Hello, Generals!
Most weeks you come here for news about the game. This week we're handing the devlog over to you instead, because fifteen years of Kingdom Rush is your milestone as much as ours.
A month ago we asked you one question: what does Kingdom Rush mean to you? One hundred of you answered with amazingly creative pieces of art. Devs Octarina and Roko sat down on stream and went through every single entry, and we came out of it a little emotional.
So here are the 15 winning artists, each taking home a limited-edition Vez'nan Youtooz vinyl figure. In no particular order, because ranking them once was hard enough!
Plague Knight
"It's honestly crazy to think that a tower defense game I started playing all those years ago would stick with me for this long. I've gone from just playing the games to getting involved with the community, making art, coming up with my own towers and heroes, and eventually even getting to work on the games myself."
boom
"While creating this piece, seeing the heroes I once played as and the bosses I've defeated filled me with so many emotions."
braki
"Short film inspired by the story of the Kingdom Rush series."
Enjoy the peak short film here. More Kingdom Rush music videos please!
sjrxiux
"When I have time, I'll also draw all the defensive towers from Origins, completing the collection of the most classic towers from the first three games. I hope you enjoy it!"
永平合鸟
"I saw the news of my favorite game's 15th anniversary and I was really happy. Wishing KR's fan art section all the best this year!"
Enjoy the full video here, it's really mind-blowing!
一点凝墨
"It represents more than ten years of this series. I hope you like it."
We love it! Get rolling here with the full animated music video.
LorencitoMax
"Kingdom Rush has been with me my whole life, ever since I was just a kid. This wonderful game opened the door to a beautiful world where fantasy feels real. Thank you for giving me a beautiful childhood and some of the best memories of my life."
OsbelMakeStuff
A tribute to the Kingdom Rush Battles Discord. Here is the part that got us: Osbel messaged people one by one to ask how they wanted to be portrayed. It really is about the friends we made along the way.
CorpusGreed
"Kingdom Rush has such a passionate community that whenever we don't fight Vez'nan we bash each other over the head in an endless debate. What tower is the strongest? Which KR is the best? We argue because we truly care. Ironhide united us in loving something together, then united us in hating something together (like its UI)! And it's awesome."
We have no notes. Except about the UI. We're working on it!
津和蛤蜊
"This artwork pays tribute to the intertwined fates and legends that unfolded across Linirea and Aridale. Heroes remain immortal, and legends endure forever."
Eric X
"This artwork symbolizes every spectacular battle."
Samael
"My father was the one who introduced me to this video game. Kingdom Rush has been a great source of inspiration for me throughout my professional career, both because of its incredible artistic quality and its Latin American roots. It has always motivated me to see how far a franchise born in our region can go"
From one Latin American studio to a kid who grew up playing with his dad: this one hit home for us!
一个普通路过的
"Wishing Kingdom Rush a happy 15th anniversary! My skills are limited, so this is the best I can do."
We would like to formally disagree about the limits.
薯饼哥布林
"I worked on this for ages and finally finished it. It seems I'm already past the deadline, but I submitted it anyway."
Correct decision!
清轩义
"I put a lot of effort into drawing this, I hope Tinplate likes it!!!"
Tinplate does like it. (For anyone out of the loop: 铁皮, "Tinplate," is what our Chinese community calls Ironhide. We've grown very fond of it.)
Congratulations to all fifteen, and thank you to every single one of you who entered the contest. The stream is up on our YouTube channel if you want to see the other 85 entries and watch Octarina and Roko react to all of them live. There's a lot in there that didn't fit into this devlog and it's definitely worth seeing! Watch the full stream here
Fifteen years of this amazing creative community. Here's to many more!
Next Friday we're back to Genesis, and we're revealing a hero returning to the fight. We won't say who. We'll only point out that back during the Genesis of Heroes contest we wrote, and we're quoting ourselves here, “wow, you all really want this one back.” A few of you drew them again this time, too.
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Onward!