My search for information is yielding more information, and hidden secrets along the way.
I stumbled upon the original thread that helped me learn of Shadow Forge, and whilst it may not be entirely relevant anymore, it did give me an idea. Since the link in that thread remained valid (https://www.kixeye.com/game/shadowforge/)  I decided to replace the /shadowforge/ part with /kingdommaker/ and it seems to be a functional link of sorts, as I was redirected here.

Considering the lack of content on that page, I'd dismiss this almost entirely and immediately, if it weren't for that aforementioned functional redirection of that initial link. It seems that KIXEYE might already have some back-end framework of sorts in place for Kingdom Maker to give it a full place on the site down the line.

And just to be sure this wasn't necessarily a fluke of sorts, I tried entering the other two names in between those slashes, /wildlanders/ & /wildorn/ and even tried adding "home" after the last slash for both URL's (since the Kingdom Maker page has "home" written after the last slash in the URL) and none of them take you to a hidden page, they redirect you to your profile page instead. So this might lend a little bit of credit to possibility of this game being full steam ahead in development perhaps? Thoughts everyone?

EDIT: I was trying more of those home link tricks and found the old homepage for Tome.
Nothing there save for some outdated leaderboard, but hey, its still there. Just in case anyone cared.

Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated note, whilst the game does seem to be dead, I did find what may have been the first and/or last official status post on Shadow Forge. CM Scarlett prior to his vanishing from the forums did seem to at least confirm this was a thing here in this thread. I wonder what happened to it to cause it to seemingly get cancelled.

Wow, the forums censor d-a-m-n? Holy ****.

Yard said:

Interesting stuff. Good detective work, Thane. Maybe they're finally nearing the arrival of a new game after literal years, not counting WC:RA. If it's mobile I might check it out, if Kixeye have finally learnt that Android support actually is worth a ****.

I have to admit, my curiosity is peaked as well. Maybe even I'll give it a try or a look over upon is release, as long as it supports android like you said, since Im also using an android phone. Though admittedly at the same time, recalling my past experience with their games though, I can't help but cynically have low expectations for this new one.

I must say, one thing I find particularly curious about this Kingdom Maker (if that does remain its name) is the name itself. It kinda sounds like a departure from what KIXEYE normally does, doesn't it? Maybe Im reading to far into this, but the name to me sounds like it might be focused less on fighting and so on when compared to their other products. Maybe even remove it entirely? Though I feel this is a stretch, since this would likely make it similar to the games produced by Zynga, and KIXEYE has mocked them for their game style since the rebranding.

Just look at them. The names of more or less all their other games indicate a strong fighting aspect from the outset. Battle Pirates, War Commander, VEGA Conflict, War Commander: Rogue Assault, Desktop Defender,  Tome: Immortal Arena. The only possible exception to this rule is Backyard Monsters, and Backyard Monsters: Unleashed, though still fighting was an ever present element in both those games. But Kingdom Maker? It sounds quite tame compared to their other works doesn't it?

Then again, maybe Im wrong and I am reading into it to much and it turns out this will be their bloodiest game yet, who knows?
It shall be interesting how things turn out for this new game, won't it?

Kingdom Maker sounds like it could be a Clash of Clans style game to me.

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane, stop putting all of your skill points into investigation.

Too late... I've invested every point I have to tracing information. Its a very useful after all.
Where did your skill points go?

College test-taking...

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane, stop putting all of your skill points into investigation.

Too late... I've invested every point I have to tracing information. Its a very useful after all.
Where did your skill points go?

College test-taking...

Fair enough. Did that investment play off?

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane, stop putting all of your skill points into investigation.

Too late... I've invested every point I have to tracing information. Its a very useful after all.
Where did your skill points go?

College test-taking...

Fair enough. Did that investment play off?

LOL NOPE

mood 

DreamCat said:

Initial_Degeneration said:

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane, stop putting all of your skill points into investigation.

Too late... I've invested every point I have to tracing information. Its a very useful after all.
Where did your skill points go?

College test-taking...

Fair enough. Did that investment play off?

LOL NOPE

mood 

Failing Calculus but memes and video games are still there for me AMIRITE!?!?!?

Memes and video games will always be there my dude.

DreamCat said:

Initial_Degeneration said:

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane_Mantis said:

DreamCat said:

Thane, stop putting all of your skill points into investigation.

Too late... I've invested every point I have to tracing information. Its a very useful after all.
Where did your skill points go?

College test-taking...

Fair enough. Did that investment play off?

LOL NOPE

mood 

Failing Calculus but memes and video games are still there for me AMIRITE!?!?!?

Alright, Im back at this again, because yet again I've found more information. This time however, its not about Kingdom Maker, but details on the mysterious Shadow Forge, and what this game might have become had it survived since signs point to its death. My search for information lead me back to this thread here which as I've said before, was where I originally learnt of Shadow Forge if memory serves me well.

Well, one comment was posted which gave me an idea to try.

MarkMasterMason said:

Type in shadow forge kixeye in google

So I did just this and was lead to a couple LinkedIn profiles, one belonging to a man called Ben Dickens, (FYI, you'll need a LinkedIn account yourself to view their profiles if you want to see what I found firsthand, but don't worry, I'll quote what I've got and if anyone wants, can provide screenshots) and the other to a man called Rahim Wahab.

