Ironhide co-founder Pablo Realini talks Kingdom Rush 5 and premium's place in 2024

• Discover the enduring success of the Kingdom Rush series and just what it takes to make a great game in 2024
• "It’s very hard to get visibility in the stores, so user acquisition plays a big role if you want to succeed"

After starting out as just three friends making Flash-based games for web portals, Ironhide struck gold early with their third game, Kingdom Rush. But it was that game's move to the new-at-the-time burgeoning iPad games market that really sealed the deal.

With Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance on the way we caught up with Ironhide co-founder Pablo Realini to find out more about the origins of the company, the enduring success of the Kingdom Rush series and just what it takes to make a great game in 2024.

PocketGamer.biz: Tell us more about Ironhide. How did the company get started?

Pablo Realini: We started Ironhide around 2010 as three friends - Álvaro Azofra, Gonzalo Sande, and me - trying to make a living from video games. Our main platform back then was Flash, creating games for portals like Armor Games, Kongregate, etc.

For us, it was a challenge because, despite being gamers, the three of us didn’t have any experience in creating games. But from day one, it was very clear that we complemented each other in an incredible way, which was crucial for our success.

I also believe it was the perfect time to start a video game company.

What do you think sets Ironhide and its games apart?

We put a lot of love into all our games, which are very handcrafted, and we believe that every small detail counts. The art is also very remarkable, and I think you can identify an Ironhide game just by looking at the art.

What trends and innovations have you seen across your years in mobile?

Mobile is constantly changing. In 2010, the premium model used to dominate the market. Then free-to-play took over. Today, everything is leaning towards more casual games and fewer mid-core games. It’s also very hard to get visibility in the stores, so user acquisition plays a big role if you want to succeed.

At least from what I can see, there are no big innovations in terms of gameplay on mobile at this moment. Companies are more focused on innovating in marketing, metagame, and monetization than on the gameplay itself.

What works best for you? What’s your take on premium games Vs free-to-play? Hypercasual Vs casual? What’s hot for you right now?

We have always created premium mobile games, but that model is becoming less viable each year. Because of this, we are trying to create something different without losing our core values. We always strive to "create games we would love to play." With that in mind, I think as a company we should keep creating our single-player premium experiences for our core fans while also developing something more casual to broaden our audience.

What’s the secret to earning while keeping players happy?

That's a tough question. Balance could be the right answer when designing your monetization strategy; you can’t be too greedy and compromise the game you have set out to create.

We always take monetization very seriously here. We have some rules when designing our monetization strategy. We make sure that the pricing of in-app purchases is perceived as fair and offers good value for money. We maintain the game balance to ensure non-paying players can still enjoy and progress without feeling disadvantaged. Each Ironhide game can be finished without any in-app purchases. 

Tell us about the origins of Kingdom Rush. What was it like when that took off?

Kingdom Rush was our third game and our first big hit! It was an instant success on the Flash portals. I remember it was the best-rated game across all portals with hundreds of millions of players. Then we ported the game to iPad, and it was also a big hit. I remember those days with great joy - it was a roller coaster.

We started receiving hundreds of emails from fans all around the world. Since then, Ironhide has never stopped growing, evolving from three friends in a small room to a big office with more than 50 people working on our games.

Today, the Kingdom Rush franchise has more than 63 million downloads across mobile, PC, and consoles, and we could not be more proud of it

Tell us more about the upcoming Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance. What’s new in the game and what sets it apart?

Kingdom Rush Alliance is the fifth installment of the Tower Defense Saga, continuing the narrative established in Kingdom Rush Vengeance. Additionally, it maintains a significant connection with Legends of Kingdom Rush, our RPG game for Apple Arcade.

From a storytelling standpoint, this presents the first-ever chance for players to engage in gameplay featuring an alliance between King Denas and Vez’nan’s army, historical rivals. To accommodate this unique narrative arc, we have introduced the ability to control two heroes simultaneously, along with an expanded arsenal of towers representing both factions.

What do you think makes an overall great game?

I think that every great game must have these three attributes:

1. A good-looking art style because this is usually the first thing we see.

2. Easy to learn. This is critical; if the game is too complicated from the beginning or hard to understand, people will stop playing.

3. Hard to master. Games must be deep enough to keep you engaged.

What could other companies learn from Ironhide? What’s your biggest strength?

To be honest, we have more to learn than to teach, but one of our strengths has always been to stick to our pillars and always create games that we as gamers would love to play. We can’t create something that we would never play.

Are there plans to expand and develop Kingdom Rush 5? Is this a game that will run and run via live ops?

We have some updates with mini expansions already in the making. For example, we launched Kingdom Rush Vengeance in 2018 with 15 stages, and now the game has more than 35 stages, with more in the making. Despite not doing constant live operations in our games, we always try to provide at least twice as much content after launch.

What’s next from you? Anything you can tell us about future plans?

We are working on a new game based on Kingdom Rush IP, but we can’t comment much. Probably at the end of 2024, there will be more news to share. Also, we are thinking internally about what Kingdom Rush 6 will look like.