TimTrain
Big Huge Games
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2015
- Messages
- 18
Hey there Leaders! My name is Morgan and I'm one of the designers here at BHG.
I’m excited to introduce our newest feature, the Event System! Available to players Classical Age and above. Events are a new way for players to interact with the game. By pursuing a specific goal, players can earn fun new content celebrating historical figures and events not yet included in DomiNations!
With the Event System, we hope to move players around the box, exposing them to different parts of the game. Mark of the Assassin pushed players to engage in multiplayer combat and destroy defensive buildings without the typical multiplayer focus on stars, medals, or loot. For Trade Mansa, we rewarded players that gained trade goods, which provide an essential boost to player’s nations when used for blessings and mercenaries. Conquest gave players an opportunity to test out different army compositions and figure out the most efficient way to train, win, and return to the battlefield quickly. Our goal is to get players thinking and playing in fun new ways, expanding their knowledge and understanding of DomiNations, experience world history, and getting big loot.
Events act as our design sandbox for unique game items. It’s a space where we can test out new unit types, buildings, strategies and more. Making rewards temporary allows us to keep them exciting (if a bit overpowered) while preventing them from upsetting the balance of the game. A few ideas from events have already made their way to the game. Joan of Arc was originally a reward for one of our first events, but we liked her so much, we decided to make her a permanent addition to the Castle in our 3.1 release. Another event reward that migrated into the game is the Tactics Blessing. While we left the blessing in its original form for Conquest, we added a shorter duration version players can unlock in the library (chapter 4 of Zeal). These are the first items that made the jump, and I’m sure other ideas and items from events will enhance the game going forward.
The biggest challenge we’ve faced with the Event System is setting the goal difficulties. We put a lot of effort into coming up with goals players will find challenging, but not impossible. We made event goals age specific to account for the increase in difficulty as players progress through the ages. During the first two events, players surprised us with how quickly they were able to accomplish the goals. However, with the Conquest event, we may have made things too difficult for players. We will continue to adjust and iterate on the process until we arrive at the sweet spots that allows players engaged with the event to earn the reward with the right amount of challenge.
As always, we love to hear from you! Feel free to let us know your likes and dislikes about events or throw some of your own ideas our way. We have tons more events being planned and in the works. We’re looking forward to the next one and hope you are too!
Until then,
Morgan
I’m excited to introduce our newest feature, the Event System! Available to players Classical Age and above. Events are a new way for players to interact with the game. By pursuing a specific goal, players can earn fun new content celebrating historical figures and events not yet included in DomiNations!
With the Event System, we hope to move players around the box, exposing them to different parts of the game. Mark of the Assassin pushed players to engage in multiplayer combat and destroy defensive buildings without the typical multiplayer focus on stars, medals, or loot. For Trade Mansa, we rewarded players that gained trade goods, which provide an essential boost to player’s nations when used for blessings and mercenaries. Conquest gave players an opportunity to test out different army compositions and figure out the most efficient way to train, win, and return to the battlefield quickly. Our goal is to get players thinking and playing in fun new ways, expanding their knowledge and understanding of DomiNations, experience world history, and getting big loot.
Events act as our design sandbox for unique game items. It’s a space where we can test out new unit types, buildings, strategies and more. Making rewards temporary allows us to keep them exciting (if a bit overpowered) while preventing them from upsetting the balance of the game. A few ideas from events have already made their way to the game. Joan of Arc was originally a reward for one of our first events, but we liked her so much, we decided to make her a permanent addition to the Castle in our 3.1 release. Another event reward that migrated into the game is the Tactics Blessing. While we left the blessing in its original form for Conquest, we added a shorter duration version players can unlock in the library (chapter 4 of Zeal). These are the first items that made the jump, and I’m sure other ideas and items from events will enhance the game going forward.
The biggest challenge we’ve faced with the Event System is setting the goal difficulties. We put a lot of effort into coming up with goals players will find challenging, but not impossible. We made event goals age specific to account for the increase in difficulty as players progress through the ages. During the first two events, players surprised us with how quickly they were able to accomplish the goals. However, with the Conquest event, we may have made things too difficult for players. We will continue to adjust and iterate on the process until we arrive at the sweet spots that allows players engaged with the event to earn the reward with the right amount of challenge.
As always, we love to hear from you! Feel free to let us know your likes and dislikes about events or throw some of your own ideas our way. We have tons more events being planned and in the works. We’re looking forward to the next one and hope you are too!
Until then,
Morgan
