Conifer Games was founded in 2012 by Jon Shafer, BAFTA award-winning lead designer of Civilization 5. Conifer's mission is to innovate in the strategy genre, building on elements of what's worked in the past while also borrowing interesting concepts from other genres.

Jon Shafer

Designer and gameplay programmer for At the Gates, and founder and CEO of Conifer Games.

Jon is the only full-time employee of Conifer, although At the Gates was developed with the help of several friends and contractors over the years. Jon came up with the idea for At the Gates while listening to the History of Rome podcast (for the third time).

Jon lives in Stockholm, Sweden where there's great public transportation you can ride at 2pm when it's dark.

Kay Fedewa

Art Director for At the Gates.

Kay is a Michigan native and has been making art since she could hold a pencil. In her free time she not only reads but also creates graphic novels. Kay has also been a fan of computer games from an early age. Kay's other hobbies include learning about science and nature. She's an avid fan of documentaries, and has seen hundreds relating to these subjects.

As art director, Kay's goal is to ensure At the Gates features a fresh, clean style that's immediately recognizable, memorable, and fits into the game seamlessly.

Jonathan Christ

Lead programmer for At the Gates.

Jonathan brings 19 years of experience as a professional programmer to the table and is a lifelong gamer to boot. Along with working on At the Gates Jonathan is writing ElfTools, an extensive game development toolset built on top of XNA/C#. He hopes this library will help smooth over the many gaps in existing technology and open up new opportunities for current and would-be game developers.

Jonathan was also born and raised in Michigan and is a lover of all things elven (hence, ElfTools) He spends much of his free time playing multiplayer games with friends, working on a wide variety of programming hobby projects, and raising the bar on fiction through his writing (that's the plan, anyways). Like the rest of the team he's also very excited for the anticipated release of At the Gates, which will be his first credited title as a game developer.