We are Paradox North, the developers of Magicka: Wizard Wars! It's our birthday!

Is the spoken language in Magicka a variant of Swedish, some other Norse language, or just gibberish?

Pretty much all of the above, with a dash of English. :)

And if it's gibberish, is it Skånska?

Would anyone truly tell the difference? :D

What's the best snack to eat while developing a game?

This was answered by us on the stream, I believe carrots, nuts and cream-cheese and chive chips were the top 3!

Paradox North? North of Sweden? You poor people. What is the arctic like?

Oddly enough, Paradox North is actually "North" of the Paradox Interactive publishing wing, they are situated on the floor above. ;) Our true northern studio would be Paradox Arctic, recently set-up in Umeå!

Your magicka 2 commercial is hilarious. How did that particular promo come to be?

All credit for that goes to our hugely talented Trailer Producer, Steven! He was also the mind behind the famous Jazz Boatman trailer for Leviathan Warships, never disappoints!

How many of Magicka's stupid interactions between spells and things were purposely placed in there?

Do you guys have a chart there that lists the combinations by damage or is it more random than that?

We can't comment on the vanilla Magicka so much as it's a different team doing Magicka: Wizard Wars now. As far as Wizard Wars is concerned we wanted to keep the afformentioned "stupid interactions" but with an element of balance to reflect the PVP setting. We like to think we pulled it off (for the most part, still in beta!).

Regarding the damage figures etc, all damage values are static in terms of if you cast the spell once it'll always give you the same result. We like to keep the actual mechanics predictable, it's when you guys start using them that the "randomness" element kicks in! ;)

What is your favourite combo?

What is your favourite combo?

We are a mixed bunch, each with our own favourites. I'm (Escher - Community Dev.) a big fan of throwing frozen boulders around (DRR), our coder Anders trusts in the power of water sprays (QQQ), ND Karlsson, Game Designer likes ASS, also known as Death-lightning.

For those of you not aware, every spell in our game is cast "manually". the "QQQ" etc above refers to three pushes of the Water element to form a water spray. DRR would be Earth, Cold, Cold. ASS is Lightning, Death, Death.

Hi. Any plans for linux version?

Not as yet, we'll see what demand is like as the game progresses!

1)Magicka: Was QFAR/QRAF => QA was intended?

2)Magicka: Wizard Wars: Why did you remove the snowball? Will you return that item?

3)Magicka: Can you tell us about the non obtainable magick "amalgameddon". Why did you remove it and what was it purpose.

4) How do you decide which magick will enter the game?

Edit: 5) Magicka: Is "Holy fire" intended?

Holy fire: EDWF can deal healing damage to enemies with EDF ward.

Unfortunately we can't really answer the Magicka questions, it was a different studio that worked on that. Sorry!

Regarding the snowball, we removed that as it was only available for a limited time during out closed Early Access period. Now we are into open beta I would expect to see it make an appearance when the right season arrives. ;)

Happy Birthday! What's your favourite type of Pizza?

Thanks!

Helena, 3D artist - One with garlic and bearnaisesauce... oh god why all these food questions? I'm getting hungry again. (Yes, bearnaise sauce on a pizza is a thing in Sweden)

Pontus - 2D artist - Mozzarella, basil, prosciutto

Carlos, 3D Artist - Azteca! Spicy and hot!

Timor, UI - Mexicana (A spicy pizza, with Jalapenos, that probably doesn't exist in mexico)

Escher, Community - Hawaiian!

What was the inspiration behind having the Imps in the game? Also, why is the imp at the log in screen wearing a Ball gag?

NDKarlsson, Game Designer - we wanted to have some element that created more life in the battlefield. It felt empty to just be 8 people, we wanted there to be more chaos and more dynamic objects to make it interesting. It was also a way to add more customization, have different types of AI that made different things, but that has not been fully realised yet.

Escher, Community Dev - Originally the imp was quite "vocal" when logging in, yelling and shouting etc. Community feedback was that they wanted a little peace and quiet, we made it so!

I absolutely love this game, guys. Seriously. I'm a huge advocate for it, I'm always trying to get more and more people to play. Wish I could watch the stream but twitch is blocked at work. Tell me, if you could wave a magic wand over the game and add one feature perfectly, or change something to be exactly what you want, what would you do?

if you could wave a magic wand over the game and add one feature perfectly, or change something to be exactly what you want, what would you do

Anders, Programmer - Improve the network code!

Nisshagen, Game Director - remove latency from the universe!

Pontus, 2D Artist - Make imps cleverer, improve AI.

Helena, 3D Artist - Perfect the matchmaking system.

Does working on a zesty, funny game like Magicka make for a fun workplace environment or is it just business as usual?

We all have a blast at work, we are all very much gamers at heart and as a result very passionate about what we do! We have the perfect mix of fun and efficiency, Paradox North/Paradox Interactive is a great place to work!

What are you guys afraid of in the game? Any combos, elements? Any players? (apart from jackazzm)

Jensen

[deleted]

As per our answer on the stream, we will never be perfectly balanced! We want to get the ideal spot where there is excellent balance but with just a little bit of something to keep stuff exciting.

