Paradox "freeze development" of RPG Runemaster

The Date: January, 2014. The Place: Florida, USA.

One of the two new games announced was Runemaster, a procedurally generated fantasy RPG. It sounded like an exciting prospect—and a nice change from the grand strategy the Clausewitz Engine is known for. Unfortunately, that will likely no longer happen. Paradox has announced the decision to "freeze development" of the project.

"This was not an easy decision to make," writes Paradox COO Susana Meza Graham. "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."

The developers of Runemaster are being moved onto other projects within Paradox Development Studio.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.