Art of War: Legions is an addictive mobile game where players buy troops and build armies. My role was to refine content translations to improve gameplay and enhance the usability of a new troop management feature and create SEO boosting content that would engage new players, teach them the basics and keep them engaged for a longer period of time.

I immersed myself in Subreddit and Facebook communities to understand player questions. I researched player groups, known as clans, and joined a large one called Vector and joined their Discord server.

I then conducted a content audit and identified long-tail SEO keywords. Specifically, I searched for: 

• Art of War: Legions troops formations.

• Art of War: Legions which hero should I pick? 

• Art of War: Legions how to get gems?

While the game had a YouTube influencer making videos, there was almost no written content that answered these questions. The videos were always offered first, followed by Reddit threads, and then irrelevant results. None of the official game guides appeared in the search results. That meant there was a huge opportunity to fill that gap and rank quickly.

I recommended a two tiered approach, writing blog posts in two styles, a straightforward and easily translatable version for the in-game guides, and a cool deep-dive into common topics from the perspective of a player, posted to Medium.

I started with three foundational guides adaptable to both styles and shared them across various communities. I shared each in the Facebook group and SubReddit to build backlinks. I encouraged Vector clan members to write posts and conduct interviews that answered common gamer questions.

Within a year, the Medium page garnered over 100,000 views, including 14,000 in September 2022. Search engines now recognize it as an authority, ranking #1 for key formation-building keywords.

New troop sorting feature

I was also asked to look at a new feature the developers were rolling out. Players had been asking for a way to manage their troops in bulk without having to hold down on each troop they wanted to merge or sell. However, players weren’t using the new feature.

The feature saw a 56% increase in use the month after the article was released.

User interviews

In interviews, players revealed why they weren’t using the new feature:

• Didn’t know there was a new feature.

• Weren’t clear on how to access it.

• Didn’t know they could sell troops.

Some players, even ones who’ve been playing for over a year, didn’t know “remove” meant they would get coins for their troops because they had only seen that word or only used a trashcan icon to remove troops from their barracks.

I made these recommendations:

• Write a game guide and Medium post about the new feature to distribute to social communities

• Change the CTA to “sell,” and display the number of coins earned from selling troops.

• Ensure consistency between modal verbs and CTA.