Thank you for the awesome game. Is a 2v2 duel mode also comming? When approximately? Why is it still such a long time till then?

We were discussing this just this morning! Some of our veteran players may have remembered a little peak at a very unfinished 2v2 Duel Mode map that popped into rotation for a while. It hasn't gone away, it'll likely make an appearance in the future!

I'm sorry to say we can't give you an ETA date as yet. Unfortunately we are small team and although we'd love to get everything out right away we do have our limits! We do at least as it stands get new game-changing content out at least every two weeks. In the week behind we normally add weapons, robes or other store items.

If you guys would form a Warfare team, what would be the most suitable 4 guys on the team?

We never really came to a consensus on this...general opinion though is that the coding team are the ones to beat!

Where do you see the game in one year time?

What about two years time?

What will be the biggest foreseeable change that will become a reality in the future?

Custom games!

Are there currently any plans on releasing gear with more than 30+ in elemental bonus or multiple bonuses?

Nisshagen, Game Director- Well yes, it would be fun! Especially the multiple bonuses/drawbacks is interesting.

Hi, thanks for doing this AMA, I've only heard about your game through a couple of friends, so could you explain VERY Briefly what the game is all about? *Also how/where did you guys get the idea from? *Favorite icecream flavour?

Magicka: Wizard Wars is a Free to Play Action Spell-Casting PVP Game. We started day 1 with pretty much a map and an idea then developed from that to what you see today, all with a very much community-driven focus.

Our goal is to make a game that's approachable for everybody, the fun casual gamer to the hardcore competitive player. We hate Pay-to-win!

It's free, check it out! ;)

Do you prefer cake or pie? ;)

Escher, Community Dev. - Pie! Pie is everything a cake can be, yet more so! Sweet or savoury! Although...Swedes DO have the smorgastårta which is an obscene savoury/cake hybrid. Be afraid!

Kling, Animator - Chocolate Cake!!

NDKarlsson, Game Designer - Cake (definitely not a lie)

Pontus, 2D Artist - Taco/texmex pie (sorry...another scary Swedish creation!)

Helena, 3D Artist - Cake definitely. Pie is so inferior. Pie is often dry and all that tasteless flour-ey dough just makes it soooo boring.

Henrik, Audio - Muffins. Is it a cake, is it bread? Who knows!

Why is the imp on the login screen no longer screaming when he falls down? This one doesn't have a gag ball...?

That imp is a stoic Viking, he didn't require a gag ball to keep it quiet.

Will you make items that have unique interactions with spells? I.E a club that when used on frozen enemies does more damage but otherwise is more or less useless. A whip that when used with a lightning shield applies extra shock damage etc etc.

NDKarlsson, Game Designer - I wouldn't say that at this point in time. Making very one-situation-based items aren't very fun imo since it limits the usage of the item overall. Maybe we can add things that have more unique powers or abilities, but I don't think it will be that very specifically useful in one way and totally worthless in others.

Are internships common at Paradox studios? I'm very much interested in one!

Yes! :) http://career.paradoxplaza.com/jobs/1867-internship-with-paradox-interactive

Is there any plans for SEA servers or any servers in Asia?

Answer for this will arrive soon-ish. Trying to extract our Game Director (nisshagen) from his meeting as this is being typed!

thanks for answering by the way!

Nisshagen, Game Director - As we continue to grow the player-base, we'll hit critical mass for servers in different locations all over the world. We'll do this when it becomes a better player experience. Right now the player-base is too small to support the game, it would be a LOT of waiting for matches to start.

How's the game doing? I've played it a few times but it hasn't really got me yet. Do you guys have fun stats you can share with us?

25,000 matches of Magicka: Wizard Wars now played on an average day (average of 17 matches per minute)

Over 300 items now available via in-game store (almost one new item per day since the game’s public release)

Over 1,400 bugs annihilated thanks to player feedback, not including updates made for game balance

You should definitely poke your nose in and check it out again, we did some big changes last week that we feel really ramped up the fun factor! We add new stuff on a weekly basis so are continually improving!

It feels like it's going to take years to level up to 50-60 and get them sweet staves / robes. Are they ever going to make it easier to level up or take off level requirements for robes?

We are constantly evaluating this, we always want you to feel rewarded for play, but at the same time you should always have something to aim for! We'll continue to add cool stuff across the entire level range. :)

Where did the idea for the Magika series come from?

The original idea for the first Magicka was cooked up by the geniuses at Arrowhead Game Studios. Magicka: Wizard Wars was an idea cooked up within Paradox North. :)

How did you feel about creative freedom with this game, and by that I mean did you feel that you couldn't stray to far from the original premise for fear of losing your audience?

Edit: A word

Nisshagen, Game Director - The beauty of the Magicka universe is that pretty much everything is allowed. I mean, there's m60 machineguns, fairies and tentacle monsters. Creating a balanced PvP-focused game with the fantastic spell-casting system was mostly about streamlining the game mechanics and input systems. The creative freedom was, and is, almost total. We can do pretty much anything that we, or the community, wants.

