“Games are art.
Treat people like people.
Happiness before profit.”
On that screen was what looked to me like a pixel art fairytale.
It seemed to breathe as I watched it.
When I played it, the feeling intensified.
I had to start again.
I had no idea.
But I knew I wanted to play again.
Kingdom remains as important to Raw Fury now as it was then.
It underpins everything the boutique indie publisher does.
Kingdom was actually created in 2010, before Raw Fury came along.
Raw Fury launched Kingdom: New Lands in 2016, reintroducing the concept to the world.
These all feel substantial enough to be new games.
Kingdom is more like an RPG in Call of Olympus than it’s ever been before.
And did I mention it has rideable pegasi and bears?
Underneath, it’s still Kingdom of course.
The core is sacrosanct and the team is wary about adding too much to it and detracting from it.
It’s still as pretty as it ever was, too - prettier, even.
Little wisps of pixelated smoke curl up into the air from torches, little pixelated birds flap by.
It’s all here.
In Call of Olympus, Kingdom is in fine form.
People talk quite openly at Raw Fury HQ about the importance of Kingdom to the company.
Van den Berg still works with Raw Fury, though.
The company published his Pizza Possum last year, so the relationship continues, which is nice to see.
We’ve reviewed all of those on Eurogamer and they’ve all scored highly.
Raw Fury rarely seems to miss.
It’s there, repeated on walls and walkways for everyone to see.
“The three tenets of Raw Fury,” it reads.
“Games are art.
Treat people like people.
Happiness before profit.”
On another wall: “Games are art.”
And again, and again.
A few years ago, I’d probably have cringed at that.
You’ll likely all remember the endless debates about “are games art?”
as much as we do - they came up so much it became a cliche.
But I don’t cringe to see it on the walls of Raw Fury today.
In 2024, that mantra shines like a lighthouse across an industry that’s floundering at sea.
It stands in dazzling contrast to the endless layoffs and studio closures we’ve been witness to.
The overriding feeling emanating from it all was greed - coincidentally the main evil in the Kingdom series.
Games as a way to make money.
It’s against that backdrop that Raw Fury shines so bright.
It demonstrates that backing creativity is a viable thing to do.
Maybe spreading your bet on smaller things is a more sustainable - and more creative - way to go.
Raw Fury’s catalogue certainly reminds me how ecclectic and interesting games can be.
It’s telling what can be done when making money isn’t the main concern.
If Kingdom is enabling that: wonderful.
But whatever the reason, what the company is doing is a joy to see.
Raw Fury and Kingdom walk hand in hand, and long may their journey continue to be.
This piece was written after a press trip to Raw Fury in Stockholm.
Raw Fury paid for flights and accommodation.
