Paradox Interactive is a Swedish video game publisher based in Stockholm that is known
for publishing historical strategy computer games.
It publishes its own games as well as other developers' through traditional retail channels
as well as digital distribution services, such as GamersGate.
The lead game programmer is Johan Andersson.
Paradox Interactive was previously a division of Paradox Entertainment, self-proclaimed
owners and developers of properties such as Conan the Barbarian as created by pulp author
Robert Ervin Howard.
Ownership Paradox Interactive is not a publicly traded
company.
The largest and majority owner is its CEO Fredrick Wester.
The second largest owner is Investment AB Spiltan, and in June 2014 13% of the company
was acquired by Peter Lindell.
Game characteristics The studio produces what it terms "Grand Strategy
games", meaning ones played on a real-world map, marked by the use of standard real-time
elements but with an ability to make any and all changes while paused.
Almost all Paradox games have historical settings and demonstrate a reasonable commitment to
historical accuracy.
The focus of each game is different, but generally a player must manage the economy, commerce,
internal politics, diplomacy, technological development, and military forces of a nation.
Paradox Interactive games are also characteristically complex, with highly detailed gameplay models
and consequently steep learning curves.
Paradox regularly releases patches to their games long after a game's initial release.
Some games have required patches shortly after release to make them playable.
Later patches may contain large changes to the game and the way the game is played, in
response to the demands and requests of fans.
The games are mostly based on an open game engine with no set "victory" condition.
Paradox tries to make games that are open and easy to edit, from tweaking a saved game
to creating an entirely new scenario.
Modding can be accomplished with simple tools and basic knowledge of scripting.
To assist modders to figure out how to edit the game on their own, the Paradox forums
provide fan-compiled libraries of "how to" advice.
Due to this, each game has a very large number of mods, ranging from minor additions to complete
system overhauls.
Forums The complexity of the games often warrants
player collaboration over the forums.
Often, players will assist other players with the games, post modifications, and write "after
action reports".
Due to much of the game content being in plain text and image files, the modification of
the games has become very popular.
Much of the gameplay information used by the engine is contained in uncompressed text and
bitmap graphic files.
The ability to freely edit these files has allowed an active modding community to develop.
After action reports, usually abbreviated as AARs on the forums, provide a way for players
to discuss their own gameplay in unique ways with other players.
AARs are reports written by players about their experiences with a game, ranging in
style from simple presentations of the development of the game with screenshots to highly embellished
character-driven stories only loosely based on the events in the game.
They are generally serialized in a forum topic, with every update post corresponding to a
period of gameplay, and with comments and suggestions made by readers between updates.
Games
Upcoming titles Cities: Skylines
Magicka 2 Hearts of Iron IV
Pillars of Eternity Hollowpoint
Runemaster Linux support
Paradox Interactive is starting to provide Linux ports of all games where easily possible
since the beginning of 2013.
The first such game was Crusader Kings II available on Steam for Linux since 14 January
2013.
See also Paradox Development Studio
References
External links Paradox Interactive