Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, a new RTS game set in the iconic fantasy universe, was announced earlier this week during Friday’sSummer Game Festpresentation. Set during the events of the books and television series, players can control several different factions as they vie for control of the Seven Kingdoms. Though only a bit of the game has been revealed so far during the initial SGF announcement, a conversation with the game’s director has helped shed more light on what players can expect.
Players will be able to choose between the armies ofHouse Stark, House Lannister, House Targaryen, or the Night Kingto achieve victory. Though it takes place in a time fans are familiar with, they’ll have the option to alter the events they know through their actions. Warfare isn’t the only thing that matters, either - the political relationships formed or betrayed will also impact chances of victory.
ScreenRantinterviewed Ryan McMahon, game director forWar for Westeros, to discuss the title’s diplomacy systems, what kind of varying strategies players can expect, and the team’s main priorities when it comes to crafting aGame of Thronesgame.
War for Westeros Lets Players “Rewrite The Fate Of The Realm”
Fans Can Choose Their Own Iron Throne Ending To The Iconic Story
A big part ofGame of Thrones: War for Westerosis the idea of players writing their own story, both inside and out of the game. One of the things McMahon is most excited to see is “the dynamic between players and how that unfolds.” It’s a new kind of “almost Among Us-style power dynamics” where players are “able to rewrite the fate of the realm” that gives players the power to put who they truly wanted to see on the Iron Throne.
“Everyone wanted something different,” he continues: “If people loved a specific hero, it’s about being able to create a pathway for them to be the winner and giving that freedom for people to explore the IP in the way that they want to explore it.” Beyond that fan fantasy, though, the team is focused on interpersonal experiences, with McMahon saying that “shared experiences between friends throughout the game” and making it “something that they can go away and talk about from the different moments that get created when they play” is a huge part of what they’re trying to capture.
Much of this comes not just from the battles but from political betrayals mid-game. “A lot of it comes through the natural politics of players vying for power,” he says, “with it being a free-for-all style game, the whole ‘only one person can sit on the Iron Throne,’ people will naturally form political movements against each other and team up at times and betray each other to fight for that control over the map. Every situation is four players going to a free-for-all skirmish fighting for that control, but only one can come out on top.”
For example, he explains, “It could be that we see that someone is ahead in the game, and I might send a message to someone who is also in that match and say, ‘Hey, this person’s on top. If we don’t stop them, they’re going to win.’ Then as we are marching forward, I could be marching my army behind them, and they might be like, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Why are you marching your army behind my army?’ And that’s the sort of backstabbing betrayal that you can start to see in the game.”
Every Westeros Faction Brings Something To The Table
“We Really Lean Into The Core Identity Of Every Faction”
At this early stage of development, the team can’t get too in-depth when it comes to the differences between different factions. However, McMahon assures it’s much of what fans would anticipate. “What you’d sort of expect from each one of those factions,” he assures. “If you expect dragons with the Targaryens, you’ll see that; if you expect the Night King to raise the dead, that’s what he’ll do.”
“We really lean into the core identity of every faction,” he continues. “When we talked about the Starks or we talked about the Targaryens, we talk about what they represent, what they were fighting for throughout the show, what their values were, who they allied themselves with. We incorporate that as much as possible to make sure we’re also getting enough differentiation between all the factions as well.”
There will be two main modes to play: a more long-term campaign called War for Westeros, and a single skirmish-based multiplayer mode, where players can drop in and out as they please, which will allow for lots of experimentation between factions. Both can be played with friends or randomly matched opponents; the former of which McMahon compares to more of a “sandbox mode going for more of a long-form political play that you can play with your friends over multiple sessions,” whereas the latter allows a quick jump straight into RTS gameplay.
War For Westeros Is For RTS & GoT Fans
“This Is Probably Going To Be A Lot Of People’s First RTS”
Playside is no stranger tothe RTS genre, having previously produced titles likeAge of Darkness: Final Stand, and the team is also full of long-timeGame of Thronesfans. This combination has led to the creation of a title that’s both for RTS veterans of newcomers to the genre who simply love the IP. They also draw a lot of inspiration from other iconic games in the genre, likeBattle for Middle Earth,Age of Empires,Dawn of War, and even adjacent titles likeStarcraft.
Fans will get to see a lot of the world they love, with McMahon explaining that “you will fight all over Westeros. Every location across the Seven Kingdoms will be fought over to some extent.You can see King’s Landing, Deep Den, the Riverland, Harrenhal - all those are locations that the players can fight to control over. You’re essentially painting Westeros your color and fighting over each one of the locations and building up your territory.”
GoT: War for Westerosis designed to balance challenges for veterans with accessibility for those newer to it. Because of how big the IP is, McMahon says “this is probably going to be a lot of people’s first RTS,” but that’s been taken into consideration. “There’s a nice amount of depth in the lore, as much as you can get in an RTS. We are looking at this as building on the past experience of RTS, and also what made classic RTS so special in the first place, but also looking at how we build on the future generations.”
https://www.summergamefest.com/