I absolutely love your game, really fun, entertaining and fresh

I always wondered, is Paradox North a 'joke' about Blizzard North?

I hope I'm not too late to the party

Nope, it's in reference to the fact that they are the floor above Paradox Interactive. ;)

As a very long time magicka player could one of you guys please comment on the move away from 8 elements?

I know it took me maybe 400 hours to use them all effectively and i played in tournaments ect so its probably a bit much to expect people to generally use all these. My only argument is that they don't have to press those keys if they don't want to.

There's still eight elements in Magicka: Wizard Wars. They went from being able to queue five elements to three. Is that what you mean?

Yes/

This change was basically due to two factors, balance and playability. The 5 elements system would be a nightmare to balance! In a PVP environment the three element system makes for a much faster, smoother experience.

Hi, your game is fantastic, but I'm curious about whether or not you will improve your matchmaking algorithm.

I've only played for about an hour, and have come across people that are absolutely merciless and discouraging to new players. People wouldn't stop berating me, insulting, and griefing me. I'd spawn and he'll 2 shot me. This has happened multiple times. The person just sits in the spawn and team kills me repeatedly. Wasting his teams credits in an unwarranted rage against a person who is simply new to the game and has zero chance to become accustomed to anything. I should also mention, these guys are usually in a full set of gear that they paid for. Is there any way to separate those people from noobs like myself?

I am now extremely reluctant to log on, so I simply don't. And it's a shame because it's a fun game.

That's a two-part question there I guess, regarding the MM system AND dealing with bad players in our community. Regarding the first part, certainly we have work to do on the MM algorithms and will continue to get it to a good place! There is a lot of work and some crazy math involved, we will get there though!

Regarding the community itself, for the most part we tend to attract an awesome crowd! That being said though there will always be bad apples...if you come across one please do contact us via our Facebook page (PM), our support page (question-mark icon in-game) or send Escher a PM on the forum, the miscreant will be dealt with! We will do our utmost to try and keep our game a welcoming friendly environment for all players, we will add better functions for players to manage this themselves in the future!

Are you guys involved in Magicka 2?

We are not, our friends located further in the south of Sweden (Skövde) at Pieces Interactive are taking care of things there.

First of all happy birthday and good job for Magicka Wizard Wars! My question is: Why did you left the development of The Showdown Effect? It was a great game with a great potential but it had an unfortunate destiny.I think that TSE deserves a longer life than the actual one. Do you have plans to resume/reboot that great game or is it completely dead?

Unfortunately we can only really answer questions related to Magicka: Wizard Wars or game development on the whole, we didn't work on TSE directly. :(

The stream is great idea, hopefully there are more streamed AMAs coming on reddit. My question is about development: was it developed in Unity? If so, can you tell us something about it?

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it! The game itself was developed in the Bitsquid engine, you can read more about it here: http://www.bitsquid.se/

I was hoping the proof would include at least one of the guys in full on wizard gear. Was not disappointed.

You changed your engine from whatever contraption the original Magicka ran on to Bitsquid (IIRC) which is a massive improvement. Are there any plans to maybe to some work to port over the original to this better engine? (I'd buy it again)

No plans for that. We do however have the awesome Magicka 2 arriving next year!

Where's all sausages in Wizard Wars?

Escher ate them. There is one sausage trinket however!

Happy birthday!

While I love Wizard Wars and have spent quite a few hours playing it, I feel like it is missing much of the oddball humor that made me fall in love with the original Magicka. Sure the items all have wacky descriptions, but that doesn't really come through when you are playing the matches. Do you think there's any way to get pop cultural references into the matches without it being the same joke every time you play the same map?

Into the matches/maps itself, tricky...we will expand a lot on the items and robes available though, expect to see a lot more fun references actually modeled in-game via those means.

Do you guys plan to come visit PSQ before we head out on our LIA in november? Would be awesome if you could!

You are welcome to contact us via [email protected]. If you have any particular lecture or presentation in mind please do include the details of what you'd suggest!

Happy birthday! Thanks for the Alpha and Beta Imp! You guys are awesome!!

Speaking of Imps, will there be a feature where we can name the Imp ourself in the future? That'd be appreciated :D

Not plans as yet, but we will never say never!

There will be 2v2 mode, and why did you removed the 4 player duel?

2V2 will likely arrive in the future. The 4 player round-robin duel will very likely make an appearance soon, the work is done, we just need to add it back in as a game mode. We initially removed it due to community feedback, now we have the other 1v1 format there's no reasons why we can't have both options up.

Can you say Hi to clan Pessone? We're big fans of your game.
Also I want to know if new combinations of basic elements will be added (like fire+water= steam from the previous game)

Hi Pessone!! Regarding your question, it's unlikely that we will make it s othat water/fire will "collapse" into steam as it did in the first game. You can however use steam sprays etc in Magicka: Wizard Wars, i.e FFQ

Where did the sausage joke in the illustrations come from?

Hard to say, again that was from Arrowhead's original concept. I WILL say though that the "korv med bröd" (hotdog) is pretty much the Swedish street-food staple. I suspect there is a connection there...