PDS - A Brief History

[Johan]

This post will contain all the history eventually, but for now its a work in progress..
For a quick briefing, read "Paradox: Past, present, and future" interview at Destructoid
http://www.destructoid.com/paradox-p...e-232917.phtml

Project names

Epic - EU2
Dawn - Victoria 1
J - Eu3
Mayhem - HoI3
Serpent - CK2
Glory - Sengoku
Eisenhower - March of the Eagles
Reagan - East vs West
Truman - ??

We didnt really have a project name for Hoi1/HoI2, and I dont remember the v2, and rome codenames.. Does anyone recall?

The History
1995-1997

The studio began its life by developing the computer versions of Svea Rike, at an office in central Stockholm, as part of Target Games. In the autumn of 1997, the development of Europa Universalis I was started.

1998
In January, Johan Andersson was hired as the senior programmer, and the actual game development took off. The original team was a few people, including Linus Blomberg as graphics programmer, who later went on to found Avalanche Studios, and the producer was Henrik Standberg, who since then has worked on Atari and Turbine amongst others. Philippe Thibault was involved
The development of EU took longer than originally expected, and the game did not reach a fully playable alpha this year. The interface was redone multiple times, as well as the graphics to bring it up to par.
Svea Rike II was released late in November that year to the Swedish market.

Comment by Regina: Since Johan hasn´t added any info here in a while,
I´ll just snatch the wikipedia version for now until he starts adding juicy stuff from our past

ABOUT PARADOX DEVELOPMENT STUDIO (PDS - Strategy is our game
Web page: http://www.paradoxdevelopmentstudio.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ParadoxDevelopmentStudio
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PDX_Dev_Studio
(But we are always at the forum, of course )

Paradox Development Studio is a Swedish video game developer founded in 1995.
The company is closely associated with its game publisher, Paradox Interactive.
The studio is best known for its grand strategy game series Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings and Victoria.
Paradox Development Studio is based on the heritage of the Swedish board game company Target Games and has been a game developer of PC-focused grand strategy games since 1995.
From the start, Target Games designed board games and created the PC Game named Svea Rike, based off a board game.

The company continued to create PC games and in 1999 the company was divided into two separate entities: Paradox Interactive which focused on developing grand strategy games for PC and Paradox Entertainment which focused on creating board games and role-playing games.
Paradox Interactive began to self-publish their own strategy games and quickly expanded their portfolio by publishing PC games from other development studios.

In January 2012, the company divided yet again into two companies
- Paradox Interactive became the game publisher focused on PC games of varies genres
- Paradox Development Studio became the game development studio focused on grand strategy games.

The game development studio was one of the first video game developers to coin the genre "Grand Strategy" and most of the games the studio has developed falls into that category. The grand strategy games are historical strategy games that cover the entire world map and include elements such as economy, diplomacy and warfare.

The games developed by Paradox Development Studio are all highly moddable and supports multiplayer for up to 32 players. Paradox Development Studio currently consists of 32 persons working on four parallel projects. The studio manager Johan Andersson has led the game development team since Target Games. Several of the studios members have a background from the modding and beta testing community; including members such as project lead Henrik Fåhraeus, project lead Thomas Johansson and game designer Chris King.

The studios latest game release Crusader Kings II is one of the highest rated games 2012 according to Metacritic. The development studio is currently working on a new game named March of the Eagles and Europa Universalis IV, the next installment in their empire building series.

Clausewitz Engine
In 2007 the Paradox Development Studio debuted a proprietary game engine, titled Clausewitz, in Europa Universalis III and has been used in every game developed by PDS since. The engine provides a 3D view of part or the totality of the world map, depending on the played game. In 2012 it was announced that Europa Universalis IV will be the first game utilizing the Clausewitz 2.5 engine.

