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CK3 Dev Diary #40 - A new journey begins

Greetings and Salutations everyone!

I am Linda Tiger (aka Fogbound), resident Senior Producer on Crusader Kings III.
I usually cruise ‘behind the scenes’ to support the team, but today is a rather special day, as you might know.
In just a few hours from now, we release our labor of love to the world, and you can experience first hand what this amazing development team has been up to for quite some time.

We have been sharing insights to our game features since we announced back in October last year, so today won’t be about the game - but rather the people behind it from over the years, both past and present.

Making something is hard. Without a design, it’s impossible. Following up on something so loved and enjoyed as Crusader Kings II was never going to be easy, but with Game Director Henrik Fåhraeus at the steering wheel we had a clear vision and goal from the start.
Lead Designer Alexander Oltner has made sure we’ve always had straightforward designs to work with, assisted by Game Designers Emil Tisander and Joakim Andreasson.

We wanted to make sure to pave the way for a player focused experience, and creative UX Designers Jonas Wickerström & Peter Johannesson have been instrumental in driving this work.

And to make sure that every turn taken and choice made makes a difference, our fantastic team of Content Designers Linnéa Thimrén, Sean ‘Shoes’ Hughes, Ewan Cowhig Croft, Bianca Savazzi, Mathilda Bjarnehed, Petter Vilberg and Camilla Isaksson have tirelessly continued to build immersion with the assistance of Content Design Lead Maximilian Olbers.

It takes quite a crew to keep a motor like this running; from architecture and core systems, to making sure that all the different pieces fit nicely together. Tech Leads Olof Björk, Lysann Schlegel and Joel Hansson has made sure our talented team of Programmers Igor Aleksandrowicz, Niklas Strid, Magne Skjæran, Anton Sorokin, Matthew Clohessy, Amanch Esmailzadeh, Ismael Serrano, Jimmy Selling and Daniel Eriksson have kept their code clean and their cogwheels spinning.

But it’s not only under-the-hood stuff that matters - making things look great and put things in motion is equally important! Thanks to the skillful work of our Artists Petter Lundh, Malin Jonsson, Carlos Lundhall, Nils Wadensten, Nikolaos Kaltsogiannis, Anton Leirnes, David Horler, Erik Hammarbäck, Johan Lundqvist, Fabian Soon, Niklas Tammpere, Erik Forsström, Ahmed Albastaki, Ecbel Oueslati, Mattias Larsson, Oscar Sjöstedt and Noelia Skabar we can offer a visually appealing joyride - all with the help and support of of our Art Producer Philipp Glietsch, our Art Lead Joacim Carlberg and Art Directors Pontus Olofsson & Fredrik Toll.

We are also proud to offer a bombastic audio experience, with music by legendary Music Composer and Producer Andreas Waldetoft, and solid soundscapes by Audio Designers Gustav Landerholm & Franco Freda - all in tune with Audio Director Björn Iversen and ready to be cranked up!

Talking the talk is all fine and dandy when you know the language, and thanks to our eminent Localization Manager Sara Wendel-Örtqvist we can speak up in several languages.

Creating all these parts might be a distributed effort, but making sure they all come together, stay together (even when the road is long and bumpy) and continues to be a fun filled experience requires a special kind of attention. Our relentless team of QA Testers Matt Frary, Jakub Potapczyk, Karl Cederslätt, Nicholas Meredith, Andreas Olsson, Alexander Windahl, Anna Johansson, Katya Boestad & Niall Bird.

And to round things up, I wouldn’t have gotten to this Release Day without the excellent help of my co-Producers Carmille Gidfors and Tegan Harris; navigating maps, greasing machinery, identifying dropped parts and lifting roadblocks left, right and center, to make sure our team gets to the right destination.

Of course, there are many more supporters at various depots - both internal and external - who have helped in getting us to where we are today. And with a development that spans over a longer period like this one, the team will naturally change significantly over time. The people above have worked in the development team at some point past or present. But named or not, you have our eternal gratitude.
And there is of course You. Our players, our fans, keeping us motivated to get this show on the road. We really hope you will enjoy the ride <3

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CK3 Team Christmas Card 2019

PS1) You might run into some of these characters - can you guess who’s who?

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PS2) And lastly for the release patch notes!
1.0:
- Made game
 
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All the best for the launch. Looking forward to finally getting to play. And, judging from the livestream, hope you all get some catch up sleep soon!
 
I don't usually post on these forums, but I just wanted to say thank you. I am counting down the minutes until release, I have rarely been so hyped by a game to the point where I not only pre-order but also take the special edition, funny how I went from skeptical when the game was announced to this enthusiastic, there's definitely lots of excellent design choices that were made. So, I say thank you all in advance for all of the hundreds of hour that will be used on this game instead of doing something productive
 
Congratulations to everyone for seeing all the work you've put in come to fruition. I really appreciate how involved you've been with all of us. I hope yal'll get to take some well deserved post-launch rest.

And thanks again to whoever it was fixing the catapult / onager thing. It shows you guys really care about the details. I'm looking forward to playing the game in a few hours. And I'm excited for what the future will bring.
 
Thanks to everyone who worked on this game.
I hope my laptop can handle it. I was expecting to upgrade to a desktop by this time of year, but alas! pandemic hit hard on the pocket.

Downloading from Steam right now!!!
 
Today is actually my birthday so it's fun to share it with this game as well! Hope the day turns out as well for you as it is for me!
 
Thank you CK3 team!
 
Only been able to plunge in for a few minutes so far, but game seems awesome. I found myself pleasantly surprised when I could turn on and off various video/graphical options without needing to restart the entire game.
 
I worked for years to make sure the Kingdom of Bohemia passes onto my son, only for that son to reveal that he's an incestuous relationship with his sister. Then my second son murdered my first son's wife, and then I unwillingly inherited Jerusalem.

Thank you. It feels good to be back.
 
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Congratulatrions to all the devs! Looks amazing!