By Vivien Redmann
The Halloween Event’s new minigame mechanic makes a comeback in the History Event!
But back to the beginning: The Halloween Event 2023 brought a new minigame into the game for Forge of Empires players: Based on the rock-paper-scissors principle, the minigame lets players fight card duels, a visualization of the fight through a dungeon of nasty monstrosities. At the end of the dungeon awaits a big boss fight, but also great treasure. After learning the rules of the card duel, many players were able to successfully proof their strategy skills and took great rewards to their cities! In the InnoBlog last year, we offered an exclusive look into how the 2023 Halloween Event was created.
As the card game mechanic makes its second appearance in the History Event, the game team was presented with an opportunity to make improvements for a better player experience. To get insights on the changes, we have invited Senior Game Designer Ameya and Product Manager Thiago from the Forge of Empires Game Team for a detailed interview!
1. With the first question we want to know why you decided to incorporate the card game mechanics for the History Event?
Firstly, a great opportunity emerged that allowed us to incorporate historical characters into the event, and we feel the card game mechanic is a great fit for a history-themed event.
Additionally, we received very positive feedback from the community regarding the mechanic. Somehow a lot of our players enjoyed the strategic complexity of the Card Duel and how they could have different challenges every time they started a new game. We believe that the flexibility of having different decks, different factions and multiple extra card options is exactly the experience some of our most dedicated players appreciate a lot. Every run needs a strategy, and each decision will help define success or defeat. With that in mind we explored the mechanics a bit more, understanding the complete spectrum of our passionate players.
To ensure that we give a second try to the more hard-core players and as well as allow a tranquil game for our more casual audience, we invested a lot in improving the mechanic for the History Event. We added new difficulty levels, much more visual cues for quicker decisions and a progression system (Negotiation Power) that allow players to have a stronger deck the more you engage with an event.
With this combination we hope to bring a great History Event to each one of you.
2. It’s no longer a fight of monsters against monsters, but heroes of history who compete against other heroes. How did you implement this change into the card duel?
We started with a blank Canvas and some inspiration from our friends at Innogames. Looking back into the remarkable characters from history and folklore, across several countries and cultures, we identified the ones that resonate better together and created the Factions. Geniuses and their intellect, Manipulators and their craftiness, Commanders and their leadership, Champions and their valor, each of these heroes have their uniqueness, story and we hope players can also identify and find their favorite ones.
With this motivation set, we reworked the all the event visuals, color schemes and animations to build the perfect stage where the masters can show their strength.
3. Instead of competing against a deck of a certain faction (vampires, zombies, or werewolves) you now choose the opposing deck from three difficulties. How does your choice of difficulty reflect in the rewards and event progression?
When selecting the difficulty level for your opposing deck, you’re given a choice that impacts both the challenge and the rewards. Opting for the Hard difficulty requires careful strategic play, as it involves more complex card mechanics and tougher opponents. However, this choice also embodies the high-risk, high-reward principle, offering greater rewards and more significant progression through event milestones as compared to the Easy or Medium settings.
4. Fitting the new theme, the user interface received a redesign. Can you highlight some of the changes that resulted from play tests and community feedback?
The redesigned user interface introduces a dynamic faction triangle that clearly shows the strategic relationships between factions, enhancing decision-making during battles. Additional tooltips provide explanations and tips, aiding gameplay understanding. The health shop icon now pulsates if health is critically low, prompting timely action. Also, when selecting a difficulty, the interface highlights the potential rewards, emphasizing the high-risk, high-reward aspect of tougher challenges. These improvements were guided by player feedback and playtesting.
5. Our final question touches on the ability cards. It looks like there have been some updates here as well. Are there any must-have cards players should look out for in the card shop?
We tried as much as we could to create an assortment of cards that have individual meaning and can be used depending on the situation the player faces. That is the magic part of this event, each run is virtually unique and poses a different challenge to the players. On runs that the player faces several battles with faction advantage, looking for cards such as Steal and Great Heist can increase a lot the rewards collected if you could make it to the boss.
On other runs, the use of Heals and Damage Cards are vital to make it all the way to the end. Personally, I would always keep an eye on Negotiation Power to unlock our Special Cards in the shop and use their superiority to improve your results.
As in all our events we give space for our players to decide which rewards they will focus on. The decision to chase Daily Specials, a nice event pass rewards or an exclusive space on the gold league can be a deciding factor to guide the difficulty a player will play as well as the cards to be picked.
This brings our interview to a close. Huge thanks to Thiago and Ameya for answering our questions!
Make sure to stop by in Forge of Empires to play the History Event 2024 until May 27!
And join the official Forge of Empires Discord server to be first to see the lastest news and announcements, connecting with thousands of other Forge players!
– Vivien Redmann –
Junior Social Media Specialist, InnoGames
RJ 
Hernan Diaz