The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth

Ringbearers,

It’s a pleasure to meet you all and to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I’m Nick Reinhart, and I’ve recently joined the team as the Game Director of Heroes of Middle-earth. It has been a pleasure to become familiar with the community and work with the amazing team making Heroes of Middle-earth. I’m here to give you an update on the changes that are coming to the game. As some players may be aware, a news article launched sooner than we intended regarding the slow down in releases and changes to the game. I had originally intended to provide more details around these changes sooner, but we wanted to make sure the information we’re about to give to you is as accurate and true as possible. We appreciate your patience as this update has been a while coming.

After reviewing feedback and commentary from players, and being retrospective as game makers, we have identified several key areas of improvement in the game we want to work on: 

• Visual Art changes
  
• Character abilities/strategy depth
• General User Experience
• Early Game Experiences and Goals

We want to be intentional and consider carefully where we are choosing to intervene. Let me walk you through our intentions on how we plan to improve the game.

We love the current visual style and story we have in the game. We recognize that there are common depictions of some areas of Middle-earth that can appear bleak, dark, even apocalyptic. However throughout the works of Tolkien there are always elements of lightness, joy, and of course hope, that we believe should be present throughout. We recognize our balance between these tonal elements has been off and we’re seeking to bring back some of the drama and tension that exists in the world of Middle-earth. To show that epic battles demonstrate the quest to destroy the One Ring is a perilous adventure. 

In terms of Art style, we’re adding more atmosphere and depth to our game by tweaking colors and palettes and also improving textures on models and environments. We’re also reviewing our lighting philosophy and aiming to make the characters stand out more, with the environments acting as clear visual elements in setting the atmosphere of the battles. There will still be whimsy and fun, but our goal now is to strike a balance between the light and the dark, the tense and the fun. 

Regarding the character abilities and the strategic depth of the game, the team have revisited fundamental philosophies in making characters for RPGs: What is the core fantasy of playing any single character and/or faction? And how do character mechanics celebrate that core fantasy while creating tactical and strategic depth? In seeking to address those questions we came to the realization we needed more uniqueness to various factions, in order to give players the opportunity to continuously discover and construct innovative teams that solve particular challenges or play to specific strengths. We also want to create the space for you to experiment with fun combinations. Overall, character metas is an area that will continually be tweaked and evolve well past the eventual world wide launch of Heroes of Middle-earth.

In approaching the area of general User Experience, we want to ensure that in every part of the game it serves to enhance the player’s immersive experience in Heroes of Middle-earth. This includes improvements such as transitions throughout the game that feel smoother and adding more details – such as runes or filigree elements – to really convey that fantasy ambience. Additionally, we’ll be working to make all the menus and modes easier to navigate through, as well as adding more ways to interact with the world throughout the game. It’s expected that this will be one of the largest areas of work and require the most time, as we’ll be trying out various changes, listening to your feedback on those changes, monitoring other data, and then iterating further on the parts that need more improvement. Our ultimate goal is to make the world of Middle-earth as engaging and immersive as possible.

Having meaningful goals which players can work towards can be challenging to quantify and elaborate on, however it is an important element for us through development. I believe we can use the foundations we have in our current goals and do even better, especially during the early areas of the game. When addressing the early player journey, we intend to improve and do a better job of guiding players and providing directions and ways to collect, level up, and create interesting character teams. Alongside changes to character abilities, we believe we can create more dynamic and interesting experiences throughout the different areas of the game. As a character collection game, improving your team is a core part of the fun of a role-playing game. It's important for us to be intentional about the player’s journey towards the later stages of the game as well as the later game itself. While we intend to have a content-rich and long plan for the later stages of the game, it’s crucial that we make sure that the early game is just as satisfying and benefits players on their way to the later stages of the game.

I understand that this update as to the state of Heroes of Middle-earth has been very lengthy. But I want to communicate to you, our community, two key points.

First, to reassure you that we are continuing to be hard at work developing the game as we work hard towards an eventual worldwide launch. Soft Launch is the perfect time to gather data and act appropriately and accordingly if we see opportunities to do better. The responses we’ve had so far have made us stop, think, and now move towards a more healthy, and positive direction for the game.

Second, I wanted to convey to you how carefully and thoughtfully our approach is towards development. It’s a rare gift to work on such a beloved brand as Lord of the Rings. We seek to create new and interesting experiences based in J.R.R. Tolkien’s wondrous universe for the world to see. In order to do it the best justice we can, we will take as much time as needed to do right by fans, now and in the future

We know you’re very keen for news and excited to see the outcomes of change. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Change takes time and game development is no different. We’re hoping that players will start seeing some of the early changes in the outlined areas starting from game updates from next year onwards. These are wide reaching changes and as such will be done over time, so please don’t expect things to dramatically change in a short period of time.

Moving forward we will strive to keep you informed with periodic updates as to how development of the game is going. While we won’t have huge status updates like this very often, I will be in touch where necessary.

Thank you for your continued support and interest in Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, and I look forward to our continued relationship in the coming years.

Nick Reinhart, Game Director