There was a time when Paradox wasn’t focused on grand strategy epics at all—it was doing something entirely different.

Paradox has experimented with many styles over the years, especially across its full publishing catalog, but its in-house projects are almost all grand strategy games where we paint real-world realms in our favorite color. Before that reputation was cemented, however, Paradox tried to make a name in other genres. It tried—and failed spectacularly. In an interview with PC Gamer, Johan Andersson, head of Europa Universalis, recalled one of the studio’s earliest efforts. Strategy was clearly the team’s strength, but it only became obvious much later that it should be the sole focus.

“If you want a laugh, Google Valhalla Chronicles. We got the best comment on that: ‘Bugs, many and diverse, some more interesting than the gameplay.’ In our first ten years we made lots of games with a tiny team of five or six. We became Paradox in 1999 and Paradox Interactive in 2005. Up to 2009 we released around 20 games from that internal studio, most of them grand strategy. We thought the first Europa Universalis made us a grand strategy studio. I think it was Europa Universalis III—probably our twelfth grand strategy—when we decided: this is our lane, and we won’t do anything else,” Andersson said.

It was probably the right call. It’s hard to imagine today’s Paradox Development Studio shipping an RPG, but games like Crusader Kings generate tales no single writer would be eccentric enough to devise alone. Checking a 2003 run of a local gaming mag turned up no coverage of the game—perhaps not by accident, as the video below neatly shows how the 2003 release looks decidedly janky.

As a footnote, Hearts of Iron also launched in 2003 and would grow into one of Paradox’s major franchises.

Source: PCGamer