Former XCOM Creative Director Founds Midsummer Studios

Jake Solomon, the former director on the XCOM series, and ex-Firaxis lead designer Will Miller have joined forces to found Midsummer Studios. Joined by a veteran team of developers with experience working on legendary franchises like The Sims and Sid Meier’s Civilization, the studio is already hard at work on a “next-generation entry” to the always-popular life sim genre.

“The best stories in games are written by the players,” Solomon said in a press release. “At Midsummer, we’re making a life sim focused on the drama of modern life, where our players will write meaningful stories just by playing, and then share those stories with the world.”

Shanti Bergel, a founding partner of Transcend, also had shining things to say about the new company.

“Leading the Seed for Midsummer was a natural fit for Transcend. As a producer on The Sims myself nearly twenty years ago, I am well acquainted with the power that meaningful player-driven stories can unlock,” Bergel wrote.

“I also have an abiding respect for how hard it is to deliver the alchemy of community, systems design, gameplay, and user-generated content necessary to do so. The Midsummer founders are industry veterans with the rare experience and design artistry required to deliver against this massive opportunity. I am delighted to join the board and support their journey to redefine the life sim category.”

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Solomon also mentioned the obvious competition that Midsummer Studios will face in the life sim space.

“I don’t want to discount the power of our naivete,” he said. “I think being a new company, you get an opportunity to say, ‘We aren’t The Sims. We aren’t like any other life sim. We’re actually trying to present life in a gamified way, but in the way that we do things.’ I think the danger would be if I was competing with The Sims feature-for-feature. I think that’s a much bigger risk.

They do what they do really well. I think we have to do what we do really well; we just have to do it in a new space.”