Product manager Zoran Gjorgiev moved from Forge of Empires to Heroes of History and redesigned the game's live ops by prioritising clustered rhythm over constant coverage, reward value over headline mechanics, and incremental single-layer changes that accumulate into larger, multi-week arcs.
Iterate continuously and change one layer at a time—reward, structure, runtime or theme—to measure impact and avoid building on broken foundations.
Plan multi-week ‘Big Beats’ (4–8 week themed arcs) several times a year to give longer narrative and reward arcs space to land.
# Background
# Rhythm over frequency
# Rewards first
# A simple north star Gjorgiev's guiding principle for any activity is practical: whatever a player does should be fun in the moment or move them closer to something they want, ideally both. This criterion filters design decisions and helps prioritise which changes to roll out.
# Why formulas expire and what to do about it Successful event formulas degrade not because they suddenly fail but because players either learn to exploit them or lose interest when nothing changes. The danger is reaching that decline without proven new ideas. Continuous iteration avoids that trap by producing a trail of incremental changes and feedback rather than waiting for a crisis to force large, risky overhauls.
# Controlled reactivity
# One layer at a time A core practical guideline is to change only one layer at a time—reward, event structure, runtime or theme—so the impact of that change can be measured against previous versions. This approach reduces noisy experiments and helps teams understand causality. Forge of Vulcan is cited as an example: multiple iterations with differing rewards or balancing passes across runs, each informing the next.
# Longer arcs: Big Beats Having rebuilt seasonal events step by step, the team is moving toward 'Big Beats': four- to eight-week themed arcs to run three or four times a year. These multi-week arcs create larger narrative and reward rhythms that single standalone events can't achieve.
# Player base and community feedback Heroes of History reached two million registered players by its first birthday in September 2025. Continuous iteration and visible evolution help build community investment: players notice changes, provide feedback, and become part of the development conversation, which informs future iterations.
# Practical takeaways for live ops teams
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