It may have been called Sid Meier's Civilization V on the box, but the real creative mind behind the game was young lead designer Jon Shafer. But after getting a chance to lead the development on one of the biggest PC franchises there is, Shafer decided to leave Civ developer Fireaxis to pursue other interests. And now he has announced just what those interests are: Stardock.

Shafer recently revealed that he will be working with the developer behind games like Sins of a Solar Empire and the Galactic Civilizations series. Specifically, Shafer will be working on the troubled Elemental: War of Magic, a turn-based strategy game that has had quite a few issues since being launched last August. He'll be working on the design and mod aspects of the game and, eventually, will be leading a brand new, currently unannounced Stardock project.

"With Elemental, Stardock essentially developed an incredible new game engine optimized for the creation of PC strategy games," Shafer said. "I’m excited to take on a leadership role at Stardock and help the company extend the ability for modders to take this engine and be able to create dramatically different games."