Why Is Rise of Kingdoms One of Most Popular Games on Mobile Phone

Rise of Kingdom mobile game has generated $1.1 billion in revenue. What is more, the game has managed to accumulate more than 60 million users. In this blog post, we’ll try to briefly explain what has been the key factor behind such a success.

 

As you probably know by now, Rise of Kingdom is a real-time, multiplayer, strategy game that takes place in a fantasy world of historic civilization. The strategic part of the game is shaped around the 4E system:

- Exploration
- Expansion
- Exploitation
- Extermination

In other words, players can explore the map to discover resources, barbarians, enemies, etc. When it comes to expansion, one of the key elements of the game is to expand the territory of your alliance. Territories are expanded by building and/or conquering enemies. As you cover more territory, there are more resources to exploit. Last but not least, extermination is the most fun part of the game, simply destroying every single enemy and barbarian to conquer the kingdom.

At the beginning of the game, players need to select their preferred historic civilization that is represented by historic commanders. We won’t deep dive into which civilization you should select, but the historic aspect of these characters is extremely fun and engaging.

What makes this game so special is the fact that it offers both fighting and adventure modes. Depending on your style of play you can either focus on going to war or explore and build up resources. Luckily, this game seems to be offering the best of both worlds, leaving everything up to players.

Great thing is that if you ever need help or you want to learn more about Rise of Kingdoms you can always visit community websites like Rise of KingdomsGuides which was created by a team of the best ROK players.

Just like with every “4 E Strategic game” (exploration, expansion, exploitation, extermination) everything evolves around: Strategic planning, Resource optimization, Exploration, Competing against others, Working with other players, and Game Design.

Strategic Planning

Once you get a grasp of the basic gameplay, you soon realize that every decision you make needs to be based on long-term strategy. There are plenty of ways to spend money and resources, but all of them should be based on your strategy. Select your civilization carefully, play to your strengths and try to hide your weaknesses. The whole strategic planning is characterized by two aspects: economic and military. In other words, you get to choose whether to focus on buildings that help you run your city (farms, storage, lumber mills) or focus on military buildings that help you scale up your troops (barracks, archery range, hospital…)

Resource Optimization

When it comes to resources this game brings the good old style of resource management found in successful games like Age of Empires of Civilization. Depending on the game phase, you’re going to be focused on collecting as many resources as you can, so that you can spend them later on.

There are 4 different main resources in the game: gems, food, wood, and stone. While you’re going to receive plenty of food, wood, and stone, be careful when spending gems. Gems are considered to be a premium currency in the game.

Exploration

The game features a few different maps. And when we say different, we really mean it. There is one map where your kingdom is located and then there are 3 different maps for an event called KVK. The map is inhibited by NPC and other players, while every pixel of the world is there for you to explore. As you uncover the map, you’ll get to discover more resources, barbarian outposts, and enemy territories.

Competing Against Others

Absolutely the number one feature of this game is the endless pool of other players to battle against. As your army grows stronger, your civilization is going to be tested on the battlefield against players from all over the world. One of the key aspects of the battle experience is the unrestricted movement of your troops. You can redirect or intercept your troops in the middle of the route.

Working With Other Players

Build alliances with other gamers and create your own mercantile system as you develop your greatest conquering talent in the world!

Aside from having a brilliant exploration and battle gameplay, this game is all about social experience as well. Just after the first couple of weeks, you’ll notice that the game is extremely oriented towards motivating you to join an alliance. Your allies are always there to help and support you. There are other social features as well. From live chat where you can talk to other alliance members all the way to the game’s community platform.

Game Design

Although technically not a gameplay feature, we simply had to squeeze in a part that described the excellent UI/UX part of the game. The game graphics are simply outstanding. Every illustration has been designed in a cartoonish and friendly style. I guess that it’s that kind of graphic style that really makes you get deeply invested in the fantasy world. The gameplay itself is centered around the top perspective view, which enables you to see and control everything. One more thing worth mentioning is that the game UI is updated depending on the day or night part of the day.