Jon Shafer has left Paradox Interactive. Having joined the company in May, Shafer and Paradox have parted ways following creative differences.
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Shafer joined Paradox in May as a game director on an unannounced project. In a press release issued by Paradox this morning, however, it was revealed that Shafer has left the company “due to creative differences.”
A statement from Mattias Lilja, executive vice president of studios at Paradox, says “Jon is an ambitious person with a lot of drive and passion and he has led some good discussions in our teams over the past few months. However, during the course of these discussions, it has become clear that we want different things creatively and we have therefore taken the mutual decision that it is best to part ways. We wish Jon the very best in the next part of his career and would like to thank him for his efforts during his time with us”
Shafer was the lead designer on Firaxis’ Civilization V, for which he won a BAFTA. After finishing the game in 2010, Shafer joined Stardock, before founding his own company, Conifer Games, which is working on a new 4X title. At The Gates, which is as yet unreleased, and has been somewhat put on hold as a result of Shafer’s move to Paradox, has players control a barbarian tribe aiming to accelerate the fall of the Roman Empire.
Paradox have still not announced what Shafer’s project was, but we’ve reached out to them to ask whether development on it will continue without him.