Greetings!

A few weeks ago we shared our floor plan for the future, and this week I’d like to give you some tidbits from the studio itself. I will tell you a bit about the history of our studio and what we are about - interlaced with random quotes from the team collected throughout the year (courtesy of Wokeg - I think they paint a pretty accurate picture of the minds in our midst).
So if you are eagerly awaiting updates on what’s coming for the actual game, I’m afraid you will have to wait a little longer.

Firstly though, a brief introduction might be in order since I am very much a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of character (and you will rarely catch me writing diaries):
I was the Lead Producer on Crusader Kings III (until after its release in 2020). Having then spent some time with the space faring folks over in the Stellaris studio, I rejoined the CK3 team at the start of this year to create Studio Black - home of Crusader Kings - as the Studio Manager. And here we are.

Random quotes, part 1

PDS - A Tale of Studios​

The story of Paradox Development Studio goes back more than a quarter of a century - a pretty incredible feat in itself and a testament to the sheer talent, passion and motivation of the people working here. As we’ve added more games and grown the studio over the years, there came a point where we wanted to get the studio closer to to our games again, and at the end of 2020 PDS was divided into three sub-studios: Green (Stellaris), Gold (Hearts of Iron) and Red (Crusader Kings & Victoria). At this point, our friends at Europa Universalis had already set sail to warmer latitudes and set up Tinto in Spain.

As Victoria III was ramping up their efforts (and a big shout-out and CONGRATULATIONS is in order - the release is happening TODAY ), it was time to build a castle of our own, hence studio Black was born on February 14th (I’m sure you can figure out why I chose this date).

Random quotes, part 2

Court Positions​

Having the right people in the right place is of course paramount to any kind of development - in our case, that means we rely on our Programmers, Designers, Artists, QA Testers and Producers to bring our game to life, with the help of central support from Audio, Engine Team, User Research, Marketing and many other departments.
Building a studio around an existing development team is quite a luxury - most often, you would start from scratch; with limited funding, resources and just a great dream (and hopefully a team) to carry you forward. In our case, it was rather the other way around (great game & team = check!), which means we can focus more on filling skill gaps and making sure we have a good support structure in place.

Random quotes, part 3

Character DNA​

You might think that with the roots firmly planted in the dynasty of PDS, we all share the same culture DNA? You’d be wrong. Something I discovered back in the day (moving from the EU4 team to the CK2 team at the time), was how some subtle, yet noticeable, parts of the team culture seemed to stem from a very central core. This theory was confirmed as I stepped away to the realm of Stellaris for a while; the essence of the project team culture was as firmly rooted around Jeff and other shared moments as CK ever was around… keeping it in the family.
However quirky and meme-friendly each game teams culture might be, there are also some very noticeable similarities that confirms what Paradox is very much about, when it boils down to it: Helpful, Curious & Nerdy (in that ‘Hey, I’m really into cross-stitching medieval tapestry, want to know more?’ kind of way).

Random quotes, part 4

Keeping the Legacy​

So where are we headed as a studio, you might ask? Well, we are all here to keep the legacy of Crusader Kings alive and well. We have an amazing game at the earlier stage of its lifespan, and a team of highly creative and skilled people to help realize the incredible potential of CK3. I won’t pretend that 2 years of pandemic haven’t had an impact on our work, but we are truly committed to keep making releases for CK3 that we are proud of - and that we hope you will find hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hours of enjoyment from, for many years to come!


That’s it for today folks, next time we’ll have some more game specific updates for you all!

A part of our team, having a royal blast at this year's PDXCON!

 

[kawamuratc]

Love the game, keep up the hard work. A little crunch never hurts, would be great if you could produce more content.

Take care!

Nah, crunch is always hurtful in game dev. It means the project was poorly scheduled and now the bad scheduling is being paid for by the physical and mental well-being of the workers. It also produces a poorer product, as human beings generally don’t produce their best collaborative and careful work under pressure.

 

[Surtur01]

Umm thanks for letting us take a peak at the team. Really would rather have a proper update about what is the small patch going to be for this year. What is the next expansion pack going to be etc...

