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Civ 5 designer kickstarts Jon Shafer's At the Gates

Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer has kickstarted a new 4X turn-based strategy game called Jon Shafer's At the Gates, coming from his new three-person indie studio, Conifer Games. The game is about half-way complete already and he is looking for a modest $40,000 target to get it officially off the ground.
John Keefer
22
Civilization 5 lead designer Jon Shafer has kickstarted a new 4X turn-based strategy game called Jon Shafer's At the Gates, coming from his new three-person indie studio, Conifer Games. The game is about half-way complete already and he is looking for a modest $40,000 target to get it officially off the ground. "The core aspects of the game are all in-place, but a lot of the peripheral, more 'boring' work still needs to be done," he told Shacknews. "Things like sound effects and hotkey systems. We also want to polish up the art and add nice 2D animations for all the units and the landscape. The gameplay also needs iteration time. The features are in but the game hasn't had much playtesting, and I'm sure it's not very much fun to play at this rough stage! There’s also a lot of AI work still left to do." Shafer has already taken a cue from the Sid Meier school of game naming. "Making games is a tough business, especially as an indie," he said. "You really have to take advantage of every possible opportunity to spread the word about what you're up to. I was very fortunate to have been chosen as the lead for one of the biggest strategy titles of the past decade. As a result there are a few people who actually recognize my name. If putting that in the title will help increase the chance that the game succeeds. As a brand-new businessman I have to take advantage of that. Though, yes, I do feel a little bit dirty about it." At the Gates lets the player take on the role of a barbarian tribe battling the Roman Empire in its waning days. It may look a bit like a Civ game, he said the differences run deep. "The fact that the game transforms as you play is a huge difference," Shafer said. "The effects of the seasons means that you have to be more flexible and plan ahead more. Sending an army off in the winter without making sufficient preparations is a death wish. And if you don't have enough food saved up your people will starve. Much of the time in a Civ game you can pretty much just play on autopilot. Hitting the end turn 10 times in a row might not make much of a difference. Well, in ATG that would be a really, really bad idea." When seasons change, rivers will swell, farms stop producing food in winter, and coastal areas can turn to ice. Shafer said the game's resources will deplete over time, so you can't sit back and hunker down waiting for the enemy to come to you. You will need to continue to explore, meet new leaders and be diplomatic.

Tiles will change and have different effects based on seasons

"The main way of building relations is through completing requests, and these requests are all situational," he said. "You can't just give another leader some food and expect them to like you. Just imagine how that sort of thing would go over with someone you've just met. But if that same person is starving to death and you give them a meal the context and effects are completely different. That's the idea behind diplomacy in ATG." Shafer said that there is a possibility of modding for the game as well. "We've been thinking about XML modding, a map editor and even releasing some source code for the game, but it all takes work. Honestly it depends on how the Kickstarter campaign does. ... We'd really like to flesh out the modding side, as well as add more factions and gameplay options. If the campaign does really well, we might even look at crazy stuff like making the Roman factions playable." With the modest crowdfunding goal, Shafer is optimistic. "Our scope is tight. We don't have a complex, expensive 3D engine, nor are we including multiplayer. We know what we want from the game and there's very little risk," he said. "One of my goals with ATG is to really mix things up with the 4X genre. I feel that there hasn't been a lot of innovation in that space during the past decade, and I'm hoping that ATG shows that there's still a lot of meat that we haven't yet gotten to. I strongly feel that the 4X genre has been underserved and people really want more of these types of games. The fans are a passionate group, and I think they'll be really excited by ATG."
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  • Shacknews legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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    February 6, 2013 8:15 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Civ 5 designer kickstarts Jon Shafer's At the Gates.

    Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer has kickstarted a new 4X turn-based strategy game called Jon Shafer's At the Gates, coming from his new three-person indie studio, Conifer Games. The game is about half-way complete already and he is looking for a modest $40,000 target to get it officially off the ground.

    • [deleted] 439710436 legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 8:16 AM

      [deleted]

    • [deleted] 1856106348 legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 8:17 AM

      [deleted]

      • umegastar legacy 10 years
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        February 6, 2013 10:17 AM

        They are a cult metal band.

      • MindFukr legacy 10 years
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        February 6, 2013 5:42 PM

        Check out at least their Slaughter of the Soul album, it's pretty amazing.

    • MercFox1 legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 8:20 AM

      Sid Meyer Presents Jon Shafer's American McGee: Peter Jackson's Revenge - Fatal1ty Edition

    • Deathlove legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      February 6, 2013 8:39 AM

      Yes, you will get my $25 based solely on Beyond the Sword. GOD DAMMIT

      • bamb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        February 6, 2013 9:00 AM

        wut.. I just went from wouldn't touch with a pole to buy buy buy!

