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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Early Hex-Wargame Obsession
- Henrik first fell for strategy games on a Sinclair Spectrum playing hex-based war titles like Arnhem: A Bridge Too Far.
- He also loved ambitious 80s hybrids like The Lords of Midnight that mixed RPG and strategy elements.
Ambition Born From Constraints
- 80s games inspired modern designers by showing bold, cross-genre ambition under severe constraints.
- Henrik credits those titles for pushing him to pursue emergent, unusual designs like Crusader Kings.
Enable Modding By Separating Core Code
- Engineer your game core to separate gameplay logic from graphics and sound to enable modding.
- Talk internally and publicly until releasing tools becomes accepted practice.
