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Johan

Studio Manager Paradox Tinto
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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-past-present-and-future-232917.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/paradox-past-present-and-future-232917.phtml
For a quick overview of our games, check Paradox Development Studio at Metacritic:
http://www.metacritic.com/company/p...ons=games&num_items=30&sort_options=metascore

Paradox Development Studio Profile Video Tells The History of Historical Strategy

Project names

Epic - EU2
Dawn - Victoria 1
J - Eu3
Mayhem - HoI3
Regina - V2
Serpent - CK2
Glory - Sengoku
Eisenhower - March of the Eagles
Truman - EU4
Nero - Runemaster
Armstrong - HoI4
Augustus - Stellaris
Sulla - Imperator


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.


1999
The studio is now a part of Paradox Entertainment, as Target Games restructures.
Dick Sjöström, Artist
Marcus Edström, Artist

2000
October 20 - German Release of Europa Universalis I
December 2000, Joakim 'Greven' Bergqwist was hired as designer

2001
March 14 - Europa Universalis I was released in the US.
September 2001, Henrik 'Doomdark' Fåhraeus was hired as Programmer
December 11 - Europa Universalis II was released in the US.

2002
November 24 - Hearts of Iron 1 released in the US

2003
January 10th, Jonas 'Bjering' Bjering was hired as programmer.
November - Victoria 1 is released worldwide

2004
March - Development of the Clausewitz Engine started.
April 20th - Thomas 'Besuchov' Johansson hired as Programmer.
April 23, Crusader Kings I is released in Europe
May 5th - Pontus 'aberg' Åberg was hired as a Programmer
August 16th - Florian 'Flori' Santer was hired as Supporting Developer
September 28, Crusader Kings I is released in North America

2005
May 5th, Adam '' Skoglund was hired as Programmer.
November 11th, Anna 'Chiwiss' Drevendal was hired as Scripter.

2006
April 25th, Christopher 'King' King was hired as QA.

2007
Due to lack of interest in Strategy Games, Adam, Dick & Marcus left to pursue other interests.
July, aberg left the company to have fun coding for banks.
July 23rd, Dan 'podcat' Lind was hired as Programmer, Jonas 'yonaz' Jakobsson was hired as artist & Mikael 'miqe' Olsson was hired as Artist.

2008
Jan 2nd, Boel 'Regina Bermann is hired to do PR.
December, Miqe left to move to Göteborg.

2009
January 7th, Fredrik 'Aerie' Toll was hired as artist.
August 3rd, Linda 'Kallocain' Kiby was hired as Community Manager
September 28th, Fredrik 'tegus' Zetterman is hired as Programmer & Olof 'Birken' Björk is hired as programmer.

2010
January 7th, Sara 'Solsara' Wendel-Örtqvist was hired as Scripter
October 4th, Niklas 'Captain Gars' Strid was hired as Scripter & Johan 'johanlerstrom' Lerström was hired as Programmer.
October 18th David 'Darkrenown' Ballantyne hired as Scripter

2011
Tomasz Kowalczyk
June 27th, Rikard 'Zoft' Åslund was hired as Programmer

2012
January 1st, Paradox Development Studio is now a separate company with their own identity!
January 2nd, Aline 'Adrenaline' Gladh was hired as Artist
March 1st, Jimmy 'Nusia' Rönn was hired as Programmer, Carsten 'Forzaa' Mannetje was hired as QA & Henrik 'Goosecreature' Eklund was hired as Scripter.
May 2nd, Niklas 'K-vald' Tampere was hired as QA
September 3rd, Daniel 'Hericage' Eriksson was hired as Programmer.


2013
January 14th, Martin 'Wiz' Anward was hired as Programmer, Kandra'Pallidum' Dahlgren was hired as DLC Manager, Mats 'Siderburnout' Virtanen was hired as Artist.
April 9th, Henrik 'groogy' was hired as Programmer, Andreas 'Jazzhole' Waldetoft was hired as Composer
June 3rd, Joakim 'Larre' Larsen was hired as Artist
September 3rd, Marcus 'marcusb' Beausang was hired as Programmer, Jonas 'mrop' Wickerström was hired as Programmer & Tobias'The Witch-King' Bodlund was hired as Scripter.
October 3rd, Alexander 'Alexivan' Ivannikov was hired as Programmer.
November 4th, Mario 'Mr.Nibbles' Lasan & Zeke 'TheLetterZ' Lugmair were hired as QA.
 
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I heard that v2 was project cash cow, but that was in jest I presume? ;)
 
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!
 
Lets cut to the important part:

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