GAMES DEVELOPED BY PARADOX DEVELOPMENT STUDIO:

The Europa Universalis series
Europa Universalis: Crown of the North
Europa Universalis
Europa Universalis II
Europa Universalis II Asian Chapters expansion
Europa Universalis III
Europa Universalis III: Napoleon's Ambition expansion
Europa Universalis III: In Nomine expansion
Europa Universalis III Complete
Europa Universalis III: Heir to the Throne expansion
Europa Universalis III: Divine Wind expansion
Europa Universalis III: Chronicle
Europa Universalis IV - coming in Q3 2013!

March of the Eagles - Coming in Q1 2013!

The Crusader Kings series:
Crusader Kings
Crusader Kings: Deus Vult expansion
Crusader Kings Complete
Crusader Kings II
Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam expansion
Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome DLC
Crusader King II: Sunset Invasion DLC

The Europa Universalis: Rome series:
Europa Universalis: Rome
Europa Universalis: Rome Vae Victis expansion
Europa Universalis Rome Gold

The Hearts of Iron series:
Hearts of Iron
Hearts of Iron Platinum
Hearts of Iron II
Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday
Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday Armageddon
Hearts of iron Anthology
Hearts of Iron III
Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi expansion
Hearts of Iron III Collection
Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland expansion
Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour expansion
East vs. West: A Hearts of Iron Game - Developed by BL-Logic and PDS - Coming in Q2 2013!

The Victoria series
Victoria: An Empire under the Sun
Victoria Revolutions expansion
Victoria Complete
Victoria II
Victoria II: A House Divided expansion

Sengoku: Way of the Warrior
Two Thrones
Svea Rike
Diplomacy

[ashandresash]

Sengoku was "project Glory"

[Johan]

Sengoku was "project Glory"

Thanks

[safferli]

I heard that v2 was project cash cow, but that was in jest I presume?

[RedRalphWiggum]

At no point in my involvement in V2 was I aware of a codename.

[Castellon]

At no point in my involvement in V2 was I aware of a codename.

Project "Shave Head"

[Raph]

Nothing about the prehistory, board games and that? I guess it didn't involve the same people.

EDIT: Oh, and it'll be nice to be able to follow your history in a comprehensive way!

[Kaarle XII]

This is a nice idea, hopefully it'll grow into something comprehensive!

[Captain Gars]

Lets cut to the important part:

October 4, 2010: Niklas Strid starts working as a scripter

[Granatenwerfer]

Project "Shave Head"

As V2 is a cash cow I ask me if FW has his head shaved?

I'm glad V2 is such a success. Ett bra spel.

[James The 1st]

Cool, I always wanted a post about this.

[Kallocain]

I look forward to reading this, I just have a very shallow view of things that happened before I started.

And Gars... No way. August 2009.

[RedRalphWiggum]

Let's have some more history, Johan!

[Balor]

Let's have some more history, Johan!

It takes a while to sort out old stuff.

[Raph]

Some mention of the history of PDS/PI in this article

"While most people know Paradox as the creators of Europa Universalis, which was released in 2002, the company is actually the heritage of another studio, Target Games, which was started in 1995. Johan explained, "Target Games was a big RPG and board game company in Sweden. They imported board games and designed their own, and then they wanted to make a computer game. There was a huge game called Svea Rike. It was a really big board game and they made a computer game out of it. It was really successful, sold 100,000 in Sweden, but that’s when you sold enormous amounts of PC games."

[SerialCereal]

Wasn't Europa Universalis released in 2000?

[takedown47]

Wasn't Europa Universalis released in 2000?

Yeah but I think development started around 1998-1999. was there even internet back then?

[delra]

Yeah but I think development started around 1998-1999. was there even internet back then?

Let me blow your mind: I remember the Internet before there was Google.

[Raph]

Let me blow your mind: I remember the Internet before there was Google.

Altavista or Yahoo was the shit in the beginning! And YES there was internet in 1998, I played hours and hours of StarCraft online back then (it came out 1998).

[delra]

Good times, putting barracks in a choke point to make zerg kiddies cry. ;-)

Sadly, I didn't know Paradox even existed till like the later EU2 days.