Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Civilization V, has joined Paradox Interactive. He’ll be organising a brand new staff throughout the firm, engaged on a brand new grand technique sport.
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Shafer joined Firaxis on a programming internship when he was 19, and went on to function a designer and programmer on two Civilization IV expansions. He was then given the lead on Civ V, and was nonetheless solely 25 when it launched – an uncommonly younger age to guide design on any venture, not to mention a flagship franchise. He gained a BAFTA for his work on the sport.
He left Firaxis just some months later in January 2011, transferring to Galactic Civilizations builders Stardock. There he labored on the Elemental sequence earlier than going impartial in February 2013 to Kickstart At the Gates, his personal 4X venture. The sport greater than doubled its Kickstarter goal, however has but to see launch. The final information replace on the Kickstarter web page was in February, confirming it should come to Mac, Linux and iOS. Paradox say Shafer will proceed engaged on At the Gates independently of his work at Paradox.
“I’m filling out my grand strategy bingo card,” he says. “I started at Firaxis, went to Stardock, and now I’m at Paradox.”
Shafer will probably be given the title of sport director, and lead his personal staff engaged on “the next big title in [Paradox’s] catalogue”. He provides, “since I’m starting up a brand new team, I’m going to be doing some recruitment of my own, if you want to pass along the word to [people] who are interested in working on a grand strategy game at Paradox.”
Earlier this month, Paradox announced their profits were up 51% year-on-year, with the immense success of Cities: Skylines main a cost of a number of profitable video games. It appears the studio are re-investing that success into a brand new venture, with Shafer at its helm.
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