Game News Runemaster cancelled

[Infinitron]

Tags: Paradox Interactive; Runemaster

We haven't posted much about Paradox Interactive's Norse-themed turn-based sandbox RPG Runemaster since it was announced back in January (although it did make a good impression on Darth Roxor at this year's Gamescom). For that reason, I feel a bit sheepish to report that the game has been abruptly cancelled, as reported in this post on the official Paradox 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
​

Welp. This event is a surprise to me, but it looks like some people on the Paradox forums aren't surprised by it. I guess there's a story here we're not aware of. Oh well, at least Paradox still has Pillars of Eternity for their RPG lineup.

 

[Spectacle]

That's quite a surprise, and sad to see such an interesting project die.

But it's better that they kill the game if it didn't turn out to be fun, than finish it up and sell it anyway.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Damn.

 

[kris]

Yeah. I feel that they might have had bigger plans for the game then they felt themselves able to deliver. And then took possibly a wise decision to cancel instead of devliering half-assed shit. Teh dream-vision might not been doable.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Happens all the time, developers announcing projects that they still havent figured out how to fully realize.

I'm a big fan of a short feature list that is grounded in reality, which developers can add scope to as the project advances.

 

[Minttunator]

That absolutely sucks - though it is a consolation that we're living in the Age of Incline and there are several other interesting games coming out. Still, it's a shame.

 

[MicoSelva]

I bet the design team failed to come up with 50 different shit micro-DLC, so they canned the whole project and moved the team to make troop reskins for Europa Universalis.
Seriously, with some of the shit Paradox released in recent years, does anyone still believe they have some kind of internal quality standards?

 

[R@tmaster]

Tomorrow

Hi everyone,
I have some news to share with you today regarding Pillars of Eternity. After much internal debate we have made the decision to freeze development of the project.

Year After

Josh Sawyer , the game designer that was forcibly committed during 333 days under the Mental Health Act, has killed five of the doctors that were involved in several stages of his brain surgery.

 

[getter77]

Well, at least with something like this succumbing to such a visible fate here in modern times, there's a better chance that one or more good things can spring from the ashes as opposed to a decade back when they may well have just chucked the source and all into a dumpster outright.

If they really wanted to do it a solid though, a detailed post-mortem of sorts would go a long way towards internal and external clarity so as to hopefully not have this happen again anytime soon.

 

[EG]

This and the Cold War one? Damn you, Paradox. Damn you to Hell!

 

[sser]

It's mainly surprising in that they just showcased this game at multiple venues and had it slotted for a pretty recent upcoming release. Not sure what could happen between then and now.

 

[Infinitron]

It's mainly surprising in that they just showcased this game at multiple venues and had it slotted for a pretty recent upcoming release. Not sure what could happen between then and now.

The last dev diary was in late October, so whatever happened was fairly recent: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ld-Alfheim&s=1230bcfe32eb947f4b1b70010c3b9b8d

It looks like people noticed something was up when the next dev diary didn't show up: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-Dev-Diary&s=1230bcfe32eb947f4b1b70010c3b9b8d

 

[Morkar Left]

They probably got it that you can't make much money with such rpgs compared to their strategy titles.

 

[hoverdog]

It's mainly surprising in that they just showcased this game at multiple venues and had it slotted for a pretty recent upcoming release. Not sure what could happen between then and now.

Yeah. Though the game looked really awful in my short stint with it on Gamescom.

 

[Luka-boy]

First Cartel now this one. Everything is shit.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

either its uneconomic or the team was toxic and couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery

one or the other

 

[Azalin]

Damn,I was actually interested in this one

 

[Morality Games]

Might be feeling the huge glut in the RPG market.

 

[Infinitron]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...9be552a9b5&p=18514884&viewfull=1#post18514884

^These Paradox guys are kinda paranoid. "That never happened! You saw nothing!"

 

[Jaedar]

Observation: Runemaster was kinda like conquistador.
Observation2: Logic artists are about to finish clandestine, and presumably return(I don't remember if they've confirmed) to making conquistador games.

Hopeful conclusion: Runemaster is in fact not canceled, it is simply being "canceled" as they join forces with logic artists to make "Conquistador: Runemaster".
Jonas and Avonaeon will surely not reply to this assertion as they do not wish to spoil the conspiracy.

Spoiler

On a more serious note, I am disappointed to see this canceled. It looked like it could be cool.

 

[Crispy]

You couldn't post this in your other Runemaster thread and just updated its title?

 

[Infinitron]

You couldn't post this in your other Runemaster thread and just updated its title?

That's not how newsposting works. And don't blame me that somebody necro'd the game's original announcement post

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Swedish government probably won't give co-funding to a title like that. They'll probably rework the artwork and release something similar with a different theme. That is also probably why they don't want discussion, which is pretty odd.

 

[Metro]

I bet the design team failed to come up with 50 different shit micro-DLC, so they canned the whole project and moved the team to make troop reskins for Europa Universalis.
Seriously, with some of the shit Paradox released in recent years, does anyone still believe they have some kind of internal quality standards?

This. Paradox, as a publisher has been in decline for awhile now. If they can't milk a game with a dozen DLC they have no interest in it.

 

[Morality Games]

On a more serious note, I am disappointed to see this canceled. It looked like it could be cool.

I guess. While I would look to see an RPG rooted in hardboiled Norse mythology, I'm not sure this was it.

If only you guys had believed in Thorvalla.