Paradox "freezes" Runemaster Development

Paradox Interactive has decided to freeze the ongoing development of its RPG RuneMaster until further notice, and has moved its team to other projects.

Paradox is best known for its work on Grand Strategy titles such as Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Hearts of Iron, as well as publishing various other strategy games. As a developer, this was to be their first non-strategy game built on their in-house Clausewitz Engine, though there is a small chance it may still come to light.

That seems somewhat unlikely given that in the board by it they mention not only is the team moving onto other projects but that they hope to re-use parts of the game in other projects. That likely means the cannibalization of assets for various other projects.

This is the official Paradox Statement on the matter on their forums:

Hi everyone,

I have some news to share with you today regarding Runemaster. After much internal debate we have made the decision to freeze development of the project until further notice and move the development team working on it to other projects within Paradox Development Studio.

This was not an easy decision to make - Runemaster was a very ambitious project for us, and the team working on it brought all of their passion, dedication, and talent to the table. Despite our best efforts and a couple of re-scopes, Runemaster in its current form was unable to live up to the standards we set for ourselves here at Paradox.

Runemaster was a different type of game for us, and even though we were not able to fully realize our vision for it, we will take the lessons we learned to heart as we move forward with new endeavors. We will also look into how we can re-use the best parts of the game in other ways.

Our aim is to let all the talented developers who worked on the project to remain with Paradox Development Studio and bring their expertise to the other great games currently in development.

Kind regards

Susana Meza Graham COO Paradox Interactive