Hello, Generals!

It's Genesis Devlog Friday, and this week we're getting heavy. Like, throw-a-boulder-across-the-battlefield heavy. We're talking about one of the most iconic tower archetypes in the saga: artillery. And more specifically, the very first artillery tower you'll unlock in the game, the Royal Catapult.

Before we get into Genesis specifically, let's take a quick walk down memory lane. Artillery in Kingdom Rush has almost always been a dwarven affair. From the Dwarven Bombard in the original Kingdom Rush all the way to the Big Bertha, dwarves have always been the masters of explosives. Other games introduced their own twists, but in every case, humans have been pretty much absent from the artillery business. Until now.

In this era, the Linirean Citadel is rising stone by stone, and bandit raids on the construction site are a constant headache. Long before dwarven-made cannons became the de facto artillery of the Kingdom, King Denas Sr. tasked his best engineers with designing the Royal Catapult: a royal force of human artillery, a mix of brawn and brains, built by Linireans for Linireans, to defend the walls of his young Kingdom. And so, the mighty Royal Catapult was born.

You'll notice the catapult proudly displays the blue and white banner of Linirea, just like the Archer Garrison we covered a couple of weeks ago. We wanted its design to reflect the spirit of the Kingdom at this point in time: it starts off humble, but its final form resembles a roaring lion, the heraldic animal of Linirea. A proud symbol of a Kingdom that's come into its own!

(Word on the street is the royal accountants aren't thrilled about sculpting a giant lion out of solid gold. But hey, if you're going to crush hordes of bandits, you might as well look fabulous doing it.)

In terms of gameplay, the Royal Catapult is what you'd expect from an artillery tower: long range, slow rate of fire, and devastating area damage. Where things get interesting is in the upgrade tree. You'll have meaningful choices to make about what kind of artillery you want this to be, whether you lean into stalling with crowd-control tools, or doubling down on raw explosive damage. Each playstyle feels very different, and we can't wait to show how Generals build their loadouts.

Next Friday is going to be a special one. We'll be revealing the winners of our Genesis of Heroes fan art contest and gushing about just how much we love the art this community has been making. We are constantly blown away by your talent, and we can't wait to share our favorites with you.

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Onward!

Q by Anton: Not a question: just want to say that you ARE doing a good job so far, in my opinion in the development of the game in my opinion. I hope that you can come to compromise with the community without compromising your vision of the game.

A: Thank you, Anton, this really means a lot to us. We're committed to building something we're proud of, and to listening to the community along the way. Onward, together!