RPG
The 60-hour verdict on Ashen Crown
Why this year's most divisive RPG earned our rare 9/10.
A game blog from Melbourne
Where every game becomes a story worth telling.
Deep RPG reviews, honest strategy guides and the culture behind the games we can't put down — written from a small desk in Fitzroy for players who care about the craft.
Our story
From a shared save file to a full-time obsession.
-
2016
A weekend newsletter
Two friends in a Fitzroy sharehouse started emailing 40 subscribers weekly reviews of the RPGs they were sinking their weekends into. The tone was set early: honest, spoiler-careful, a little obsessive.
-
2019
Guides that actually helped
Our boss-fight breakdowns and build guides started ranking, and readership crossed 90,000 a month. We hired our first two freelance writers and set a rule we still keep: no guide ships until someone has beaten the fight themselves.
-
2022
Championing indies
We launched our Indie Vault column to spotlight small Australian and Southeast Asian studios. Several featured titles credited us with their first big sales spike — the reason we still read every pitch that lands in our inbox.
-
Today
A trusted independent voice
Reader-funded, ad-light and fiercely independent, IronMoonKingdom now reaches over 300,000 players a month — still written from that same desk on Bourke Street.
What we publish
Coverage built for people who finish the campaign.
In-depth reviews
Every review is written after we finish the game — no launch-day guesswork.
Free · new drops every Friday
Recent articles
Fresh from the desk.
Strategy
The only opening build order you need
A calm, tested guide to surviving the brutal first act.
Indie
Lanterns: the Melbourne gem you missed
A two-person studio made our favourite puzzle game of the year.
RPG
Ranking every ending, no spoilers
How to reach the ending that actually pays off your choices.
Reader words
Trusted by players who read to the end.
★★★★★
"Your Ashen Crown review talked me out of a refund and I ended up loving it. The only site I check before buying anything over $50."
★★★★★
"The build-order guide got me through act one after three weeks stuck. Clear, tested, no filler. Rare thing these days."
★★★★★
"As a tiny studio, being in the Indie Vault column tripled our wishlists in a week. These folks genuinely play what they cover."
300k+
Monthly readers
1,240
Games reviewed
9 yrs
Independent & reader-funded
86
Indie studios spotlighted
Good to know
Frequently asked questions.
Say hello
Pitch a game, ask a question, or just talk shop.
Whether you're an indie developer with a demo, a reader with a correction, or a studio wanting to talk coverage — the form goes straight to our small editorial team.
- ✆ +61 3 9650 5217
- ✉ [email protected]
- ⌂ 17 Bourke Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Editorial desk open Mon–Fri, 9:00–17:00 AEST.