Are all Paradox dev teams so small?

[lordboy54]

In context of podcat's post here where he says

We are still a small core team of 3 programmers and I cant justify spending that much development time just to add a visual choice of the same thing, or we'll end up where hoi3 was with too much stuff, none of it balanced or working quite right.

I mean supposedly the paradox dev studio has 20+ members, and i assume out of these 20 there are more than 3 programmers, so i assume this context to be subteams of the studio.


But only three programmers for a game which will most likely be so popular at launch sounds a bit low. I mean maybe too many chefs does make the meal bad, however just three programmers? Is this the usual fare of all paradox projects? How many in a team consists of non programming duties working on top of the existing team, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Pugmak]

There was a time when I thought a bit poorly on Paradox productions. Then I found out how small the outfit was in manpower. Now I am amazed at what they are able to produce.

 

[EU3NOOB]

In context of podcat's post here where he says



I mean supposedly the paradox dev studio has 20+ members, and i assume out of these 20 there are more than 3 programmers, so i assume this context to be subteams of the studio.


But only three programmers for a game which will most likely be so popular at launch sounds a bit low. I mean maybe too many chefs does make the meal bad, however just three programmers? Is this the usual fare of all paradox projects? How many in a team consists of non programming duties working on top of the existing team, if you don't mind me asking?

They have multiple projects. At the same time even.hmy:

 

[Augustus93]

In context of podcat's post here where he says



I mean supposedly the paradox dev studio has 20+ members, and i assume out of these 20 there are more than 3 programmers, so i assume this context to be subteams of the studio.


But only three programmers for a game which will most likely be so popular at launch sounds a bit low. I mean maybe too many chefs does make the meal bad, however just three programmers? Is this the usual fare of all paradox projects? How many in a team consists of non programming duties working on top of the existing team, if you don't mind me asking?

They have three guys working on the game at all times, then they have many part timers like those people doing graphics and sound effects for example.

 

[uberjedi]

In my experience. More people often doesnt help development projects.
I work with SW development in projects significantly larger than Paradox type projects.
And I dont think we produce more customer value in the end though.

 

[EU3NOOB]

In my experience. More people often doesnt help development projects.
I work with SW development in projects significantly larger than Paradox type projects.
And I dont think we produce more customer value in the end though.

Aye, need only look to EA and Maxis to see the truth in this. Their dev teams are probably massive, yet we got Sim City 5.

 

[AndrewT]

Are all Paradox dev teams so small?

No. Nusia is quite tall, for instance.

 

[aruon]

No. Nusia is quite tall, for instance.

riiiiiiiiight. because you guys totally AREN'T just 2 kids dressed up as an adult.

 

[Pugmak]

No. Nusia is quite tall, for instance.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Nus...G4_uoASj-YCgDg&ved=0CB8QsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1053

That's a google image search for Nusia.
Which one is Nusia so we can judge for ourselves?

 

[EU3NOOB]

No. Nusia is quite tall, for instance.

Yes. I'm sure you all have very big... bank accounts!

 

[Nusia]

Hi, yes, I am quite tall. And if you want more info about me I would suggest that you read this thread instead of searching google images for Nusia.

 

[lordmichael95]

Hi, yes, I am quite tall. And if you want more info about me I would suggest that you read this thread instead of searching google images for Nusia.

Okay, you look like you are over six feet tall, therefore by the power invested in me as President of the International Tall People Society, you now get the official designation of "tall". Congratulations! Remember to vote for me at our next bi-annul Presidential election meeting.

 

[Mef]

Since nobody has given any useful information yet, here's an official site listing PDS employees, although not all of them are on that list:
http://career.paradoxplaza.com/technical

As far as I know it only lists 9 actual coders (out of which 2 are not nominally assigned to any game due to higher obligations) and with 5 games in parallel development (out of which 2 are released), there isn't that much manpower to go around.

 

[Mrop]

Mef, that list is not complete, seems people are too lazy to fill in their profile at that page (like me!). My estimate is that there are somewhere around 20 programmers, but some are project leads and as such may not have more or less time over for coding, and some are working on engine/tools.

 

[Nusia]

Okay, you look like you are over six feet tall, therefore by the power invested in me as President of the International Tall People Society, you now get the official designation of "tall". Congratulations! Remember to vote for me at our next bi-annul Presidential election meeting.

Oh, thank you. I'll make sure to vote for you. ^_^

 

[klinkvon13]

In my experience. More people often doesnt help development projects.
I work with SW development in projects significantly larger than Paradox type projects.
And I dont think we produce more customer value in the end though.

+1

 

[Pugmak]

Ok. You're tall. But, are you Tallest?!!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XipS-JaPvog

Hi, yes, I am quite tall. And if you want more info about me I would suggest that you read this thread instead of searching google images for Nusia.

 

[Teije]

In my experience. More people often doesnt help development projects.
I work with SW development in projects significantly larger than Paradox type projects.
And I dont think we produce more customer value in the end though.

The more devs you have, the more you deal with issues of team management, internal coordination, different coding approaches, knowledge transfer, onboarding of new devs and quality control. None of them insurmountable challenges certainly, but it's not the case that more devs = better product.

Spoken as someone who manages 22 developers. It's like herding cats most days, and I have a good team of folks with very low turnover.

 

[CyberianK]

Also please take into account that the giant 3D action blockbuster AAA games only have such big teams for lazy repetitive asset generation. So most of those guys do 3D-modeling etc. the real coding teams for the core of the game aren't so big either. And with the nature of Paradox guys you don't need 50+ peoples doing 3D models.

 

[FOARP]

Also please take into account that the giant 3D action blockbuster AAA games only have such big teams for lazy repetitive asset generation. So most of those guys do 3D-modeling etc. the real coding teams for the core of the game aren't so big either. And with the nature of Paradox guys you don't need 50+ peoples doing 3D models.

Yeah, I just finished Far Cry 3, and was blown away by how long the credits ran on for (way longer than your average movie, for example) but as far as I could see the overwhelming majority were people doing modelling and testing, not straight-up coding.