Really wish you guys would address the war system in the game and not make statements like the war system is not a focus point of the game. You can focus on both war systems and rpg systems. Actually this time period works perfectly for that if you ask me.

Love the game, keep up the hard work. A little crunch never hurts, would be great if you could produce more content.

Take care!

Producing more content is what we are all about, and just like yourself, we also wish it would be faster to make, but alas.

Future dev diaries will go more into what we have planned for the game, so stay tuned.

 

[TrainingW33ls]

loving the game just about to hit my first 200yr family rule, can not wait till the next dlc, devs you are doing an amazing job. thank you

 

[Sir Tornado]

The Feb 14 date got me thinking - I can't believe its been 10.5 years now since release of CK2! In those 10.5 years, 2% of all my time (including time spent sleeping!) has been spent playing either CK2 or one of its mods. Compared to that, I have only spent 1.2% of my time since the release of Crusader Kings 3 on that game.

I think that should go on to show you guys that Crusader Kings 3 hasn't quite met the expectations the same way Crusader Kings 2 did a decade ago. Please help me out in this area by bringing features in the game that will make me increase my timeshare on Crusader Kings 3 from 1.2% to 2%!

 

[tilly]

if i learn how to program and come join your studio will i be allowed to sit in the big chair instead of mr oltner sometimes

 

[Фот]

look good in the photo! I hope everything in life is good too. good luck in life and game development!

 

[PDS_Noodle]

Nah, crunch is always hurtful in game dev. It means the project was poorly scheduled and now the bad scheduling is being paid for by the physical and mental well-being of the workers. It also produces a poorer product, as human beings generally don’t produce their best collaborative and careful work under pressure.

From your mouth to God's ears!

CK3 is a project that hasn't crunched in any way for the entire time I've been on it. I can promise anyone that crunching during any of that time would not have led to more or better tangible results. I - and I'm sure many others in the team, but I won't speak on their behalf - am very proud of CK3's long record of no crunch, and you're exactly right that crunch would not be conducive to anything positive.

 

[PDS_Noodle]

Cheeky double-post because I forgot to quote insert in the last post because I'm very tech-savvy. Did you know I work in the tech industry?!

This is more of an essay type question, probably only answerable if random staff have the time and the urge to do a good deed, but:

You mentioned the pandemic having an effect on your work. I know I’m going out on a limb here, but I assume some of the folks who work on CK3 are also nuerodivergent* (in game dev? for a niche genre? shocking, I know!). Combined with the intricacy/interconnected nature of the work, I figure this is as good a place to ask as any.

What are some of the tools or resources that you’ve found helpful for dealing with, well, all this? Has there been any particular tools you’ve found for managing work loads, or information in changing settings (from home to the office and back)? Any lessons learned from structuring tasks?

This may be beyond the scope of the questions you expected for this DD, but the blend of noisy, chaotic, diverse, and creative work with the much more precise, routine and consistent work… well, I figured I might as well see if I could pick brains for absolutely selfish reasons.

*ADHD, we in the hous— okay now we’ve run out of the house— okay now we’ve forgotten where we live but we did find a cool rock

Super interesting question actually. I'm not neurodivergent (as far as I know, anyway!) but I'll try and answer a little bit regardless.

During the buildup to CK3's release - and after for quite a while - during the height of the pandemic, I lived in a small 25sqm apartment in Stockholm. Now I'm pretty happy in the company of myself, but I can tell you now that it wasn't much fun being stuck in there day-in, day-out, especially when my 'commute' to work consisted of getting up and walking the metre or so between my bed and my desk. I'm also the sort of person who enjoys the buzz of the office and being surrounded by my team, so it was a pretty mentally draining time, to say nothing of the usual stresses that releasing a game causes!

My solutions were multifaceted. I heard lots of people espouse the value of taking regular breaks, but for me that didn't work at all; I work best when I'm in a flow and will happily churn through hours and hours of work if I'm in the mood. Breaking up that flow to force myself into a break often just served to lose me focus for the entire day. Instead, I let myself get taken by those flows when they happened and worried a little less about keeping rigid track of my time. Nobody is 100% productive 100% of the time, after all, and I figured it's better to have a shorter amount of time working at peak efficiency than twice as much time of unfocused drudgery. So I just let it take me when it would, and resolved to not sit there worrying about how much work I wasn't doing when it didn't. There were other things too, just like Surtur said. The walk before/after work was something I was sadly ill-disciplined with, but generally works for a lot of people.

