Paradox Development Studio (PDS) is a Swedish

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

founded in 1995. It is closely associated with its parent company and

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an indep ...

. It is best known for its grand strategy wargame series '' Europa Universalis'', '' Hearts of Iron'', '' Victoria'', '' Crusader Kings'', '' Stellaris'', and ''

Imperator The Latin word ''imperator'' derives from the stem of the verb la, imperare, label=none, meaning 'to order, to command'. It was originally employed as a title roughly equivalent to ''commander'' under the Roman Republic. Later it became a part o ...

''.

History

PDS is based on the heritage of the Swedish

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a ...

company

Target Games Target Games was a Swedish publisher of role-playing games active from 1980 until the year 1999 when they went into bankruptcy proceedings. Until the mid-1990s they published their Swedish roleplaying games under the brand name Äventyrsspel (me ...

, and has been a game developer of PC-focused grand strategy games since 1995, including the '' Europa Universalis'', '' Hearts of Iron'', '' Victoria'', '' Crusader Kings'', '' Stellaris'', and ''

'' series. The company continued to create PC games and in 1999, the company was divided into two separate entities:

, which focused on creating grand strategy games for PC, and Paradox Entertainment, which focused on creating

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboa ...

and

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

. In January 2012, the company divided yet again into two studios, becoming

and Paradox Development Studio. Paradox Interactive became the game publisher focused on PC games of various genres and Paradox Development Studio became the game development studio focused on grand strategy games. The game development studio was one of the first video game developers to create games in the grand strategy genre, and most of the games the studio has developed fall into that category. Grand strategy games are strategy games that usually cover the entire world map and include elements such as economy, diplomacy and warfare.

Studios

In 2021, Paradox Development Studio has reorganized and split into five internal development teams, with each one handling one of the Paradox's own IPs. While this left '' Imperator: Rome'' without a dedicated development team, PDS leads stated that they are figuring out how they will return to the series in time.

Game engines

To date, Paradox have engineered two main proprietary game engines for their titles, Europa and Clausewitz. Both were also designed to be open to anyone who wishes to modify the original game files to create mods. As a result, games can be modded with as little as a

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be u ...

, which has led to the development of strong modding communities for each of Paradox's games. Paradox developed its debut game '' Europa Universalis'' in 2000, and used large chunks of its code for its next games. Although this code overlap was subsequently referred to as the ''Europa Engine'', studio manager Johan Andersson clarified that the 'engine' had not been part of the initial designs of each of the company's first six games, and that it just resulted from copy-pasting large parts of code from one game to the next. In April 2008, Paradox allowed certain indie game developers to freely use the (by then) superseded engine as part of their Europa Engine Licensing Program. The move led to the development of games such as '' For the Glory'', ''Arsenal of Democracy'', ''Darkest Hour'', and ''Iron Cross''. In 2007, the studio debuted a new game engine, called Clausewitz Engine in '' Europa Universalis III''. Named after the Prussian general

Carl von Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz (; 1 June 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral", in modern terms meaning psychological, and political aspects of waging war. His mo ...

, the new engine provides a 3D view of part or the totality of the world map, depending on the played game. ''Sengoku'' (released 2011) was the first game utilizing the Clausewitz 2 engine. The studio's 17th game, '' Imperator: Rome'' (released 2019), was also built using Clausewitz, but with the addition of new 64-bit software known as "Jomini" (named after 19th century Swiss general

Antoine-Henri Jomini Antoine-Henri Jomini (; 6 March 177922 March 1869) was a Swiss military officer who served as a general in French and later in Russian service, and one of the most celebrated writers on the Napoleonic art of war. Jomini's ideas are a staple at ...

) that allows for better 3D rendering and easier creation of mods. The newly improved engine now also features support for DirectX 11.

List of games developed

List of games developed by Paradox Development Studios. Note that in addition to this list there are two other games developed in the early 2000s when the studio was part of Paradox Entertainment, '' Crown of the North'' and ''

Two Thrones ''Two Thrones'' is a real-time grand strategy video game developed and published by Paradox Interactive. It is the sequel to the international version of '' Svea Rike III'', '' Europa Universalis: Crown of the North''. Reception The game r ...

'', both part of the ''Svea Rike'' series.

Europa Engine

Clausewitz Engine

References

External links

Official website
{{Paradox development studio games Video game companies of Sweden Video game development companies Video game companies established in 1995 Companies based in Stockholm Swedish companies established in 1995 Paradox Interactive