Side-scrolling monarch Kingdom: Classic is free on Humble this week
Thy (free) Kingdom come.
It must be easy to run a country when you've only two dimensions to work with. This week, Kingdom (that's Kingdom: Classic and not Kingdom: New Lands or Kingdom: Two Crowns) became free to download and keep over on the Humble Store. The old king may seem stripped down compared to its successors, but it'll let you dole out pennies across your lands without dropping real-world coin 'til this time next Monday.
Building on a free browser predecessor that's since been claimed by Flash's death throes, Kindom: Classic is a wonderfully minimalist 2015 settlement builder from developers Noio.
Kindom, in case you missed it, is a quietly simple and curiously serene kingdom management sim. Riding atop your kingly steed, you venture left and right across a gorgeous world, doling out coins to your subjects to have them construct buildings, and fending off the monsters that gnaw at your borders.
It's a wonderful format, and completely unsurprising that it'd go on to spawn a lineage of its own. Kingdom: New Lands bulked out the game's often-sparse foundations with a fort full of features, from broader upgrades and new environments to the option to play as a tiny pixellated queen. A third game, Kingdom: Two Crowns, brought in co-op rulers, unique monarch types, a broader emphasis on plot and even more lands to conquer. From what I understand, mind, it may have been a bit too bloated for its own good.
In comparison, Kingdom The First can often feel a little sparse. Noio does a lot with the game's simple aesthetics, with two-pixel-tall grass swaying as water shimmers with reflections of your nation-building antics. If you missed New Lands' free week on Epic last year, this might your next-best chance at stepping into a bit of free, chilled-out royalty.
Kingdom: Classic is free to pick up over on Humble until 6pm UK time next Monday, November 9th.