Firaxis vets found new developer Midsummer
Veterans of 2K's Firaxis, including XCOM creative director Jake Solomon (pictured), have set up a brand new studio called Midsummer.
As reported by GI.biz, the new venture was set up in September 2023 by Solomon, former Firxas lead designer Will Miller and Nelsie Birch, who boasts a long CV of working in financials and admin. Midsummer has already raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Transcend, which it has used to set up a studio in Hunt Valley.
The company is working on an as-yet-untitled new life sim game.
"The combination of custom or generated characters that the player creates and then a playspace where the player's choices feel meaningful and you can be rewarded or have consequences as a result," Solomon said.
"The way to make that work, where the player feels like they're riding a story that's authentic and uniquely theirs is you have to have a fair number of systems driving both reward for the player, giving them objectives and things to do, but at the same time having consequence.
"So the setting changes, and you say, 'Okay, that's fine. If this is modern life and it's non-violent, can we still use those tools?' And now that we've gotten into it, yes you can. You can find ways to use the drama of modern life and the conflict of modern life and reframe that with systems that still reward the player for choices they make."
Solomon left Firaxis in February 2023.
Read more on pcgamesinsider.biz
