Kingdoms of the Dump: Trash Talk with Creator, Roach

Like the old saying goes: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

As if fished out from some old bin at a yard sale, Kingdoms of the Dump feels like a lost classic that somehow flew under your radar for years. Perhaps a childhood favourite, discovered by chance at a used game store, a blind purchase of a dusty cartridge with the promise and allure of adventure, nothing but a cover image to stir the imagination.

We all have such tales of childhood revelry, where a passion for the medium burgeoned into a flame. Long drives home looking at the manual in the back seat, late nights lost in a magical world, bathed in the glow of the CRT TV, your hand gliding across the static of the screen.

If there is nostalgia in these words, then this is the cartridge for you.

Creators Roach and Everdredd are no strangers to the world of the used and discarded. Working as janitors for the past 13 and 9 years, respectively, the two envisioned a magical world of garbage, born of grime and waste.

"They say 'write what you know,'" said creator and director, Roach.

Roach and Everdredd were neighbors as kids, and they began creating games early. From crude board games to a Pokémon knock-off on business cards, to eventually working with RPG Maker on the PSX, it was a passion that lingered into adulthood.

"I wanted to create a children's book as a commercial side project. Pulling from my job as inspiration, we started to work on creating the concept of the Lands of Fill, and what would eventually become the Kingdoms of the Dump. I became so enamored with the world we were creating, it wasn't long before I turned back to what I knew best: creating games. It was easy to convince Matt (Everdredd) to expand it into a full outline. The story came to us almost fully formed in our minds, and while we would spend the next decade shaping it into what it is today, the initial concept was so strong, much of it remains intact."

But the two knew they would need a team to reach the vision they had created. RPG Maker had its limitations, and there were the vast visuals to think of and music to accompany it. So they created an RPG Maker proof-of-concept to recruit their team.

"Maybe fifteen years ago? My composer bobbyghostly sought me out on AOL instant messenger, after seeing some of my screenshots in an rpgmaker forum. We collaborated on Eagleland (an Earthbound fan game) together after that, and he made some seriously impressive work that unfortunately never saw the light of day. I immediately had him in mind when I was developing the KotD prototype, and he made the midis that were used in it. So he has been on board from the beginning."

Roach and Everdredd would go on to recruit William Kage, known for his stellar SNES-inspired albums and sound fonts. They even had a guest track by Hiroki Kikuta of Secret of Mana and Koudelka fame, bringing a touch from those golden years, from whence melodies still echo in your head.

"William Kage was brought on in 2017 when we moved out of the prototype phase and into pre-production. I had seen him at MAGFest showing off his SNES sound fonts and kept him in the back of my mind. Later, I pitched the vision to him via email to see if he would be interested in joining forces. The balance would be kind of a Mitsuda/Uematsu split ala Chrono Trigger. We've been working together ever since."

DM404, Cosmocha33, Evgenij, and Francis Coulombe joined as their art team, bringing an authentic SNES aesthetic. Their combined efforts are both rich and detailed, making a landfill a thing of beauty.

"Solar Mongoose, our programmer, was found on reddit and before long we brought in the "Dreamsloth" devs from Duelyst II to lend more muscle getting the game finished."

And so the two janitors were now a small team, and with that, "The Sanitation Department" was formed, and The Lands of the Fill came to life.

Kingdoms of the Dump revels in its garbage influence. From the environment, characters, and even down to game mechanics, it uses every bit of its source material creating an imaginative and unique world. It's a world filled with scrap dragons, toxic sludge snails, warrior roaches, and a fridge with something left inside too long that now hungers. A giant washing machine looms over the countryside, oozing bubbles unceasingly, home to the Laundromancers of the Kingdom of Detergos. An ornate, bookshelf tower rises high into the sky, where the Librarians of Book's End seek what is overdue. Cardboard Knights guard the Castle of Garbagia, nestled between mountains of trash, tires, and exports of moldy vegetables.

"We've spent many years creating the Lands of Fill in over-detail. I think players will be surprised how in-depth it all is."

Roach and Everdredd mined their concept down to the very bottom of the dumpster, finding inspiration in their everyday work. Every item, bug, mashed-together object, and mysterious thing better left unknown, was potential for the Lands of Fill.

"'Garbage Juice' is the Elixir of the game, that's what all the Janny's call the liquid that collects at the bottom of the dumpster. Something truly foul to us is one of the best healing items in the game."

Even their breaks would surprise them with inspiration.

"I remember writing a serious council scene, and I was at work in the breakroom. And there's a pile of junk in the corner, a green bean bag, a water cooler, and a cardboard box with a globe on it. Boom. We had the whole council right there. From a sad pile of trash to some of our core side characters."

They wouldn't be the only trash-inspired characters. Kingdoms of the Dump follows Dustin Binsley, the trashcan squire, on his quest across the Five and Half Kingdoms of the Dump to rescue the trash-picked King and defeat the Toxic Grimelin Army. He will be joined by his best friend Ratavia (a thief rat), Walker Jacket (the most feared librarian in Book's End), Lute (a broken instrument and understudy to Walker), Cerulean (a wizard of the wash), and Musk (a stinkbug and master of infiltration from the Buggarian underworld). Together, they will journey across the kingdoms to hopefully prevent all-out war.

"It could, you know, come off as just a goofy thing, the whole idea. It could get really stupid if you let it. My favorite joke in the whole game is that it treats the concept completely seriously. It's got a garbage coat of paint but it's full of soul inside."

Alongside that coat of garbage, Kingdoms of the Dump is designed to evoke a 90s JRPG flavour, a trait it pulls off so well it feels less like tribute and more like time-travel. But the creators didn't want to be constrained by the limitations of the SNES.

"Our goal was always to capture the spirit of the times, not to be overly hung up on the restrictions. The SNES was all about doing clever things with what they had, and we try to keep true to that."

What emerges is something new that feels like your memory of that time and those games.

Unrestricted, Kingdoms of the Dump knows what to pick from its dumpster diving. It incorporates many fan-favourite elements of JRPGs and combines them in one package. It's narrative-based, featuring turn-based combat with tile effects and timed hits. Field exploration features jumping and climbing, adding layers to exploration and moving around hazards and enemies. Players can quickly toggle between the characters on the field to use their unique abilities, like scraping junk and metal enemies as Dustin, shooting as Walker, and climbing ropes as Ratavia. Lastly, there is a large Mode-7-inspired world map to explore by land, sea, and air.

Something new from something old.

Trash is a funny thing. What we see as garbage is the amalgamation of things that were once special to someone. It's made up of once-cherished possessions, wrappings for a gift, things used so much they eventually broke, scraps of that which nourished us, things that just helped us through a day, and the lost things never to be found. It is like a book at a yard sale with a message of love scrawled inside, or that favourite game someone outgrew. It was a Super Nintendo cartridge I had found as a kid, later sold away; a cartridge that made my love of storytelling and this medium grow and set me on a writerly path.

What makes Kingdoms of the Dump special is that Roach and Everdredd took the old and discarded, making a world that reignites its purpose and beauty, and they deliver it in a package reminiscent of the old. Those games that are special to us, those pixels and stories created memories that last forever.

"Classic JRPGs and Super Nintendo games are what Matt and I grew up playing as kids, so we knew the power they had. I remember us renting "Final Fantasy III" (6) and "Mario RPG" from Wow! Video for weeks on end, playing through the entirety of the games that way. Now the idea that others could be picking up our game, and be inspired and go on to create something of their own one day... how cool is that?"