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Indie game Reigns is getting a Game of Thrones spinoff

Indie game Reigns is getting a Game of Thrones spinoff

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What would Daenerys do?

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Soon you’ll be able to see what it’s really like to sit on the Iron Throne. Today, game publisher Devolver announced a partnership with HBO, the result of which is Reigns: Game of Thrones, a Westeros-themed spinoff of the excellent indie game.

Reigns and its sequel turned the life of a monarch into a Tinder-inspired strategy game; you swiped left or right to make decisions, all the while balancing things like your reputation with the church, the happiness of your people, and the amount of money in your coffers. Eventually you would die — in all manner of grisly and unexpected ways — but you would then take on the role of your successor, with more information to create a hopefully less deadly reign.

This setup makes the game perfect for the Game of Thrones universe, which — as the name implies — is primarily about the dealings of the ruling class. Unlike other video game adaptations, such as Telltale’s episode Game of Thrones adventure, the new Reigns doesn’t take place in some far-flung part of Westeros with new characters and storylines. Instead, you get to control the series’s most iconic faces.

Essentially, the idea is that you’re playing out alternate timelines within the Game of Thrones universe. (Blame Melisandre.) You start out as Daenerys Targaryen, a queen at this point, and you can rule however you see fit. You can decide whether to aid the north, or appease the church, or say hi to one of your dragons. When the queen meets her untimely demise, which is inevitable, you’ll then unlock more characters to play as, starting with Tyrion and Sansa. Different characters naturally have different choices to make, and the game seems much more involved than past editions of Reigns; you even have to deal with things like weather.

From the brief bit of Reigns: Game of Thrones that I’ve been able to play, it seems like a near-perfect match of game and franchise. It’s launching in October on iOS, Android, and PC for $3.99 — making it the ideal way to pass the time before season 8 of the show finally drops.