Mr. Wahabs file didn't seem to contain anything of particular note as far as I could see, just a mention of him working on Shadow Forge when I saw it in Google search's results (though I will take a more in depth look in a bit.) Not sure what his official role was however since his file itself seemed to state nothing. Ben Dickens however, did have some details of note.
Quote from his profile:

Product Manager
KIXEYE
Jul 2012 - Dec 2015
3 yrs 6 mos
San Francisco Bay Area

Product Manager: Battle Pirates
- Grew Battle Pirates, the company’s highest earning title, to become a top-10 grossing Facebook game for over 2 years.
- Managed the game roadmap and drove month-over-month improvements in ARPDAU
- Developed and managed all in-game events, which generated the majority of monthly revenue
- Worked with a first-party team of 30 (engineers, designers, artists, and QA). 

Lead Product Manager: Shadow Forge 
- Secured a $3M budget to produce and launch a new mobile, Puzzle-fighting game (Shadow Forge) simultaneously on iOS and Android.
- Developed the GDD and monetization strategy
- Worked with an internal team of five and a 2nd party developer team of 12

So Shadow Forge was a mobile puzzle fighting game? Hmm, anyone know of any similar type games we might compare it to in order to get a better sense of just how this might have worked? Thoughts in general guys? Think it would have worked?
If I find anything more, I'll keep the thread updated.

Remind me never to piss you off, Thane. I have a feeling you'd have my name, age, location and favourite flavour of icecream all within a day or so.

In all seriousness, good searching. Any idea why Shadow Forge died? It sounds fairly different concept wise but that can be hard to judge from a short description.

Yard said:

Remind me never to **** you off, Thane. I have a feeling you'd have my name, age, location and favourite flavour of icecream all within a day or so.

Considering various statements you've made in the past in these forums Yard, as well as a few things I know about the forums and games, I think I know all (save for the ice cream flavour lol) this stuff already. Want me to prove it? Or, considering how I think I've proven a knack for locating obscure info thus far, would you rather take my word for it lol.

Yard said:

In all seriousness, good searching.

Thank you.

Yard said:

Any idea why Shadow Forge died? It sounds fairly different concept wise but that can be hard to judge from a short description.

I dunno. I got no specific details on that (yet lol.) I certainly find it strange that it died, especially considering it had, bare minimum, $3 million dollars in its budget according to Ben Dickens LinkedIn page. And considering it was launching just for 2 platforms, using an engine like Unity which makes porting relatively simple as I understand it, it seems, I dunno, suspect. Especially since KIXEYE does by now have experience with both developing mobile titles, the Unity engine, and actually launching on mobile.

Might be a few reasons why it went down the drain:

• Maybe it KIXEYE just spent too much time on it originally without making any real headway and decided to just scrap it.
• Maybe its developers couldn't come up a full creative vision for the game and what it was meant to be.
• Maybe its death is due to KIXEYE (at least at the time,) not knowing how to make mobile games.*
• Maybe its, for now at least, just stuck in development hell_ and it'll resurface again.
• Maybe it, to some extent, got merged with Kingdom Maker.
• Maybe it died to due to a mismanaged budget.

Could be any of this reasons, or an entirely separate one. Could be several factors involved and not just one.
At the end of the day its a mystery. Or if you prefer;

One I think I'll turn my attention too whilst Im looking out for info on Kingdom Maker.
I'll keep you posted.

*This personally is my best guess. This game according to that previously mentioned statement by Harbin was in development since at least 2015 before it died. If I remember correctly, at the time KIXEYE had no mobile games (except the multi-platform Vega Conflict,) and the, by then miserable failure, that was BYM:U.

So Mobile development may not have been something they originally knew how to do at the time, and do it right-ish** so they could actually produce a finished and functioning project. (**Lets be fair, they still don't know how to do games right, let alone mobile lol.) So yeah, Im guessing that its possibly inexperience that ultimately killed the project.

Yard said:

The censored word was _piss. Just clarifying as most other expletives would look weird there.

I figured that was it. ****_ censorship feature, taking all our swear words, lol.
EDIT: I just learned the word hell_ gets censored, after it blocked out the 4th reason in my list of ideas why Shadow Forge bit the dust. Bloody_ censorship feature...

Yard said:

Remind me never to **** you off, Thane. I have a feeling you'd have my name, age, location and favourite flavour of icecream all within a day or so.

In all seriousness, good searching. Any idea why Shadow Forge died? It sounds fairly different concept wise but that can be hard to judge from a short description.

On the other hand, my real life is a complete cipher. 
You'd never even be able to guess my home country...


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No..Beard said:

Yard said:

Remind me never to **** you off, Thane. I have a feeling you'd have my name, age, location and favourite flavour of icecream all within a day or so.

In all seriousness, good searching. Any idea why Shadow Forge died? It sounds fairly different concept wise but that can be hard to judge from a short description.

On the other hand, my real life is a complete cipher. 
You'd never even be able to guess my home country...


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.

.

.

.

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.

I have a guess.

Here guys, I had an interesting idea awhile ago that I've been meaning to get an opinion on.
So, LinkedIn of course has a Private Messaging system of sorts, and I've been thinking about maybe reaching out to the people I've found to have been involved with Shadow Forge and asking them if they can provide any info on what happened to it.
Thoughts everyone?