The Beginning

We decided to leave out the barbecue jokes and get right to it, welcome to a new development diary for East vs West!

You can’t have a game about the Cold War without nuclear weapons lurking in the shadows, so adding a new nuclear engine to the Hearts of Iron formula, with a revamped graphical interface and AI was a challenge we happily took on. This, of course, raised a lot of questions from the beginning. How much do we need to focus on the nuclear parts? How much do the players want play with nuclear wars at all? How can we avoid too much micromanagement? How can we model missiles and launches? How should the AI use nuclear weapons, and how it will react to a nuclear war? Many issues, both technical and game-design related, are implied once you introduce superweapons.
We set out to establish a balance between creating a respectable nuclear engine without focusing too much on a game mode that will so drastically alter the world and the gameplay as soon as it’s used. The nuclear weapons should foremost be a means of last resort, a deterrent, a proper tool in a Cold War arsenal.

What we wanted:
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Oi oi

My name is: Russ Odoni
My forum nick: Naselus


My name's Russ Odoni, I'm heading toward 30 years old at an alarming rate, and I putter about near Manchester in the UK. I was an IT support monkey for a few years from the age of 17, before going back to university and going into Economic Anthropology (which turns out offers fewer job opportunities than the modding I was doing in my spare time). I was originally an alpha tester for East vs West, but have since been promoted to Head of Research (doctrines and techs). I was also, perhaps not unsurprisingly, involved with designing the economy.
As Head of Research, I've been responsible for designing and implementing the tech tree and, as a result, a big portion of the space race; everything from the number of techs, their pre-requisites, their effect, and even how they're arranged on the screen that the tech team develops. Since we have somewhere around two hundred different techs, that's been quite a task; even more so when each has up to ten levels. I cannot count the number of hours I've spent moving techs 5 pixels to the right or left. ...

I spy with my little eye... Alpha screens from East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron Game!


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"Think of it like playing chess with your little brother and he annoys the crap out of you, so you just sweep his pieces off the board,” says Gellert Keresztes. “That’s pretty much what nukes do.”
The lead designer of East vs. West is selling me on the advantages of global thermonuclear war. He doesn’t have to sell me very hard: the cold war is the perfect setting for a grand strategy game, because like grand strategy games, the cold war was about more than straightforward military combat. It was about politics, economics, culture and how even small countries can have a large impact on the world stage."
http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/east-vs-west-preview/

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East vs West Development Diary 6 – Forces: the Order of Battle in EvW
As the world seems to be heading towards World War 3 we’d thought we pick a suitable area of discussion for today, so welcome to the sixth development diary for East vs West: A Hearts of Iron game.
Today’s topic: Forces and the Order of Battle, or, as we call them, OOBs. Even though the term OOBs represents more than just the setup of armed forces at a certain point in history, today we will focus particularly on the land units you’ll have available.

Start from the beginning or jump into it
East vs West has six scenarios, or main starting points:
Cold War Begins 1946,
Arab-Israeli War 1948,
Korean War 1950,
Vietnam War 1961,
Afghanistan War 1979
Gulf War 1991
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INTERNATIONALLY – April 1st, 2013
The East vs. West team is proud to bring to the gaming world one of the most surprising expansions in 2013 with a brand new radical idea that will absolutely blow your mind - East vs West WOMEN’s Edition!


Finally we bring womankind’s fight to gain a foothold in those spheres which rightfully belong to the man into a brutal and awesome Cold War setting. Crafted by our cunning designers and developers, East vs West explores the defining periods in world history where humanity was tittering on the brink of annihilation. Expanded gameplay mechanics will now enable you as a woman to access the SAME menus as any of your male gamers.
We're realizing this is such a revolutionary and completely unconventional approach that it borders to the unbelievable, still the game looks and feels identical to East vs West, with all the fantastic menus, the brand new music and the exciting battle with all means at your disposal. Starting in 1946 and rising from the ashes of World War 2 you will begin exactly the same as for any other gender.

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Do you often think that politics doesn't matter and that your vote means nothing? Are you yearning to make a difference? Fear not! We welcome you to a new development diary for the politics of East vs. West, where the major political choices are yours to make!

