Paradox Development Studio profiled in Edge

[Ashlantean]

The #288 January edition of Edge Magazine has a feature about Paradox Development Studio. I don't know if there are any other Edge aficionados around here, but seeing PDS with its own feature feels very, very cool. Thought I'd share a couple of cool tidbits from the article that I hadn't seen/heard before. (Unfortunately can't link to a full article because Edge keep most of their newer content offline - if you want to see the whole thing you'll have to buy/sub to Edge)

the average playtime for a Crusader Kings II owner is upwards of 90 hours

Pretty impressive given that we're over 1 million strong!

Shortly after Europa Universalis IV came out, Johansson was forced to ban multiplayer negotiations between staff during office hours to prevent underhanded collusion in meeting rooms.

In a studio first, Stellaris has a dedicated UI designer

Love these two.

Crusader Kings II's concurrent players count is higher now than it was at launch, enviably defying the typical release-week spike and crash

Have seen figures for the Steam concurrent players used as a stick in various discussions of CKII's progression and direction. Lovely to hear this alternate spin.

There's plenty of other cool stuff in the article about the origins of PDS, how EUIV was knocked together, Paradox' take on DLC and modding but I'll say no more other than that I enjoyed reading it.

 

[aruon]

wow that's actually pretty cool.

the average CK2 play is 90 hours? pffff, noobs.

 

[tcman2000]

Only 90? I have 400 registered(about 200 offline). And that's pretty low compared to some figures I've seen.

 

[magnusvejby]

Only 90? I have 400 registered(about 200 offline). And that's pretty low compared to some figures I've seen.

Well many people don't love these grand strategy games (Sadly), and just get them at Humbel Bundel, or somewhere else cheap, and try it for a few hours even minutes. So I will say 90 hours is quite much compared to many other games.

You can also see this by looking at the achviemnts.

Marry another character: only 10,3% of the players has that one.
I know that not every one plays ironman, but come-on, it's not hard to get that one.

 

[Will Steel]

Only 90? Lol, I have around 2,000 hours by now, and much more than that in offline.

That said, was the UI of PDS games not designed by the art team?

 

[Johan]

Only 90? Lol, I have around 2,000 hours by now, and much more than that in offline.

That said, was the UI of PDS games not designed by the art team?

Layout and flow have been designed by others, while artist design looks.

These days Grekulf does most of the UI, while me, yonaz, and some others do some. Stuff like seeing icons for every value in a country (trade power, discipline, etc) with tooltips is stuff i tend do insert into the game, as in my old age i simply dont want to use pen, paper & a calculator to play our games.

 

[aruon]

...as in my old age i simply dont want to use pen, paper & a calculator to play our games.

why not Zoidberg?

 

[Will Steel]

Layout and flow have been designed by others, while artist design looks.

These days Grekulf does most of the UI, while me, yonaz, and some others do some. Stuff like seeing icons for every value in a country (trade power, discipline, etc) with tooltips is stuff i tend do insert into the game, as in my old age i simply dont want to use pen, paper & a calculator to play our games.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

And to be honest putting more icons with tooltips to depict stuff is actually very nice, it is the right way now and sits perfectly with the modern UI trend in gaming. Icons can be a treat to look at compared to raw numbers and text.

 

[Darkath]

Layout and flow have been designed by others, while artist design looks.

These days Grekulf does most of the UI, while me, yonaz, and some others do some. Stuff like seeing icons for every value in a country (trade power, discipline, etc) with tooltips is stuff i tend do insert into the game, as in my old age i simply dont want to use pen, paper & a calculator to play our games.

And neither do we, even at our young-ish age.
I always hate when a game forces you to do math when you want to optimize, it's good to have the numbers in legible form.

That said so far i don't find the UI in stellaris much different in style (layout etc) than EU4 and HOI4

 

[Bobemor]

...as in my old age i simply dont want to use pen, paper & a calculator to play our games.

As in my young age I thank you for this.