Eric Larsen, studio manager at Capital Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, says he wants the studio's flagship game. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes will last 37 years.
Why 37? “Honestly, I have no idea,” he admitted. “Something about it being a prime number?” He said that someone threw out this figure early in development Galaxy of Heroesand the Capital Games team has kept it as the target lifespan for a Star Wars-themed mobile RPG.
Considering that the oldest online games that are still running are around 28-29 years old (a random search shows that Furcadia maybe the oldest?) This is an ambitious schedule, especially in the world of mobile online games. Galaxy of Heroes is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, which means it has outlasted a number of other free-to-play Star Wars games published by EA and seen the release of five films, seven game series and about six animated shows. Star Wars title not always enough to attract players. So what did Capital Games do to survive this long?
Larsen, of course, was delighted Galaxy of Heroes the player community and their loyalty for staying in the game for so long – but if you want practical takeaways for your live service team, you'll want to follow it back to 2018, when we were all reeling from backlash towards objectively better things (editor's note: this is biased, but Bryant insisted we keep it) film from the series: Star Wars. Episode VII: The Last Jedi…
Capital Games used new game modes to create Galaxy of Heroes development is more sustainable
The Last Jedi actually has very little to do with this story, and neither does Solo: A Star Wars Story, the other major film released in 2018. Instead, Larsen said, 2018 was the year that high-ranking guilds began telling Capital Games that they were feeling the effects of slowing player growth. “We don't have enough new players coming in and progressing fast enough to replace the players who are leaving,” Larsen remembers them saying.
At the same time, Capital Games was having difficulty creating new content using four-year-old tools. Around this time, the studio determined that the method of working was “too heavy and manual”, requiring developers to manually create all aspects of new content – content that could be quickly consumed and keep players spinning on their own. wheeled bicycles. It was then that the team conceived the game modes “Conquest” and “Galactic Challenges”.
“Even though they were fashions, they were [also] “I think we were kind of frustrated as a team that we had to move quickly and try to get more information in front of the team because we didn't make some of those investments in the early years.”
The release of these modes and a number of other changes has opened up space for the Capital Games team to plan further – a task that is especially difficult with a license like Star Wars. Disney's notorious secrecy about upcoming projects means that some companies, like EA, don't have access to storylines or characters from upcoming projects, making it difficult to plan content to tie in with new Star Wars stories. Larsen said he personally learned of this in the run-up to the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Stories” in 2016. “I think it made me more sensitive to the fact that film development is a fluid process,” he said. “Installation work can be carried out at the installation site.”
So what do you do if you're missing key information that most other studios could get themselves? Larsen nodded to the upcoming Ryan Gosling vehicle Star Wars: Starfighter as an example of the studio “planning ahead” while working with limited information. “We think that's what the ships will probably be really remarkable about there. What can we do? How can we start to get ahead of this?” Galaxy of Heroes there are already systems suitable for spacecraft, but knowing these basic details can allow the studio to begin planning technical and high-level design concepts to prepare content for when the film is released.
Additionally, there is the “season” format (which many live-action games now use) which allows developers to create more meaningful content from new films months or years after their release.
But let's go back to Larsen's comment about talking to player guilds. They played a key role in updating Capital Games' development strategy. What can we learn from players who stick around for 10 years in an online role-playing game?
Some early Galaxy of Heroes players now raise their own children
Larsen said he officially realized he was working on a “generational” game when he saw some players describe how they started playing. Galaxy of Heroes in high school and are now introducing it to their children. For some math, if a 17-year-old started gaming in 2015 and had a baby at 22, his five-year-old might be old enough to watch movies… or at least ask his parents if they have games on their phone.
Some of these players were early adopters who abandoned the game a few years after its launch, only to return later and discover a veritable feast of game modes upon their return. Even though the game is described as an “RPG,” Larsen said the most dedicated players find the most fun in managing resources. “It's about expressing [their] intelligence,” he said. Marketing director Fabien-Pierre Nicolas-Kim said this made the game popular in France and Germany, two regions with a strong affinity for board and digital strategy games (among other regions, of course – he cited India, the Philippines and Eastern Europe as regions with a strong gaming base).
This means that these players aren't as concerned with the “role-playing” Star Wars characters per se, they're more interested in collecting different characters, upgrading them, and mixing/matching them to win battles and top the leaderboards.
10 years of development meant that there is many of characters to choose from (Larsen's personal favorites are Knights of the Old Republic fan favorites Darth Revan and Darth Traya). Larsen said the 37-year battle plan involves making sure those players feel like their investment in the game – be it time or money – is “respected” and that new content can still be challenging without invalidating older pieces of their collection.
The pair said they are working hard to ensure that low (or no cost) players are rewarded for their time in the game. Galaxy of Heroes as far as possible. Larsen said that from his early days on the team, he watched his colleagues prioritize what he called “the right decisions for the players,” even if it meant “leaving money on the table” or “not capitalizing.” He mentioned that the team doesn't always “get it right,” but noted that there was always a desire to focus those investments, even if they didn't hit the mark.
How can mobile RPGs evolve over time?
Galaxy of Heroes is one of many free-to-play mobile RPGs where players collect characters to strengthen them and increase their power level. It would be fair to say that the format is a bit ossified, and unlike its competitors, Capital Games can't easily tap into the “collaboration” market that allows them to mix and match characters from other franchises. With 27 years left on the clock, where does the series go next?
Larsen was coy here, but he said the trend he's followed since his earliest days at EA has been to try to give players the ability to play games wherever they want, on whatever platform they want. He recalled an experiment in which EA's social group, which makes games for Facebook, was “embedded” in Dead Space 3 team to try to create a multi-platform experience. The game was cancelled, but he said trends in subsequent years, where players can play games on mobile, console and PC platforms, make him think they're on to something. “It was like Betamax,” he said. “We're always looking for something new – where we find fandom and give the opportunity to imagine your own Star Wars experience, wherever you want to play.” Interestingly, the team is apparently experimenting with controller-friendly game modes.
“We have versions of the game built into controllers, and we've created synchronized PvP modes that haven't been released yet, and they actually work quite well,” he said. “I don’t know if this moment will last forever, but I think there’s a lot for us to explore now.”
EA has made several statements about its desire to exit licensed gaming businessso it is possible that in 27 years, Galaxy of Heroes this will be the last game standing for now publishing house partially owned by Saudi Arabia. It will be a testament to Capital Games if they overcome another two-plus decades of game development chaos.
But you know what they say. “The future is always in motion.”