This is a subject I can talk about for absolutely ages, actually. Like I said, I missed the buzz of the office quite a lot, and it really is a shame we couldn't have quite the same celebration as you usually have when a game releases due to the global pandemic. I do count my blessings, though, because as tough as it was as a QA, having transitioned to design since then I can say with confidence that I would not be anywhere near my current level of mild competence were I not able to spend hours a day at the office pestering an endlessly patient Wokeg to teach me very basic things.

It all worked out in the end, of course! Anyway, my main takeaways: let the inspiration take you when it comes, chill out and worry less when it doesn't, and try and maximise time spent doing the things you can do productively.

 

[goliat14]

I know this isn’t quite easy to answer. But can you at least tell me if the next dlv it’s too far apart? Anyways I know due from time and announcements this isn’t the best question to ask. Didn’t meant to bother.

 

[Troyen]

I know this isn’t quite easy to answer. But can you at least tell me if the next dlv it’s too far apart? Anyways I know due from time and announcements this isn’t the best question to ask. Didn’t meant to bother.

We know it's not this year (they plan to give us a 1.8 free patch though). They've also mentioned in another thread that they aim for four releases a year and I think one expansion plus at least one (or was it two) immersion packs a year, so likely spring next year, possibly earlier.

I don't work for PDX so this is conjecture.

 

[Troyen]

I’d never thought about an artificial commute to physically divide my work from the rest of my life. Huh. You may have just solved a long term problem I’ve had with understanding when work begins/ends in my body. Thank you for that.

I don't work for PDX but my company still allows remote/hybrid work. One thing that helped me was to start wearing office clothes during my working hours and switch to house clothes when I feel my day is over. It's such a minor thing, especially since my office dress code is pretty casual, but even the act of changing a shirt or pants is enough to signal I'm done for the day.

 

[kawamuratc]

Cheeky double-post because I forgot to quote insert in the last post because I'm very tech-savvy. Did you know I work in the tech industry?!



Super interesting question actually. I'm not neurodivergent (as far as I know, anyway!) but I'll try and answer a little bit regardless.

During the buildup to CK3's release - and after for quite a while - during the height of the pandemic, I lived in a small 25sqm apartment in Stockholm. Now I'm pretty happy in the company of myself, but I can tell you now that it wasn't much fun being stuck in there day-in, day-out, especially when my 'commute' to work consisted of getting up and walking the metre or so between my bed and my desk. I'm also the sort of person who enjoys the buzz of the office and being surrounded by my team, so it was a pretty mentally draining time, to say nothing of the usual stresses that releasing a game causes!

My solutions were multifaceted. I heard lots of people espouse the value of taking regular breaks, but for me that didn't work at all; I work best when I'm in a flow and will happily churn through hours and hours of work if I'm in the mood. Breaking up that flow to force myself into a break often just served to lose me focus for the entire day. Instead, I let myself get taken by those flows when they happened and worried a little less about keeping rigid track of my time. Nobody is 100% productive 100% of the time, after all, and I figured it's better to have a shorter amount of time working at peak efficiency than twice as much time of unfocused drudgery. So I just let it take me when it would, and resolved to not sit there worrying about how much work I wasn't doing when it didn't. There were other things too, just like Surtur said. The walk before/after work was something I was sadly ill-disciplined with, but generally works for a lot of people.

This is a subject I can talk about for absolutely ages, actually. Like I said, I missed the buzz of the office quite a lot, and it really is a shame we couldn't have quite the same celebration as you usually have when a game releases due to the global pandemic. I do count my blessings, though, because as tough as it was as a QA, having transitioned to design since then I can say with confidence that I would not be anywhere near my current level of mild competence were I not able to spend hours a day at the office pestering an endlessly patient Wokeg to teach me very basic things.

