Jake Solomon, previously of Firaxis and the game director behind the rebooted XCOM series as well as underrated strategy-RPG Marvel’s Midnight Suns, has announced his new development studio, Midsummer Studios. And their first game will be a The Sims-esque life simulator.
Solomon serves as Midsummer Studios’ CEO and creative director. Will Miller (previously lead designer on Civilization: Beyond Earth and lead engineer on Midnight Suns) acts as the game director. Grant Rodiek, previously a producer and director at Maxis overseeing various games and expansion of The Sims, is also on the team of 11 developers most of them being Firaxis veterans.
Fascinatingly, Midsummer Studio has secured 6 million USD in investor fundings, something that is on the downturn with the state of the games industry right now. Though the indie team is expected to remain small for now.
This new, untitled life sim game is set in a small town and is designed around emergent storytelling.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Solomon explain the studio’s vision of a life sim game where it’s centered around a small town. According to what scenario you want to pick, say a romantic one, the town will be populated with people that all have some town to be filled with characters with established relationships, which is a good spark for drama.
“That’s probably the big difference from other life sims,” he said. “It’s the focus on player drama, and it’s seeding the world with a starting spot that already feels interesting. You want to see how it plays out.”
The game won’t be a total sandbox where players are free to just do whatever. The game will gently guide or reward players for developing the story into ways players don’t expect to. “Because if a player plays a game and can do whatever they want, they’re going to do the same thing over and over,” Solomon said. “We want to try to entice players to write a story that surprises even them.”
Solomon has ruled out the use of a Simlish equivalent- the gibberish language the Sims talk in The Sims. And speaking to Variety, he’s well aware of the many emergent life sims that’s being cooked up right now.
“I thought I looked pretty smart over a year ago when I left my former studio and announced that I was going to make a life sim to compete with the long running (and really only show in town) The Sims.” he said. “Now, there are four or five (seemingly great) competitors being developed.
Alongside Midsummer Studio’s untitled life sim game, there’s Paralives, Life By You, Inzoi and of course, EA and Maxis are also working on their next The Sims game.
By the looks of it, these coming years will be a good time to be playing with virtual dollhouses.