Reigns (video game)

Did You Know?

• Each decision affects one of four aspects: the army, the people, the church, and the king's wealth.
• If any of the four meters becomes completely filled or empty, the player's reign ends and they start as a new king.
• Completing tasks in each reign unlocks new cards, and some cards have effects that last over time, such as a crusade continued across multiple reigns.

Plot

The player character, an unnamed King suffering from memory loss, meets a ghost called the Spirit of the Fallen, who tells him to be a wise and pragmatic ruler and to reign for as long as possible. After the King dies, he is reincarnated as a new ruler and encounters the spirit again, who explains that they are both cursed to be reborn after death. Several reigns later, the Devil visits the King in the year 666, revealing that the monarch traded his soul centuries earlier for eternal power, but the Devil manipulated this wish by trapping him in a cycle of death and reincarnation.

The Devil reappears in 1332, telling the King there is no end to the cycle, and that he will visit a final time in 1998. Before that date, the King meets a noblewoman called the Senator who knows of the bargain and says the only way to annul it is to force the Devil to attempt a task he cannot fulfill. The Devil arrives in 1998 and casts an enchantment causing the next person the King says 'Yes' to to suffer a gruesome death. The ending depends on whom the player uses the curse on: if used on the Spirit of the Fallen, the Devil reveals the ghost is a reflection of the King's own soul and condemns him to Hell; if used on any other mortal, the spirit remarks the cycle will never end and the King becomes trapped forever; if the player performs several optional tasks before the Devil arrives, the King can use the curse on an undead skeleton, and the Devil, unable to kill the already-dead monster, releases the King into the afterlife.

Development

Reigns was created by the London studio Nerial. Lead developer François Alliot, who was thinking about quitting game development after a string of unsuccessful projects, brought the idea to publisher Devolver Digital. An associate there, Nigel Lowrie, liked the demo, showed it to the team, and a publishing agreement was made. The swipe-based controls were directly inspired by the dating app Tinder.

Alliot wanted the game to make fun of how societies handle complicated issues, and he compared it to the Brexit vote, noting that the decision was as simple as swiping a card but had serious long-term effects. Early prototypes had characters inside picture frames, but the team switched to cards because they thought players were already comfortable moving cards around, which let them skip a tutorial. The writing was kept short and direct, a change from Alliot’s usual long, complex sentences.

He added several side stories that ran alongside the main plot, and he described the card format as a short question, a quick answer, and terrible results. The Oulipo, a French writing group that used strict rules, was a major influence. The devil-focused storyline was added late in development to give a reason for characters to repeat themselves and to motivate players to start over as a new ruler. The music came from chiptune composer Disasterpeace, and the art was done by Mieko Murakami.

Reigns was shown at the AdventureX convention in December 2015. It came out on August 16, 2016, for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, delayed by a week because of translation issues. A Nintendo Switch version followed on September 20, 2018. By August 2019, the game had sold two million copies.

Reception

Reigns earned "generally favorable" scores on Metacritic for its iOS and PC releases, with most critics calling it a fun and original strategy title. TouchArcade described the gameplay as interesting and inventive, while Pocket Gamer praised it as "a clever subversion of strategy and casual mobile play that makes you laugh, cry, and think." The Guardian, however, saw it as more whimsical than a serious strategy game. Opinions on the presentation were mixed.

Rock Paper Shotgun noted that the game forces players to shift from an idealistic ruler to a pragmatic one focused on survival, while others highlighted the need to balance four key aspects. TouchArcade found the game humorous and weird, embracing those qualities in its premise and look. The gameplay itself was well-received. TouchArcade liked how the cards made simple decisions feel part of a larger goal.

Gamezebo said each choice carried real weight and could lead to overthinking. The Guardian appreciated the simple card controls for mobile but felt the binary choices limited depth. Some critics pointed to repetition. Gamezebo said the game becomes shallow despite many scenarios.

The Guardian found some cards poorly designed and confusing, and noted that repeated cards hurt the story-driven objective. In contrast, Rock Paper Shotgun argued that enough new cards kept the game from feeling repetitive. Reigns won the international competition at the 2017 Ludicious convention. It was nominated for Best Mobile Game at the Unity Awards 2016 and Use of Narrative at the Develop Awards 2016.

In 2017, it received nominations for Mobile Game of the Year at the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards and Best Mobile/Handheld Game at the 17th Game Developers Choice Awards.

Legacy

Nerial released a standalone sequel, Reigns: Her Majesty, in December 2017, where players control a queen consort; it received 'generally favorable reviews'. A third installment, Reigns: Game of Thrones, based on the television series, launched in October 2018 as part of a licensing deal between Devolver Digital and HBO, and also received 'generally favorable reviews'. Reigns: Beyond, centered on aliens in a rock band traveling the galaxy, was released for Apple Arcade on 6 November 2020 and for Windows and Nintendo Switch on 17 April 2024; it received 'mixed or average reviews'.

Reigns: Three Kingdoms, influenced by Romance of the Three Kingdoms and including combat and multiplayer, was released for Netflix subscribers in November 2022, receiving 'mixed or average reviews'. Reigns: The Witcher, based on the video game series, was released on 25 February 2026, receiving 'generally favorable reviews'.