hearts of iron IV: arms against tyranny campaign
THE BRIEF: Paradox Interactive wanted a campaign that told of the Nordic Countries Underdog story for the ‘Arms Against Tyranny’ expansion pack for Hearts Of Iron IV.
They wanted an teaser trailer riddled with clues to the expansion, a story trailer and the gameplay focused release trailer. And they wanted it grounded in as much historical accuracy as players have come to expect from Paradox.
AGENCY: Maverick Media
CLIENT: Paradox Interactive, Paradox Development Studio
The first trailer teases the aftermath of a battlefield. We filled it with a bunch of easter eggs for fans to piece together.
This generated a lot of fan engagement leading up to the reveal, and a lot of praise afterwards for the attention to historical detail.
Next up was the story trailer narrated as a Finnish soldier writing to a dear friend in Norway.
I used historical records and written letters from the time to ground the character’s voice.
For the final trailer is told from the perspective of the Norwegian friend from the story trailer.
This time we told the narrative from an underground radio station, something that part of Norway’s resistance movement.
At this point in the campaign, Paradox wanted to hint at the expansion’s dedicated mechanics in empowering the player to play out alternative histories.
An interesting and fun challenge was in maintaining the Norwegian’s in-world narrative voice that explained game mechanics without breaking the fourth wall.
I had a big gratitude moment when I realized I was being paid to explore and educate myself an important chapter of Nordic history during World War II. A part of the war I hadn’t known much about before this project. I'm incredibly proud of the team for handling the subject matter with care and showing the Hearts of Iron community the respect they deserve.