Challenge

From the beginning, the game team wanted to attract the millions of Game of Thrones fans. However, a majority of this audience are not typical slot players. After several focus groups with the Player Insights group, we decided to focus on the target group of GoT fans who would enthralled by the authenticity of the narrative, gameplay, and art that they would not mind playing slots. We assumed that GoT fans would have an affinity toward card battler games (Hearthstone, Clash Royale) or MMORPGs (League of Legends) but the big risk is that this approach might distract more traditional slots players.

Approach

We decided to add a league system whereby rival houses could compete by earning battle points while spinning on slots. The team felt confident that the scope and the strategy was solid to develop. Along with the lead product manager, I worked on high-level player journeys and an interactive prototype for leagues. These early prototypes provided early buy-in from the executive team and proved to us that we were heading in the right direction.

Once the user journeys were completed, I shared with the UX team to flesh out the details with wireframe flows.
1) Joining, creating, and managing a House
2) Fight other houses for control of Westeros
3) Social chat among your House members

Houses in Westeros
House allegiance is an essential theme of the GoT franchise, and we wanted to make sure that players understood that being in a ‘pack’ would be more beneficial than playing as a ‘lone wolf’. Rewards for joining a house were made very obvious, and easily accessible with one tap away. Every new player is given a profile name that fits into the Westeros world such as ‘Jaq’r Waysen’. If players wanted to create their own house, they can name it, select a house banner design, and select house criteria. Social casino players were not used to complicated features like clan systems so the onboarding experience had to be frictionless and casual.

Battle for Westeros
Once players have sworn fealty to a house, what can they do? And what are the benefits? We needed a feature that felt like part of the story, and I wanted to incorporate the gorgeous map art in any way possible. I did not know of any other GoT game provided a three-dimensional interactive map of Westeros. While it seemed obvious now, it was difficult to work out how we could accomplish this without it being too complicated to understand. Inspired by the RISK board game, I pitched the idea of houses battling over regions of Westeros. To control a region, houses competed against each other by spinning on the featured slots game. At the end of the week, houses with the most points win the weekly prize.

Social interaction in Leagues
As part of the League system, the UX team worked on a chat system whereby they could chat with others, send gifts, and also start a rally. The design team, including product and UX, discussed if coins and rewards should be collected in one central location for gifts and rewards. Social interactions were important for each house, and, to drive engagement, the chat UI is also where players would need to collect gifts and coins. While this might break how we understand good UX, making gifts part of the social was used as an ‘icebreaker’ to start conversation and drive engagement to chat.