With eight seasons, many hearts broken, and one entertaining ride, HBO’s Game of Thrones has reached its end. However, that by no means is the last we’ll see of George R. R. Martin’s world. For one thing, he hasn’t finished the Song of Ice and Fire books at the time of writing. For another, HBO has announced a prequel series set in the universe. Despite these, however, one thing not mentioned (or mentioned very little) is a video game set in the SOIAF universe. That is where we come in. Here, we’re going to pitch an idea for a “Game” of Thrones (sorry, couldn’t resist…).
BUILDING BLOCKS
There are already a few Game of Thrones games out there with Telltale’s being the most well known. However, none of them have really blown people away in comparison to similar genre titles. These titles, however, have the foundations a quality Game of Thrones game could be built from. Some titles that come to mind include Witcher, Dragon Age, Dark Souls, and The Elder Scrolls. Taking the appropriate elements from these and other, less obvious titles, an exciting and addicting Game of Thrones video game could be forged.
STAY TRUE TO CHARACTER
The great draw of Game of Thrones is not the epic scale, dragons, or sex. It’s the characters. Well-crafted, complex characters are what bring the audiences back from week to week because they want to see what all of these questionable, powerful personalities are going to do. That would need to be at the forefront of any Game of Thrones game and, at the center of it, would be your character.
If you’ve read other articles we’ve done, you know that we at WHM are big Open World RPG fans with the central focus being players building their own story. So, naturally, we think it would be most rewarding to a player if they were given their own character to create from the ground up in a world that was fairly open world, maybe in the vain of Witcher 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition.
As stated earlier, Thrones is well liked because of its existing characters. They, in turn, would have to then be transferred into the game. And therefore the timeframe would be when the show & books are set. While this may seem like this would ruin plot details and, in some cases, limit what can be done, the benefits to such an approach outweigh the negatives. Jon Snow, Danny, Ned, Cersi, and more would all be around at the start and the major events with those characters would not change. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything for your main character.
CHARACTER CREATION
The character creation would start by choosing one of two roots: brains or brawn. In the world of Thrones, there don’t seem to be many characters, if any, who can do both very well. They are either very clever or very good with a weapon. That would be how your character would start out as well, or rather as a novice specializing in one of those two areas. In the other area, they would have little to no skill at all at the start. That decision does not lock you in to the rest of the game, however, because you could always choose to nurture the skills of the opposite skill tree instead of what you picked at the start. Maybe you can be the first political scheming warrior in Westeros… if you work hard enough.
From there, you pick your allegiance, which will be limited to the following: Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, or Greyjoy. Why those four? Because they were all represented in the first episode of the show at Winterfell. That, naturally, would be where the game begins as well as it is the largest early meeting of main characters early in the story. It is at this massive meeting of important characters that your character’s journey begins.
WHAT HAPPENS
At that initial gathering in Winterfell, you’ll start your character’s journey based off of your interactions with the characters from the show present as well as other characters not from the show that will play key roles in your story. You can choose to follow Jon to the wall, be a servant for the Lannisters, be an agent for Littlefinger, be a loyal lord, or something else entirely. Depending on where your allegiance lies and what your starting skills are, certain options may or may not be open to you of what paths you can take from Winterfell.
So what’s the point of the game? Simple: survive the show. Well, it’s more complicated than that. It’s more like a deadly version of Monopoly, or it can be any way. You’re encouraged to increase your status in Westeros through politics, schemeing, and war. Granted, you’ll never get the Iron Throne, but you could get pretty close if you so desire. Or you could simply say, “Fuck this!” and try to stay out of the game all together. You can try to live the peaceful life of a farmer or tradesman, but it’s Westeros. Being peaceful never works there.
There would also be different modes of gameplay difficulty that wouldn’t be in the traditional manner. There could be one that lets you reload to your most recent save (typical video game style) and a second mode that is just one and done. Think of it as the “I am the Night” mode from Batman: Arkham Origins (if you aren’t familiar, look it up). This second mode would play much more realistically in combat as well. Overall, the name of the game is to survive.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
This was just a rough pitch for a Game of Thrones game and many more ideas could be added on to it. You might also have ideas of your own completely different from those above. What say you? Feel free to share in the comments below!