It all worked out in the end, of course! Anyway, my main takeaways: let the inspiration take you when it comes, chill out and worry less when it doesn't, and try and maximise time spent doing the things you can do productively.

Again, appreciated, though my brain works differently, it’s still a gift to hear how people worked and are working with the stress of the pandemic. Thank you.

And don’t worry, I won’t hold being NT against you if it turns out you are

 

[goliat14]

We know it's not this year (they plan to give us a 1.8 free patch though). They've also mentioned in another thread that they aim for four releases a year and I think one expansion plus at least one (or was it two) immersion packs a year, so likely spring next year, possibly earlier.

I don't work for PDX so this is conjecture.

Thnks

 

[Sayensis]

A change we want to make going forward is to be more transparent with our Dev Diary schedule. We don’t want to post so-called ‘filler’ Dev Diaries, and with the cycles being longer between updates we instead want to use this time for other kinds of activities with the community. For the sake of full transparency, for smaller updates (such as free patches or event packs) we’ll have at most two Dev Diaries. For larger updates (such as Flavor Packs) we’ll have around four, while Expansions will have roughly 2-4 months' worth of Dev Diaries.

Just two dev diaries ago… I suppose everybody could have their own definition of “filler,” but I think plenty of people would consider a diary entirely NOT about the development of the game to be filler. Going based off of the past three diaries, I would assume that absolutely nothing is being done to develop CKIII further; I would laugh, but I suppose I’m the sucker since I already paid for the game.

 

[kawamuratc]

Just two dev diaries ago… I suppose everybody could have their own definition of “filler,” but I think plenty of people would consider a diary entirely NOT about the development of the game to be filler. Going based off of the past three diaries, I would assume that absolutely nothing is being done to develop CKIII further; I would laugh, but I suppose I’m the sucker since I already paid for the game.

Yeah! Like the last diary where they talked about their plans for the game in the future! That one REALLY convinced me that they were doing nothing now or in the future!

And this DD, that gives a rough explanation for how the staff is set up/organized? Absolute filler! Totally not helpful information to help one understand what one is reading when DDs about dev processes come out!

I LEARNED NOTHING. I CANNOT READ. H E L P M E.

 

[Sayensis]

Yeah! Like the last diary where they talked about their plans for the game in the future! That one REALLY convinced me that they were doing nothing now or in the future!

And this DD, that gives a rough explanation for how the staff is set up/organized? Absolute filler! Totally not helpful information to help one understand what one is reading when DDs about dev processes come out!

I LEARNED NOTHING. I CANNOT READ. H E L P M E.

Good for the devs that they have plans, I liked most of the ideas listed in that diary. But plans are just that: plans, and I’ve not seen where this team is able to implement them in a meaningful manner that makes the game fun to play.

I’m glad that they had fun at PDXCON, though.

 

[kawamuratc]

Good for the devs that they have plans, I liked most of the ideas listed in that diary. But plans are just that: plans, and I’ve not seen where this team is able to implement them in a meaningful manner that makes the game fun to play.

I’m glad that they had fun at PDXCON, though.

As the game is now, I enjoy it. The game is fun for me to play.

If you’re not enjoying it, maybe it’s a sign to put the game aside. That’s okay. Not everyone likes every game at every point in their life.

Your experience of it not being fun isn’t universal.

 

[druez]

From your mouth to God's ears!

CK3 is a project that hasn't crunched in any way for the entire time I've been on it. I can promise anyone that crunching during any of that time would not have led to more or better tangible results. I - and I'm sure many others in the team, but I won't speak on their behalf - am very proud of CK3's long record of no crunch, and you're exactly right that crunch would not be conducive to anything positive.

I don't think there is any doubt that Royal Court missed its deadline last year. Pretty sure internally you planned on having an expansion pack released in 2021. Anyway, that is fine if your culture is no crunch.

I'm 50 years old and I've been in software development for over 20 years. I've never felt crunch to be a "bad" thing unless it was misused e.g. you can't crunch all the time. Maybe its a generational or age thing, but I've always done some of my best work on a deadline. I've always been a burst worker e.g. I like to work 10 to 16 hour days for a period of time, then take off.

