Alma mater Towson University Role Computer game designer Years active 2005—present Education Towson University | Employer Conifer Games Known for Civilization V Name Jon Shafer | |
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Born March 30, 1985 (age 39) ( 1985-03-30 ) Aurora, Colorado, USA Occupation Game Designer, Game Programmer, Producer, Entrepreneur Video games Civilization V, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Awards BAFTA Games Award for Strategy | ||
Pdxcon 2017 game design with jon shafer and henrik fahreus
Jon Shafer is an American designer and programmer of computer games. He was the lead designer of the strategy game Civilization V, developed by Firaxis. His Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is INTJ.
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Currently, Shafer is the president of Conifer Games, a video games development company he founded in 2012. The studio's first title is Jon Shafer's At The Gates, a 4X strategy game similar to Civilization in which players command a barbarian kingdom with the goal of defeating both rival tribes and the waning Roman Empire. The budget for developing At the Gates is primarily made up of funds raised through a Kickstarter campaign held in February 2013.
Shafer runs a blog named Jon Shafer on Design where he writes articles on the subjects of game design and project management. He also serves as co-host for The Game Design Round Table, a weekly podcast where Shafer and fellow designer Dirk Knemeyer are typically joined by guests to discuss topics relating to digital and tabletop game design.
Life and career
Shafer was born and grew up in Aurora, Colorado. He learned to program when he was 8 years old from his father, and as a child also cultivated a passion for history.
These interests led Shafer to Sid Meier's Civilization series. He developed fan mods for Civilization III while in high school, and became a beta tester for the Civilization III expansion pack, Conquests, and Civilization IV. Early in Civilization IV's development he wrote an extensive guide explaining how to utilize its Python scripting language, and this led to him joining Firaxis for a programming internship in February 2005. Shafer was later hired full-time, and served as a designer and programmer on the two Civilization IV expansions, Warlords and Beyond the Sword.
Following the completion of Beyond the Sword, Shafer was named the lead designer and principal gameplay programmer for Civilization V, the next full title in the series. While in this role, Shafer drew from his past modding experience and from computer games he had played as a child, most notably Panzer General.
In January 2011, Shafer joined Stardock to lead an unannounced game project and assist with development on the Elemental series. In February 2013, he announced that he had left Stardock and founded Conifer Games, and was now developing a new 4X title, At the Gates.
In June 2017, Shafer joined Paradox Development Studio as a game director on a as of September 2017 unannounced project.
Shafer attended Colorado State University from 2002-2005, studying History and Computer Science. After acquiring a position at Firaxis he left Colorado State but later completed his undergraduate study at Towson University in 2006 with a BS in History.