The purging flame

Your story begins in 1946, in a world recovering from the horrors of World War 2. In politics, as in nature, there are many plants that take advantage of wildfires to grow out of the ashes into new, wider spaces. Quickly seeds and ideas take root in the purging flames, and blossom following the devastation. Ash and decay rapidly turns into a fauna of diversity but also one of tense competition. Will you be able to adapt and take control or will you just be another witness to a freshly burning world?
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Name: Gábor Gombor
Nick: Biga
Company: Bl-Logic



Hello everyone!

I’m 39 years old and living in Hungary, in a little village near Budapest called Pilisszántó. Our house is near a hill and forest, providing a really good place for creative thoughts and being close to nature. I have two daughters. The older one is 8 years old, and wants to be a game coder Well, the landscape is fine, though this type of life does include hard winters that test us continually.
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© SeaForces.org


Introduction
During and after World War II, naval power underwent a great transformation: carriers, surface ships, submarines and naval air force, all transformed to a new world. Carriers suddenly provided new horizons of operations with jet air forces and the increasing air threat, in turn, lead to the development of more effective missile based air defense systems. With a world that was soon dominated by guided missiles, radar and fire control systems both for classic air defense missiles and for the offensive anti-ship weapons, things were rapidly changing. Traditional guns of surface ships became smaller but more precise. Ships also started carrying helicopters, originally developed as light reconnaissance and transport vessels on land. They quickly became familiar in navies as well, where their main role became the vital task of anti-submarine warfare. In addition to conventional warfare, ballistic missile submarines had a key role at the strategic level as nuclear launch platforms.
We just made the coolest naval system in any Cold war era grand strategy game. There comes a time when one has to aim big and so we would like to introduce something that we believe will blow you away. ...

Annual Convention Successfully Invaded by March of the Eagles, East vs. West, and Europa Universalis IV

Last week, Reykjavik, Iceland played host to Paradox Interactive’s annual convention, giving international media a chance to get a look at what Paradox has to offer in the coming months, including its internally developed titles from Paradox Development Studio. Paradox is a company founded on deep grand strategy titles, and the three strategy games shown at PDXCon, coming from PDS, made a strong impression on convention attendees.
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My name is Ajay Choudhary.I was born in and raised in Delhi, the capital of India.I work as a 3DArtist on the East vs West team and I’m responsible for creating high quality 3D models,realistic textures and other set pieces based on the needs of the project.
I’ve been inclined towards art and painting since childhood. Like many of my generation, I was also passionate about playing games on both PC and consoles. I realized that gaming is the platform where I could use my skills to their maximum extent. It encouraged me to learn animation and, after joining MultimediaAcademy, I strengthened my foundation in 3D and developed my 3D modeling and texturing skills. ...

Welcome to the third developer diary for East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron game! We get a lot of questions from curious people. Gamers, naturally, but also aspiring artists in general. We've even had a mother asking if it was worthwhile to have her son studying game graphics in college. Today we wanted to bring you some insights on the subject of graphical game art.

The Graphics user interface and new units
The most obvious part for our game, and the place where the player spends most time looking, is the graphics user interface (GUI). The purpose of graphical design is to increase interaction with the functionality and theme/content of the game. So you should be following project guidelines throughout this process. We co-ordinate with the coding department and the production team to make sure that our first drafts and sketches of the GUI are in line with their goals. When designing the GUI we all stick to the same Cold War theme. We’ve gotten ideas from films, books, old printed ads, architecture, art and even military and industrial equipment – there’s a small story hidden behind almost every pixel. As an artist drawing from history, there are lots of places to find inspiration and harvest for mental resources.
Bare polished metal plates with folders, old paper documents and secret files piled up, dusty glowing buttons, Commodore like keyboard keys, old factory toggle knobs and scratched TV screens – just another day in your imaginary rusty Cold War bunker that comes to life every time you start up the EvW game. Want to put in an order for some attack helicopters Comrade General? With a brand new arsenal, hard work and dedication, we've aimed to dazzle you with some splendid eye candy! ...

(Never mind the potato-quality picture, this photo was scanned a few months ago and it had a bunch of dust on it)

My name is: Gianluca Debiasi
My forum nick: gianlucad

Hello everyone! It's that time of the month where we introduce one of our team members, so let's begin shall we?