The software products we've done usually have a month to three months of crunch. Anything more than that we would determine we need to push the release. After release and the "red zone" "hot zone" whatever you would call it, we give people off and they have very reduced work schedules for at least as many months as the "crunch" went on.

So our dev cycle is low at the start, then ramps up to a steady pace then peaks a few months before release, then after post support craters down low again.

So, one last question than, if there ever isn't any "crunch" why do we always see messages about taking off after release for a well deserved break? I always assumed that was due to crunch and I agree with that, but if you are still just working your 32 to 40 hours a week, not sure what it is in Sweden like you normally do, why a special break after release?

Yes, I'm an American. Yes, I probably work way to much. Yes, I've always struggled with work life balance.

I really do love your games and the work your teams do.

I think missing Royal court in 2021, was less than ideal. I would of thought having some crunch for the last three months of 2021 to make the release hit before year end would of been what I worked towards.

 

[PDX-Trinexx]

if i learn how to program and come join your studio will i be allowed to sit in the big chair instead of mr oltner sometimes

only if you don't get caught doing it

 

[druez]

Cheeky double-post because I forgot to quote insert in the last post because I'm very tech-savvy. Did you know I work in the tech industry?!



Super interesting question actually. I'm not neurodivergent (as far as I know, anyway!) but I'll try and answer a little bit regardless.

During the buildup to CK3's release - and after for quite a while - during the height of the pandemic, I lived in a small 25sqm apartment in Stockholm. Now I'm pretty happy in the company of myself, but I can tell you now that it wasn't much fun being stuck in there day-in, day-out, especially when my 'commute' to work consisted of getting up and walking the metre or so between my bed and my desk. I'm also the sort of person who enjoys the buzz of the office and being surrounded by my team, so it was a pretty mentally draining time, to say nothing of the usual stresses that releasing a game causes!

My solutions were multifaceted. I heard lots of people espouse the value of taking regular breaks, but for me that didn't work at all; I work best when I'm in a flow and will happily churn through hours and hours of work if I'm in the mood. Breaking up that flow to force myself into a break often just served to lose me focus for the entire day. Instead, I let myself get taken by those flows when they happened and worried a little less about keeping rigid track of my time. Nobody is 100% productive 100% of the time, after all, and I figured it's better to have a shorter amount of time working at peak efficiency than twice as much time of unfocused drudgery. So I just let it take me when it would, and resolved to not sit there worrying about how much work I wasn't doing when it didn't. There were other things too, just like Surtur said. The walk before/after work was something I was sadly ill-disciplined with, but generally works for a lot of people.

This is a subject I can talk about for absolutely ages, actually. Like I said, I missed the buzz of the office quite a lot, and it really is a shame we couldn't have quite the same celebration as you usually have when a game releases due to the global pandemic. I do count my blessings, though, because as tough as it was as a QA, having transitioned to design since then I can say with confidence that I would not be anywhere near my current level of mild competence were I not able to spend hours a day at the office pestering an endlessly patient Wokeg to teach me very basic things.

It all worked out in the end, of course! Anyway, my main takeaways: let the inspiration take you when it comes, chill out and worry less when it doesn't, and try and maximise time spent doing the things you can do productively.

Yeah, I can relate to what you say. I don't like forced breaks. When I'm in a zone, I want to stay in the zone. But, when I'm out of the zone its very hard for me to get back into it.

One thing about the pandemic, is that I've been training for that event my whole life. I was like, umm you want me to stay home and work and be on my computer all the time. For fun time, I can only play on my computer and binge watch TV or read a book? All my food can be delivered and I don't have to leave the house.

Now, I do have a 5,000 sq ft house and my wife and 2 kids were all here. We lived in a rural neighborhood where we could still bike.

Also, our lockdown in Texas lasted maybe 3 to 5 weeks. Than everyone just went back to going out, eating food out, playing in sports leagues etc... By the end of 2020 summer, things were completely normal for the most part in Texas. Kids were back to school face to face and playing sports was ok, heck half the people didn't even wear masks anymore.