Interview with Battlegrounds Lead Developer

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Today we’re sitting down with the Product Owner for Battlegrounds

As part of our ongoing commitment to making this feature community focused, he will be joining our Discord community for the next few months; hearing your thoughts and bringing your feedback into Battlegrounds development.

Hello Game of Thrones: Conquest Community! I go by Goose on Discord, and I am the Product Owner (PO) of our next major feature, Battlegrounds!  As a PO, I’m part of a LARGE team here at WB Games Boston who is working tirelessly to bring you some very exciting content.  

My role here is to work to communicate our “vision” of what this feature is going to be, and how your voices can help shape our final product.  As you will see, this is a large endeavour with several key points along the way.  I want everyone here to feel like they’re part of the journey.

Finally, as a player of Game of Thrones Conquest (over 3 years… where does time go?) I am very excited for the opportunity to build these awesome new experiences and have a hand in what’s to come!

Let’s get into the questions!

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Describe Battlegrounds in your own words

One of the cornerstones of Game of Thrones Conquest is the allegiance system.  Your glory is gained by the collective actions of your lieges and bannermen working together towards common goals.  Battlegrounds is a whole new way for allegiances to participate in competitive, epic events, both in Player vs Environment (PvE) and Player vs Player (PvP) scenarios.  When designing Battlegrounds we had several “core pillars” that we are working towards with each milestone.

  • Everyone who participates in battlegrounds will MEANINGFULLY contribute to their allegiance’s success:  Everyone who qualifies to participate in a battleground, regardless of keep level and power, will have the opportunity to play a critical role in the success of their allegiance.
  • Battlegrounds will feel different than anything else in Game of Thrones Conquest:  Travel to new locales, and experience epic battles from GoT universe!
  • Competitive and Fun!  Battlegrounds will bring about new ways to compete against allegiances not only in your kingdom, but in ALL kingdoms
  • Opt-in, Short Duration:  Battlegrounds are meant to be short lived events that allegiances can opt into at their convenience.
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Why Battlegrounds and not another feature idea or request?

Game of Thrones: Conquest has done an amazing job at adding and extending ways to build your keep and leverage your power.  Battlegrounds was conceived as a platform in which players can use their accumulated strength in many different, and exciting ways for years to come!

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What has been the biggest hurdle of working on this project so far.

 The primary goal of this feature is to be fun.  Defining what is fun for players is hard!  There is no single metric of fun, as it’s purely subjective.  However, the team has done an amazing job at taking player feedback both from the community and those of us who play, and designed experiences that players who are fans of Game of Thrones: Conquest will enjoy.

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What can you tell us about the feature?

The initial release of Battlegrounds consists of multiple milestones.  Each milestone builds upon the previous, both in terms of technology, and the knowledge we acquire from game data and player feedback!  We are being very intentional about this iterative approach and polling players throughout this long feature roadmap.  We want the freedom to evolve the feature as we go to make it something truly extraordinary for players.

We have labeled Battlegrounds as being in “Beta” very intentionally. Our intent is to apply what we learn as we go.  Things can and will change, so let us know what you think!  

A formal introduction to that first milestone is forthcoming; however, I can tell you that it is a very critical first step in our journey.  It will be an allegiance focused PVE encounter that will introduce allegiances to the core components of battlegrounds and the on-demand content they provide.  You’ll be working as a team to collect some very exclusive rewards!  There will be much more information in the coming weeks on how allegiances should prepare and what steps we’ve taken to ensure EVERYONE has an epic adventure!

However, this milestone only sets the foundation for even more amazing content to come!

So you are a very active player of Game of Thrones: Conquest yourself…

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What troop type do you main?

I’ve dabbled in all of them, but I have put most of my effort into ranged, mainly because my primary competition is infantry 🙂

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If you were a stat, what would you be?

Trap Attack is the only appropriate answer to this question

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Favorite character?

Let’s just say that I’m still crossing my fingers for a Hound & Arya roadtrip series… that would be amazing.

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What do you want players to know about you?

As an avid player myself, I’m excited to share this feature with all of you. 

As a data nerd, I’m excited to see how you all interact with battlegrounds and push the limits of your allegiance’s potential. 

Finally, as the PO for this feature, I’m looking forward to working with the community to make this feature an epic edition to Game of Thrones Conquest for years to come!

Join the GoT:C Community!

Join us over on Discord and Look out for Goose#4084! He’ll be joining us for the next few months, listening to your thoughts and interacting closely with our Player Council as Battlegrounds construction continues.

So head on over to the #Battlegrounds channel and let us know what you think! 

What questions do you want to see answered in our next update?