Crown of Kings on Steam

The Evolution of Crown of Kings

June 4, 2026

When people look at Crown of Kings today, they see a dungeon crawler with a clear direction, an established game plan, and a growing presence on Steam. What most people don't see is that Crown of Kings was never supposed to exist. In fact, the project didn't begin as a game at all.

Unlike many projects that start with a design document or a carefully planned concept, Crown of Kings emerged gradually over many years from a collection of unrelated ideas, experiments, side projects, and even failures. Looking back now, it's difficult to identify the exact moment the game truly began because so many of its pieces were created for entirely different reasons.

If I had planned Crown of Kings from the beginning, I honestly doubt I would have accomplished as much as I have. The game became possible only because its foundations were built long before I ever considered turning it into a serious project.

The Origins: Almighty Assets

Long before Crown of Kings existed, I was focused on building a library of modular 3D assets under the name Almighty Assets. The goal was simple. I wanted to create a collection of matching low-poly assets that game developers could use to rapidly build worlds while maintaining a consistent visual style. At the time, companies like Synty Studios had already demonstrated the demand for modular asset packs, but I saw opportunities to build complementary collections that filled gaps in existing libraries. What began as a small collection quickly grew into something much larger.

I created dungeon environments, modular interiors, caves, mines, outdoor landscapes, farmland environments, props, decorations, and a variety of supporting assets. Every pack was designed to work together as part of a larger ecosystem rather than existing as a collection of unrelated models. At the time, none of this had anything to do with Crown of Kings. I wasn't building a game. I was building tools.

Deepest Dungeon and the First Playable Prototype

Eventually I began participating in game jams, including Ludum Dare. One particular entry, Deepest Dungeon, would become much more important than I realized at the time. Created for Ludum Dare 48, the game challenged players to explore procedurally generated dungeon levels while navigating traps, collecting resources, and descending deeper into dangerous environments.

To build the project, I used many of the assets I had already created for Almighty Assets. I also relied on DunGen for procedural dungeon generation and quickly assembled a playable experience within the strict time limits of the competition.

The game was rough. The character controller was clunky. Many planned features never made it into the final submission. But for the first time, several important ideas came together in a playable form.

Looking back now, Deepest Dungeon represents the earliest playable ancestor of Crown of Kings. At the time, however, I had no idea where the project would eventually lead.

The Controller That Refused To Be Wasted

Around the same period, I accepted a contract that required a capable third-person character controller. My client and I explored several existing solutions from the Unity Asset Store, but none of them fully met the project's requirements. Eventually I began developing a custom solution designed specifically to solve those problems. Unfortunately, the project budget couldn't support the additional development time required to finish the controller, and the contract eventually fell apart.

Over the following months I continued refining the controller system until it became a flexible foundation for future projects. At one point I even considered releasing it as a commercial asset, though ultimately decided against it. Supporting a controller package would likely mean endless feature requests, documentation requirements, and technical support obligations. The system felt more valuable as a private tool than as a commercial product.

I wanted to keep this one for myself. So I stored it away for future use and forgot about it for a while. Years later, that same controller would become one of the foundations of Crown of Kings.

Go Deep Or Go Home

With a growing asset library, a procedural dungeon system, and a custom character controller already available, I had an idea. What if I created a small game to demonstrate how all of those pieces worked together? The goal wasn't to create a commercial product or anything that serious. I simply wanted a showcase that would help potential customers visualize the possibilities of the Almighty Assets ecosystem. The result was a project called Go Deep Or Go Home.

Using my own asset packs, my own controller, and procedural dungeon generation, I built a dungeon crawler that demonstrated what developers could create using the tools I had spent years building. I published it on itch.io. Then I waited. Years passed, no noticeable change in sales and no flooding traffic. I chalked up the experience as a failure and should have just moved on, but just couldn't stop working on it.

When a Demo Becomes a Game

Even though Go Deep Or Go Home never gained traction, I continued expanding it. I added quests. I expanded dungeon environments. I created new asset packs that introduced mines, caves, farmland regions, and additional locations to explore. Every time the asset library grew, the game grew with it. Every new system made the project feel less like a demonstration and more like a genuine game.

Without realizing it, I had crossed an important line. I was no longer working on a marketing tool... I was building a world. It had become something I felt compelled to finish.

Rediscovering Crown of Kings

As the game continued to evolve, I began thinking more seriously about its future. Go Deep Or Go Home had served its purpose, but the name never felt suitable for a long-term project. I wanted something with more permanence. Something that could support a larger vision.

While searching for ideas, I stumbled across an old title from my past. Crown of Kings. The name came from a game concept I had created decades earlier during the 1990s. Although the original project was entirely different, several of its core ideas remained surprisingly similar. The more I thought about those concepts, the more they seemed to fit the dungeon crawler I had been building.

The old game featured 3 pillars that determined whether a character was worthy of ruling the kingdom. These pillars were; Strength, Notoriety and Wealth. Strength would represent the player's combat ability and personal growth. Notoriety would measure influence, leadership, followers, property ownership, and reputation throughout the realm. Wealth would represent accumulated resources, investments, and overall prosperity. Suddenly the game had a purpose beyond dungeon crawling. It represented something more meaningful to me, as if it had been there all along, and I was merely reawakening.

A Much Larger Vision

Once the Three Pillars were integrated into the design, the entire game plan changed. What had once been a simple dungeon crawler evolved into a three-act journey. Act I focuses on traditional dungeon crawling and character progression. Act II expands into property ownership, economic growth, follower management, and the pursuit of notoriety and wealth. Act III begins after the player claims the crown and shifts toward leadership, kingdom management, and large-scale conflicts against neighboring realms consumed by evil.

The result is a game that combines dungeon crawling, progression, economic systems, leadership mechanics, and kingdom-building into a single long-term experience. It is by far the most ambitious project I have ever attempted.

Becoming Crown of Kings

The final transformation occurred when I prepared the game's Steam demo. For years the project had existed under the name Go Deep Or Go Home. But by the time I assembled a vertical slice of the experience for Steam, it had become clear that the project was no longer the same game. The systems had evolved. The vision had expanded. The future was much larger than the original prototype ever intended.

When the demo launched on Steam, Go Deep Or Go Home officially became Crown of Kings. The project is still evolving today, and there is still a tremendous amount of work ahead. But looking back, it's remarkable how many of its most important pieces were never originally intended for this game at all. An asset library. A game jam. A failed client project. A forgotten title from the 1990s. Individually, none of those things were Crown of Kings. Together, they became the foundation of the most ambitious game I have ever created.