Historia Realis Roma is happy to sit in Paradox’s shadow

After solo indie developer Lucas Molina released his quirky love-themed dungeon-crawler Roguemance in February, he turned toward his first love: history. Molina received his master’s degree in the subject, taught it for two years, and developed themed games like the Renaissance simulator Painter’s Guild. His newest title is Historia Realis Roma, an ambitious grand strategy game. To find fans, he’s set up a small camp in the kingdom of one of grand strategy’s rulers — Paradox Interactive.

Historia Realis explores Rome from 300 BC to 14 AD, one of Molina’s favorite periods of history. A huge fan of Paradox’s games like Crusader Kings, he noticed that the developer didn’t have a game about Rome — at least they didn’t when he started out.