The gameplay itself is somewhat original in concept: Rather than playing a particular nation you play as a dynasty (with direct control being vested in the head of said dynasty) in medieval Europe starting in 1066 and ending in the early 1400's. Some furious activity both by the community (via modding) and Paradox Interactive itself (via both patching and the Deus Vult expansion) has rendered the game significantly more stable and fixed many of the gameplay mechanics.
The game was originally developed by Snowball, who abandoned it in a very unfinished state, forcing Paradox to do some last-minute fixes before release this makes the game exceedingly buggy and all but unplayable in its post-release state.
It's set chronologically before its sister series, Europa Universalis, and uses a variant of the Europa Universalis II engine. Crusader Kings is a historical grand Turn-Based Strategy / Real-Time Strategy 4X game produced and published by Paradox Interactive.
