Designer Notes Designer Notes 4: Henrik Fahraeus
Feb 10, 2015
Joined by Henrik Fahraeus, Game Director at Paradox Interactive, and Jon Shafer, lead designer of Civilization 5, the discussion takes a deep dive into the art of designing historical strategy games. They explore whether Civ and EU games exist in alternate dimensions and debate the merits of provinces versus hexes. The unique storytelling approach of Crusader Kings 2 captivates as they highlight emergent narratives and navigate the balance between historical accuracy and engaging gameplay. Get ready for insights on diplomacy and the delicate dance of complexity in strategy design!
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Map Granularity Shapes Tactics
- More provinces (finer map granularity) increase tactical opportunities and richer movement options.
- Henrik originally preferred hexes but later accepted provinces as the right abstraction.
Crusader Kings' Rocky Start
- Crusader Kings was almost outsourced; a rushed internal recode and poor marketing left the first game under-realized.
- Henrik later led CK2 to focus more sharply on character-driven gameplay.
Opinion Over Mutual Relations
- CK2 simplified many legacy metrics into a single opinion system to better model asymmetric, one-way relationships.
- That consolidation improved narrative clarity but made balancing trickier.
