Melbourne game blog · Est. 2016

Deep dives, dungeon lore, and reviews you can actually trust.

From Collingwood to your controller — long-form RPG breakdowns, boss-fight strategy, and honest indie coverage, published every week by players who finish the game.

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Our mission

A campfire for players who take games seriously.

Iron Dungeon Empire started as a Discord thread arguing about Dark Souls boss orders. Seven years on, we're a small Collingwood crew publishing thoroughly-tested guides, spoiler-flagged reviews, and lore essays. We buy the games we cover, log the hours, and never run pay-to-print coverage — every verdict is one we'd stand behind at the pub.

1,200+
Guides published
9.4M
Reads a year
18k
Guild members
100%
Games finished

How we cover a game

Every piece runs the same three-step forge.

A writer taking notes while playing an RPG
01

Full playthrough first

No review goes live until a writer has cleared the main campaign — minimum 40 logged hours for RPGs. We track every crash, difficulty spike, and quality-of-life gripe as we go.

A strategy map and controller on a desk
02

Strategy stress-tested

Boss guides are re-run on the hardest difficulty by a second editor. If our route can't be reproduced with the gear we recommend, it doesn't ship. Screenshots and timings are ours, never scraped.

An editor reviewing an article on screen
03

Spoiler-flagged edit

Every article is fact-checked, spoiler-tagged section by section, and given a plain-English verdict box up top. You'll always know the score before you scroll into story details.

The writers

The crew behind the keep.

Portrait of Mara V.

Mara V.

Editor-in-chief · RPGs

Founded the blog in 2016. 3,000+ hours across the Souls series and a soft spot for CRPGs nobody else finishes.

Portrait of Dan O.

Dan O.

Strategy lead · Boss guides

Speedrunner turned guide writer. If there's a frame-perfect dodge, Dan has already mapped it and written it down.

Portrait of Priya S.

Priya S.

Indie & lore writer

Champions small studios and writes the lore essays. Covered 200+ indies out of Melbourne's local dev scene.

Portrait of Tom H.

Tom H.

Video & capture

Shoots every screenshot and clip we publish. Runs the capture rig and keeps our footage 100% original.

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Get in touch

Pitch a story or say hello.

Got a game we should cover, a correction, or a review-copy request? Drop us a line. We read everything and reply to most within two business days from our Collingwood studio.

Phone
+61 3 9419 8706
Studio
47 Oxford Street, Collingwood VIC 3066
Hours
Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm AEST