Jon Shafer
| Jon Shafer | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
March 30, 1985 Aurora, Colorado, United States |
| Alma mater | Towson University |
| Occupation | Game Designer, Game Programmer, Producer, Entrepreneur |
| Years active | 2005—present |
| Employer | Conifer Games |
| Known for | Civilization 5 |
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.
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.
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.
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