How To Make A Game of Thrones Game (Based on A Song of Ice And Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones for non-book readers) is one of the most beloved and imaginative series ever created, offering an utterly unique and fascinating fantasy world, the likes of which has never been created before. This world is a perfect setting for an RPG game but, for some reason, such a game has never been created.

The recent release of Hogwarts Legacy has taken the world by storm, giving every Harry Potter fan the ability to attend the titular school and become the kind of witch or wizard that they’ve always wanted to. This does raise a question though. How come, despite it having the perfect setting, no developer has made an open world ASOIAF game?

If for some reason a big game developer is reading this article for an idea of what to do next, don’t worry because I’ve got you covered! In this list, I will go over 10 reasons why the ASOIAF world is the perfect setting for a video game, as well as how quintessential RPG mechanics and playstyles would fit into it in a way to wash the memory of the final 2 seasons of the show from all of our minds!

 

10. The world itself

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Game of Thrones is set in a continent called Westeros. Westeros is broken up into several parts, all consisting of their own specific climate, aesthetic, geography, strengths and weaknesses. Each land is filled to the brim with places to explore and lore to discover, as well as legendary locations that the player would be able to visit.

Not to mention that the world itself is deeply mysterious. According to the lore, it was first inhabited by a strange and magical race called the Children of the Forest, which means that the place is way older than what is commonly thought. This gives the perfect opportunity to sprinkle in mystical places for us to visit with ancient secrets and mysteries for us to find.

Since it would be an open world RPG, exploration would be one of the biggest aspects to the overall experience. The rich and intriguing world of ASOIAF is perfect for this due to the aforementioned reasons, among many others. From the fertile soils of the Reach to the frigid and ancient lands of the North, Westeros is the perfect place to facilitate the needs of any gamer!

 

9. The Playstyles

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With such a large and expansive world, it becomes clear that there would also be a large variety of playstyles. Those looking for a knightly adventure could start off and finish the game as a knight, whereas those that are of a more explosive disposition can become mages.

The playstyles could be virtually endless as people would also be allowed to customize the way they play and the equipment they use at any point. This point perfectly also ties into the next one, which talks about all the different quests that the game could offer.

 

8. Quests

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A world with such deep, intricate and storied lore as that of ASOIAF, it seems only natural (and obvious) that the player would be able to do everything that the author has written about. The main and side quests would all tie together and would give the player ultimate choice on how they want their character to be. They can help the smallfolk or become greedy and steal from everyone.

For example, the player could start off as a lowly foot soldier in the army of a Lord of any of the 7 kingdoms, but could slowly work his way up to being the Lord of that same army. Whether this is through righteous ascension or backstabbing trickery is all up to the player himself. Many different quests would be included, such as massive side quests and even small NPC fetch and contract quests.

Everything would work little by little and eventually increase the legend of the player either through just or evil means. Want to become a member of the Kingsguard? Want to become the Lord of Winterfell? All of these things would be part of the natural progression of the player and will tie into quests that lead to these outcomes based on your decisions.

 

7. Player Freedom

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An RPG is nothing if it doesn’t give players the choice to play through the game. The way that George R.R. Martin wrote the books and the world is in a way that makes it  feel very real and very lived in, with thousands of people doing thousands of different things and living their lives. 

Never has it been said that every single resident of the continent is a warrior, which means that the game can have a whole bunch of different things for the player to do in their free time and can even become their occupation. They could potentially start a bakery in the middle of the road, or become a Master at Arms at some Lords holdfast. The richness of the established lore offers a great deal of options to the players.

This even ties into where the player is born. A Dornishman can become a knight for House Martell or if he chooses, he can start his own house and overtake the Martells in Dorne or even the Arryns in the Vale. Giving players a vast amount of choice in the game to do whatever they want is surely a recipe for success as it gives each and every player the chance to carve out their own destinies and walk their own paths. Imagine if every great house had a side quest that saw one of theirs seating the iron throne and the result had to depend on who you chose.

 

6. Equipment 

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ASOIAF has no shortage of badass equipment that the characters use. There are a lot of Valyrian Steel weapons that are named in the books and are legendary weapons that are quite often passed down as family heirlooms for generations, used by different legendary warriors across time. These are also coupled with many great and unique armor sets that really put the wearer apart.