    • Sephiras legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 9:22 AM

      Wasn't a fan of Civ 5, but this looks interesting. Surprised he couldn't get this made at Firaxis...

      • Deathlove legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        February 6, 2013 9:26 AM

        probably because he hasn't worked there for two years

        • Haxim legacy 10 years
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          February 6, 2013 9:46 AM

          Wasn't he working at Stardock on Elemental though? I didn't hear of him leaving there.

          • Deathlove legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            February 6, 2013 10:15 AM

            As far as I know, he still is? That did strike me as curious, but Stardock seems pretty chill, so maybe they're just letting him do this thing. Or maybe they have an option to buy in? Who knows.

            • mikecyb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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              February 6, 2013 10:20 AM

              the KS makes it sound like he's not at Stardock any more

              • Deathlove legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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                February 6, 2013 10:27 AM

                You'd think that'd've been news somewhere, though? Googling around finds nothing? But after the way Elemental went, I wouldn't be overly surprised.

                • Haxim legacy 10 years
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                  February 6, 2013 5:39 PM

                  I thought they kinda almost got it not so sucky maybe?
                  Probably too late by the time they did though.

        • Sephiras legacy 10 years
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          February 6, 2013 10:52 AM

          Sorry, I don't subscribe to the Watch Jon Shafers Every Fucking Move blog so I had no idea.

          • ajvitaly legacy 10 years
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            February 6, 2013 4:41 PM

            Awfully defensive, aren't we?

          • Haxim legacy 10 years
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            February 6, 2013 5:40 PM

            It's obviously apparent that you should.

      • mikecyb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        February 6, 2013 10:13 AM

        he also made Beyond The Sword

        • mikecyb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          February 6, 2013 10:16 AM

          I should say he designed it

          • Johnny Law legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            February 6, 2013 10:24 AM

            Alex Mantzaris was design lead on BTS... I'm pretty sure Shafer was still a modder at that time.

            • mikecyb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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              February 6, 2013 10:30 AM

              he worked at Firaxis in QA as far back as Civ 3 expansions and on Civ 4 and was 'co-lead designer' on BTS

        • Haxim legacy 10 years
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          February 6, 2013 10:20 AM

          That always struck me as a bit of an odd juxtaposition. The guy makes an expansion adding a bunch of systems and complexity to an already dense game, and then creates an arguably less deep (or more streamlined if you prefer) sequel to that game. Was that his decision to try something different, or were there other factors/forces guiding that roadmap?

          • mikecyb legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            February 6, 2013 10:28 AM

            Sure, that's game design. If you make an expansion to an already complicated game then you are obviously going to add stuff on top of those systems. If you have a blank slate, aka a new game, you can do whatever you want.

            I think a major complaint about Civ 4 was that there was too much shit to deal with. I never really got into it because that sort of thing doesn't really appeal to me (conversely I played the shit out of Civ Rev). There's a very vocal number of people who hated Civ 5 because it's not Civ 4, but I happen to know a lot of people who really, really enjoy it. A group of people I work with get together once a month or so to play it after work for a couple hours. Micro-managing everything isn't for everyone, and there's nothing wrong with streamlining stuff. If you want to play Civ 4, then just go play Civ 4, but don't expect Civ 5 to just pile more stuff on top of Civ 4.

          • Deathlove legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            February 6, 2013 10:28 AM

            Probably the latter. Thumbs covered this last week, I think, in talking about SimCity. I dont' think it worked as well for Civ, but I appreciate what they were doing, and it's part of why I'm so excited for SimCity.

          • dahanese legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            February 6, 2013 4:45 PM

            Firaxis talked about this a lot (and Jon specifically) before Civ5 launched.

            • Haxim legacy 10 years
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              February 6, 2013 5:38 PM

              Was it mentioned in the podcasts at all? Apologies if it was, I just remember it (the podcasts) being more "feature focused" and not having too much discussion about the development process. Oh and I also remember that one squeaky chair of course ;) I didn't really pay much attention to other sources of pre-release info if that was the case.

    • Foxhawk legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 10:30 AM

      don't support terrorism.

    • Jikim legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 10:40 AM

      Civ4 was awesome. Didn't care for civ5 or elemental. New game looks like battle for wesnoth and offers what wesnoth already offers. People who care about 4x or strat games why should I get this? Why should i care?

      • azenmaster legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        February 6, 2013 5:49 PM

        did you read the article? terrain changes over time is new

    • ErikTehRed legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 1:58 PM

      The graphics remind me a lot of Battle for Wesnoth http://wesnoth.org/

    • abzorba legacy 10 years
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      February 6, 2013 5:36 PM

      Some of the gameplay mechanics he mentioned reminded me of King of Dragon Pass.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Dragon_Pass

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