] The role-playing game elements are represented through different facets of the operating system interface. For example, the inventory, world map, and character stats appear in separate window elements. Enemies are displayed in popup windows that move about the screen. Progress bars are used to display the player and enemy turn speeds. Quests are received via email and when the player is low on health or mana an error message will show.[3]

Development and release

Kingsway was developed by Andrew Morrish and published by Adult Swim Games.[1] Morrish and Adult Swim had collaborated previously on his shooter game Super Puzzle Platformer (2013). Morrish was influenced by old computer role-playing games and operating systems. He also noted Lucas Pope's dystopian puzzle video game Papers, Please (2013) as a particular inspiration for his first prototype of Kingsway. In Papers, Please, players would receive more documents and instructions as the game progressed. This created clutter that the player would have to organise efficiently to succeed. Morrish applied this philosophy of creating clutter by making the player have to manage multiple window elements, popups, files and folders. Finding the most intuitive correspondences between the role-playing game mechanics and operating system mechanics was the most challenging aspect of designing Kingsway for Morrish. Due to the familiarity player had with using an operating system interface, Morrish found that players did not require much guidance to play the game.[2]

Kingsway was playable at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017.[2] The game was released for Windows-based personal computers on 18 July 2017.[1]

Reception

Kingsway was well received by professional critics.[4] Both aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings gave it 79 and 80 out of 100 respectively.[5][6] It was nominated for "Game, Original Role Playing" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.[7][8]

Ray Porreca of Destructoid praised the game's gameplay.[9]

Alice O'Connor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun compared Kingsway to the '90s desktop versions of Indiana Jones and Star Wars.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Caldwell-Gervais, Noah, Noah (24 July 2017). "Kingsway review". Polygon. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Chan, Stephanie (22 June 2017). "Kingsway triggers a lizard brain panic that only screen addicts can appreciate". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  3. ↑ Chan, Stephanie (20 July 2017). "Kingsway review — an addictive RPG with deadly pop-up windows". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  4. ↑ Walker, John (21 July 2017). "Wot I Think: Kingsway". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Kingsway". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "Kingsway". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  7. ↑ "Nominee List for 2017". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 9 February 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  8. ↑ "Horizon wins 7; Mario GOTY". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 13 March 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  9. ↑ Ray Porreca (22 July 2017). "Kingsway is a deceptively deep RPG that looks like a dated operating system". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  10. ↑ O'Connor, Alice (19 July 2017). "It's a desktop, it's an RPG, it's Kingsway". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.

Further reading and listening

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