Crusader Kings 3 interview: Putting players in control

One of strategies most beloved franchises becomes a trilogy with Crusader Kings 3. Check out our interview from PDXCON.

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Paradox Studios recently held PDXCON in Berlin, a convention centered around the developers vast universe of games. One of the largest news drops to come out of the con was the announcement of Crusader Kings 3, the latest installment in a series dating back to the early 2000’s. This series has made its name from its deeply strategic gameplay and expansive amount of content. Crusader Kings 3 looks to take what made the the CK2 so enjoyable and take it to the next level. We had the opportunity to catch up with a couple of devs behind the project at PDXCON.

Both the Game Director and Lead Designer on Crusader Kings 3 spoke with us for an interview, which can be seen above. Each character will have fully animated 3D portraits with an implemented genetics system, which the devs likened to The Sims. “If two characters have children, they will tend to look like their parents.” Traits and attributes are also driven by genetics. “If two intelligent parents marry, they can have genius children.” This adds a plethora of depth to gameplay and strategy, while making the world feel more like a sim.

Paradox has different pillars of key focus for Crusader Kings 3. The first is all about characters. They want characters to be an integral part of the game in a way that players notice and appreciate. Another pillar is player freedom. It’s important that gamers have full range of choice and a sense of customization when adventuring through CK3.

If you’re Crusader Kings fan, you can play Crusader Kings 3 when it launches next year. Subscribe to the Shacknews and GamerHubTV YouTube channels for more exclusive video game interviews.

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 21, 2019 4:45 PM

    Donovan Erskine posted a new article, Crusader Kings 3 interview: Putting players in control

    • reply
      October 21, 2019 8:32 PM

      Yay, ck3 interview!

    • reply
      October 22, 2019 12:15 AM

      It'll be interesting to see their approach to balance in this one. If they want us to care more about the characters they'll probably need to do something that limits the scope of your awareness, so you're not flooded with hundreds of randomly-generated chars to not care about. No more searching Finland for a random courtier with great stats to invite to your duchy in Portugal.

      I could be out of the loop though. I hit 900 hours of CK2 and moved on from it just before the patch that added India, I think. There's been a lot of development to the game since then.

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        October 22, 2019 5:37 AM

        I have only a fraction of hours but I still never figured out how to the game "right"

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