InnoGames' Zoran Gjorgiev on rebuilding Heroes of History's live ops one layer at a time

Summary

Zoran Gjorgiev joined InnoGames' Forge of Empires late in its life, where years of events and entrenched expectations were already in place. There, he learned how to build and maintain a live ops pipeline for a mature title. He then moved to Heroes of History, a completely different challenge: creating the operations calendar from scratch. In this interview, he explains his approach to rebuilding the game's live ops layer by layer, starting with core gameplay loops and gradually adding events, seasons, and thematic content. This discussion matters because it highlights how a live ops lead adapts to different game lifecycles. Gjorgiev argues that new games shouldn't overload players with events from day one; instead, teams should establish a stable cadence and then expand carefully. His experience at Forge of Empires taught him that clarity and consistency in update schedules outweigh sheer volume, and that priority setting is crucial under limited resources. For players, this means Heroes of History is likely to receive more coherent and meaningful content updates rather than scattered promotions. For the industry, this insight provides a valuable case study on building live ops from the ground up, showing how InnoGames' long-standing expertise in live service games can be applied to a new IP. It's a thoughtful look at the art of layered progression in game operations.