Hello and welcome to another development diary for Imperator:Rome!
Most of us are hard at work finishing up the 1.2 Cicero update, fixing things found in the open beta as well as in our internal testing. Others have now moved on to the future Livy Update, which I cannot talk too much about right now.
With the release of the final 1.2 approaching I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce some of those who are part of the Imperator:Rome team and what they do. :)
Name & Nickname: Johan
Role: Creative Director
What I do: Whatever is needed to make a game.. Mostly design and coding these days.
Favorite Feature: Mana! j/k I really like how the dynamic pop mechanic worked out in Cicero.
Favorite Nation: I love playing Tartessos
Nickname: Arheo
What I do: Content Designer! Skilled in being bald, musicology, and battering rams. I have a hand in miscellaneous parts of Imperator. I'm always happy to discuss balance, design, or accidental features on the forums.
Favorite Creation: The Olympics
Least Favourite Creation: The Olympics
Nickname: Trin Tragula
Name: Henrik
Role: Game Designer
What I do: My job is to come up with and document design as well as tweaking and adjusting the balance of the game. I have been working on Imperator since the project started but for a long time I also used to be the single Content Designer on EU4. Like many other Paradox employees I was also once a modder of these games before becoming a developer.
Favorite Thing: I have always been in love with the maps of paradox games and I think Imperator has one of our best maps so far. From the Cicero Update I really enjoy how the dynamic between Food, Cities and Settlements turned out.
Name: Joachim
Forum Name: Snow Crystal
Role: Content Designer
What I do: So I pretty much work with everything that isn't Art, Sound nor Code. Be that map changes or fixes, events, decisions, or whatever else needs Script work. Similarly to my time on CK2, I prefer working on the map or formables.
Personally I always love starting with the smallest nations on the map, so I have a lot of playthroughs with Gadir, the Phoenician nations etc, and I secretly have a goal to give them all something special so I'll have even more fun playing them.
Fun fact: I once paid 16 euros for a tiny ice-cream I didn't even get to eat.
Nickname: Katz
Name: Sebastian
What I do: Embedded QA on the project and have been along since the start. I try to keep a good overview of the project to do what I can to have good releases reaching you all. Outside of games I tend to try to be out with my camera.
Favorite Bug: Demon Ghost Cassander haunting the Mac.
Forum name: Gorion3
Reddit name: u/Gorbear
Role: Tech Lead
What I do: A tech lead is part of the leadership team that is making decisions. Specifically a tech lead is responsible for the technical delivery of a game, setting up workflows & processes within the team together with the producer. Besides that talk with design about what is feasible and what is not. Besides that I do some programming, mainly working tasks that are not set 'features'. These are bug fixes, optimizations, but sometimes a new feature :)
Favorite feature: I love army automation!
Nickname: Egladil
What I do: Programmer. I joined both Paradox and this project about 1.5 years ago. Before that I worked as a software engineering consultant at Sweden's oldest consultancy agency, doing all kinds of different things. Since I started I've touched basically every part of the projects code, adding new features and fixing things that broke. In addition to programming, I also made the flag for Celticia. Outside of work I do larping, play colony management games, and most importantly pet my cats
Trivia: Was once a developer for OpenTTD
Name: Evan Wu
Role: Programmer
What I do: I’ve been a huge fan of Paradox since Crusader Kings (the first one) and recently joined the company. Currently proud to be part of the Imperator team programming gameplay features and AI. Outside of games I’m either looking to fly my drone or scuba dive into the sea.
Fun fact: When I was a kid, I made a strategy game in school which other kids paid to play.
Name & Nickname: Timor
Role: 2D/UI Artist
What I do: As long as it exists in the game, my job is to make it look as nice and appealing as I can in the time given to me.
Favorite Feature: Events. In particular, the event images. These were a real joy to make and to set the art style for.
Favorite Nation: Yamato... now we just need to get it on the map and travel into the future by a few hundred years.
Name: Joacim
Forum name: Carlberg
Role: Art Lead
What I do: I'm the person who's in charge of the visual parts of Imperator. With my background in 3D I've been a part in setting the visual style for the units of the world, as well as the painting of the world itself with my colleagues. I'm always keen to make Imperator looking better, and work to make the map and world feel even more alive.
Trivia: Used to fight a bit of Longword HEMA before moving to Stockholm, and have always been a history nut when it comes to armor and uniforms.
Name: Hörður
Handle: Aule_the_creator
Role: (Freelance) Content Designer
What I do: I have only recently started at Paradox, so I make whatever they tell me to make. So far I've mostly been doing historical flavor events, which works well for me as a historian.
Trivia: I do historical high-medieval and viking-age reenactment in my spare time: hit and stab friends with blunt metal weapons, always aim for the crotch. That sort of thing.
Upcoming Cicero Q&A
That was all for this week! There will be more information about the patch and the game as soon as tomorrow (10th Sept 19) as @Arheo will host a Q&A at 14:00 where he will be answering questions from the community. This will be available through our Twitch Channel.
To discuss today's diary feel free to head over to our forums here!