The director of the successful games XCOM 2 and Marvel's Midnight Suns has founded his own development studio, Midsummer Studios, and is working on a new kind of life simulation.
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Jake Solomon is a well-known name in the gaming industry, which he has been a part of for 23 years. During this time, he made a name for himself at the Firaxis studio, which focuses on strategy games, where he served, among other things, as director on the successful titles XCOM 2 and Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Solomon has since left Firaxis to found his own development studio, Midsummer Studios. Will Miller from Firaxis also followed him there. He is also supported in management positions by Grand Rodiek, formerly with Maxis for 18 years, and Nelsie Birch, an expert in finance.
The debut game from Midsummer Studios is now supposed to be a new type of life simulation, which means that Rodiek, as a veteran of The Sims, will probably have a special role in this constellation. The debut title is assigned to the AA mid-premium segment; The development has already raised $6 million in capital from other major companies such as Krafton, Transcend Fund and more.
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The new life simulation will therefore compete with other titles such as The Sims 5 or Life by You, but basically also follows its own approaches. The focus should be on narrative threads created by players themselves. You control a character through a small town that has all sorts of complex game systems. There you will be confronted with all sorts of elements that prompt you to make decisions, which ultimately result in your very own action and your very own virtual life cycle.
Solomon himself emphasizes that in this way they wanted to create “a kind of playground” where you can try out various things. Basically, you'll be able to change everything there, because you can approach all the characters in the small town in the way you like.
The idea for the game arose around XCOM 2, because this title made self-created narratives interesting for Solomon. There you could individualize your soldiers and give them their own personality in the background – and this will now be noticeably expanded in the new title. Naturally, the new project does not yet have a release date at this early stage.