My name is Gianluca Debiasi. I was born and currently live in the city of Porto Alegre in the great state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. I am one of the coders in East vs West. It is my job to help add that extra bit of flavor to the game by adding events and decisions which will (or could) shape the course of history.
The hardest part of event creation is finding that balance where both the events and their frequency are fair to the players, or more importantly, seen by the players as fair. In many cases, it’s difficult to find that compromise between historical flavour and game balance. This takes a certain amount of creativity, and fiddling around with the variables to find that sweet spot where players and developers can both be happy with the results. ...

Hi and welcome to the second developer diary for East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron game!
Your country’s fate during the tumultuous years of the Cold War is all decided here, in your war room. In front of you, you have the large map of the entire world. This is where you can ponder your next move, where to build factories, move troops, where to seek allies or places to send under-cover operatives to.
If I had to summarize our goal for the map in East vs. West in one word it would be “authentic”. We strove to create a world map that looks like a map from an atlas, so that you will instantly recognize countries, regions, and provinces by their shape as well as their name.
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Hi and welcome to the second developer diary for East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron game!
Your country’s fate during the tumultuous years of the Cold War is all decided here, in your war room. In front of you, you have the large map of the entire world. This is where you can ponder your next move, where to build factories, move troops, where to seek allies or places to send under-cover operatives to.
If I had to summarize our goal for the map in East vs. West in one word it would be “authentic”. We strove to create a world map that looks like a map from an atlas, so that you will instantly recognize countries, regions, and provinces by their shape as well as their name. ...

Here's what you do now:
Move away slowly from the computer. Breathe deeply. Open your mouth. Fill it with delicious things. Close it. Play some games. Spare a thought for the brutally awesome games Paradox Development Studio is releasing next year. Oh god, is your mouth still full of food? Open your mouth. Breathe again. Feel the oxygen return to your blood.
Maybe you should just relax over Christmas however you see fit.
Cuddle up by the computer swept in a blanket, feel the warmth from the screen and watch snowflakes fall outside the window.
Have a cup of hot cocoa with cream on top, relax and read about how you will conquer the world next year at this very merry link:
http://tinyurl.com/clbnwag

Happy Holidays & May your wish for global domination come true!

Cheers,
Regina & the entire Paradox Development Studio

Paradox Development Studio - Strategy is our game
Web page: http://www.paradoxdevelopmentstudio.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ParadoxDevelopmentStudio
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PDX_Dev_Studio
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My name is: Kastytis Zubovas
My forum nick: Legolas

Hello folks, it is time for one more developer introduction for East vs West: A Hearts of Iron game. Today the pleasure and task of the introduction has fallen upon me, so I might as well get started.
On East vs West, I work on: maps; the softcoding part – naming provinces, shaping regions, fixing borders, the bread and butter of cartography in a grand strategy game.
Unlike most other developers, I don‘t have much experience modding Paradox games. Sure, I made some changes here and there, played around with a few things, even participated in the Kaiserreich mod for Hearts of Iron 2. But my chance to participate in EvW came down to luck more than experience. ...

Hey there everyone!

King, Besuchov and Lennartos and myself have been at a "Strategy is Our Game" tour the last week,
showing Paradox Development Studios upcoming games for media.
We showcased Europa Universalis IV, March of the Eagles and East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron Game.

Previews and articles are starting to surface and I will keep adding more previews as soon as they go live in this post,
so that you can get a sneak peak of what the future holds, enjoy! ...

Hi guys and gals! I hope you are all having fun playing Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour. My goal with this dev diary is to tell you a bit about how we do expansion projects, the reception it has gotten and what we have been up to to make it even better since release.

From what I’ve read so far on forums, both here and in the deep reaches of the internet fans are really liking the expansion. This makes me and the dev team very happy and proud! The reason we are in this line of business is after all that we like to make gamers happy and make products both we and others like.
It also seems to me from reading around that many new people took advantage of the sales of the base game when TFH came out and tried it for the first time. This usually only happens for expansions when they turn out well and get recommended by word of mouth to friends. So thank you all for playing and enjoying the expansion! ...