As an RPG, the loot is essential to the overall experience and the weapons used by the player over the course of the game can also be constantly upgraded to be legendary in their own right, Valyrian Steel or not. The player can make their own equipment the stuff of tales or use already existing legends to further expound their own.

 

5. Political Intrigue

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The main thing that separates ASOIAF from other contemporary fantasy works is that the fantasy aspect is relatively more in the background. The main draw of the series are the characters and the stories, with every great house of Westeros clawing at each other for power and greater political influence.

In a potential game, the house that eventually does reach the Iron Throne may be in that position thanks to you, making you a ruler from the shadows with everyone secretly answerable to you. 

This choice is very deliberate because it gives the characters a much bigger emphasis, which gives them more depth and nuance. In a potential ASOIAF game, seeing the player become a massive political player would be great to see.

 

4. Mystical Intrigue

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To contrast the last point, we have the magical aspects of the world. Since this has always been more of a background storyline in the books, it definitely adds to the world's overall mystery and allure. The fact that there are so many secrets in the deep and tucked away corners of the world makes the player just want to explore every corner of Westeros.

There’s also an entire feeling of impending doom, which really makes the petty political squabbles of the rest of the world ultimately meaningless if they don’t come together to stop the greater threat. Walking around the world of the video game and seeing signs of the Others and trying to get everyone to band together against them would be an amazing experience. Do you unite the realms and  stop the larger threat or do you leave everyone to their tragic and inevitable fates? That’s all up to you.

 

3. Other Lands

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George R.R. Martin is an absolute master of world building. Where the main story focuses on a fairly standard, medieval-European themed fantasy knight story, he really lets his creative juices flow when he talks about the foreign and strange lands to the East. These lands are brimming with beings and creatures that sound completely alien to what we are used to in Westeros.

Sure, from a gaming perspective, it would be very unlikely for us to visit Essos in its entirety due to its sheer size and lack of information. However, a few key cities such as Braavos and Meereen could be very great places to visit, as they offer very prominent perspectives that are very iconic and are in the main story as well.

Though limited, these locations can show us but a glimpse of the very strange and almost alien things that are present in the Eastern continent, perhaps even giving some level of insight to the whole conflict with the White Walkers in Westeros.

 

2. Guilds

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Guilds in this RPG game would work pretty much exactly like the ones in Skyrim, with some, such as the Maesters Guild, perhaps even being locked behind a playstyle option. There would be many guilds in the game, all housing their own secrets and techniques which would all really help specific play styles that would guarantee admission to them.

These guilds would give the player certain perks and techniques that would be unique to them only and could not be found anywhere else. This adds a great amount of variety and replayability to the game.

 

1. The Setting of the Story 

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The biggest thing to consider when potentially making an ASOIAF game would definitely be the setting. Tthe main story from the books would be great but there are a few problems with that; the books constantly jump between a ton of characters, which would be very hard to do in a massive RPG game. Also, the books still aren’t finished so we wouldn’t know the intended ending, which is a bad thing considering the fact that the ending of the show left a horrible taste in people’s mouth.

So what could the setting be? One contender are any of the Blackfyre Rebellions, which are a fan favorite event to have taken place way before the start of the story proper. Another example is Robert’s Rebellion where he (seemingly) ends the Targaryen bloodline by killing the heir to the throne, which are all really great time periods to have a setting in. This is because they all have political turmoil and a ton of battles going on so it's quite an interesting time.

However, all these settings have 1 major shortcoming in common; they are all established lore that have specific endings and we know what will happen. This doesn’t allow for much freedom as we know what will ultimately happen. The best course of action here would be to completely make up their own setting.

This is the best option because this allows for the freshest experience and will allow every player to have a brand new and unique adventure in this gorgeous world. This has been done before with Shadow of Mordor series, where they introduced a brand new story within the established lore which isn’t exactly canon but does fit into the larger story. So, introducing a whole new series with new characters would be the best option when it comes time to write for the game, allowing developers' imagination to go wild!