#Civ5 map editor code
The internship came about when Shafer started commenting on code from afar. That was a more interesting move than the recent Stockholm one because I didn't know anyone! I was 19 when I started, didn't know anyone and didn't know anything. "I grew up in the Denver area and I moved out to Baltimore for an internship at Firaxis around 2005.
#Civ5 map editor series
This involves a slight detour because going from making maps and AI script modding to leading the design of the fifth entry in the most important strategy game series in the world isn't an obvious path. That was my introduction to Paradox, and that's when I first met people like Johann on the forums."įast forward to Firaxis. AI in Hearts of Iron maybe wasn't as good as people might like, so I figured I'd tinker with it and see if I could make the AI a bit stronger, so I spent some time doing that. "With Hearts of Iron there was AI scripting that was open for modding as well, and I took it upon myself to dig through it. No special access, I just grabbed it as soon as possible. "So I was waiting for this thing to come out and so excited, which meant I was right there when it released and I pounced on it.
It's funny looking back now because it was always so obvious really." We'll come back to this. They didn't have it ready in time to ship but they released it around six months later and I was so into Civ III and. Instead, he just dived into the editor as soon as it was released. There was no closed alpha to sign up for back then. This didn't come about because Shafer had any existing connection with the studio. With Civ III there was a map editor, which was developed during that period, and I think I might have been the first person to make a map using that editor outside of Firaxis."
#Civ5 map editor mods
"I'd always wanted to make games from when I was very young, so I made a lot of little games on the side, but once I started playing these more sophisticated strategy games I decided I wanted to start making mods for them rather than just building my own things. At that point in time, like a lot of people here, I was just excited to play the games and be involved in some way.
Obviously all of those numbers have gotten a lot bigger since then (laughs). "Back then, I was a big fan of Civilization II and III, but also EU II and Hearts of Iron I. That story begins in Denver, around 2003. I began by asking how he ended up sitting at the Paradox Convention, in Stockholm, the city that has now been his home for two weeks: "It's quite a long story, actually." We spoke about how the second half of every Civ sucks, the part the series played in his life, the perils of boredom in strategy design, how much we love maps, and what the future holds for both Shafer and Paradox. Now working at Paradox on an unannounced project and on his own historical strategy game At The Gates in his spare time, he says he's learning from the likes of Spelunky along with the more obvious strategic influences. Jon Shafer was 21 years old when he became lead designer of Civilization V.
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