Imperator: Rome Developer Diary - 18 May 2020

[Jamor]

What are the budget proportions for different parts of the game in terms of percentage? How is that decided and does it stay constant or does it have minor changes as time passes?

Well, I can't give numbers there, but I can tell you the different disciplines have a greater or lesser role during different phases of development. For example, art is usually quite light on tasks early in the genesis of a new release, because we don't have asset lists decided for them yet. Conversely, design is very busy at this time trying to answer every other discipline's question of "what is it we're making here?". Certain specialists like audio are not with us for the entire span of production, they come in at the end when the features are there and ready to be hooked up with sound.

A big part of a producer's job is figuring out a way to share the time of these specialists with other teams in the studio, who also have releases they need to get done.

So, it varies. Trust me though, we have more than enough to do to ensure that folks are rarely idle

 

[Jamor]

@Jamor, would you describe yourself as more of a runway NO or a guns Radcliffe?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1261415082887532544

I'm ruling out hearts Pikachu based on this DD

Can I have both the "NO" jacket, and the pistols? A good producer has a lot of tools in his arsenal.

 

[Jamor]

There is something I am curious about. Does Paradox subject its developers to "crunch" like other studios such as EA, etc.?

No. We believe it's wrong, especially for games like ours that have a marathon pace of development over years, not a sprint to just release, patch a few times, and abandon. Furthermore, because this is Sweden, we do not have the legal option to abuse our staff in this way. As a Canadian by birth, I deeply appreciate working in a humane setup such as this.

 

[Arheo]

There is something I am curious about. Does Paradox subject its developers to "crunch" like other studios such as EA, etc.?

I've never been asked to work more than two consecutive days of OT at PDS.

do citizen still produce research (so nobles are just mega citizens) ? and is noble happiness only based on trade goods, because that would make playing tall a lot less fun, since large empires obviously have more diplorange and own goods to import for that bonus, while currently you can build a great tech country without being dependant on special tradegoods.

Citizens continue to produce manpower as well. Let's just say there are future plans for more distinctions.

Large nations tend to have more issues with importing from other countries due to AE, there'll be some balance to do here, but it feels like it works out well in practice.

 

[Jamor]

Thanks for being so open - this is genuinely one of the most interesting and useful paradox dev diaries I've seen. One thing I've always wondered though is if the Game Director and Producer do any programming or implementing, or if they are solely concerned with the big picture stuff?

When you have unpleasant news I find it's best just to face it head on, honestly. Glad folks are being cool and understanding about it. My GD does in fact implement a lot himself. I'm not a programmer by trade, but I do some writing, fix literally unplayable typos from time to time, etc. Mainly I do boring spreadsheets and emails and meetings...but if I can tank aggro on those so the dev team is free to keep firing game dev DPS, I'll do it happily.

 

[Arheo]

It may be too late for any PDS people to look at this now, but I was really interested in the part that Jamor wrote on internal organization of a game design. I was actually wondering to what extent Game Directors come from a background of programming and IT field or, for the type of games Paradox does, you are going to have a (let's say) historian with MBA in that position. How to reconcile the technical part with the features and contextualization part.

It varies quite a lot! Several of the GDs at PDS have studied programming, though it is by no means a required qualification. I'm a trained classical musician, so it's fair to say there's no real need for a specific education. I think all the GDs here have worked at PDS in other roles before taking the helm, however, so some contextual knowledge is definitely important. For me, being able to rely on those with academic technical qualifications such as @egladil is highly important to the long term health of the project.