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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
10 months ago

Midsummer Studios’ Life Simulation Game vs. Sims 5 (Rene)?



Jake Solomon is a gaming industry veteran responsible for Marvel's Midnight Suns and the modern XCOM franchise.

In March 2023, it was reported that he left 2K's Firaxis studio in February after 23 years. (XCOM’s Jake Solomon is forming a new studio and ‘likely won’t make a turn-based game’)

He stated:

XCOM director said he would likely make a simulation title, rather than another turn-based strategy game.

“My intention, if anybody gives me the funding for it, is to open my own studio locally and make a new kind of game,” he said. “I can’t move too far away from what my experience is. I’m a creative director, but the truth is I’m actually a very in-the-weeds system designer.

“I make games as a creative director but I actually end up designing a lot of the systems for the games. Even on Midnight Suns, I had some amazing designers but I ended up designing individual heroes, enemies and their abilities…

“System design is important to me, so I want to make a systems-based game. I think it won’t be turn-based strategy… I want to make something that’s more of a life simulator or a simulation-style game. That’s the plan.”



In December 2023, Rock Paper Shotgun reported a new interview with Jake Solomon ("Jake Solomon uncut: here's our post-Firaxis GDC interview in full")

Some excerpts:

You mentioned that you were quite excited by the idea of a life sim game. What life sims have you played over the years? What is it about them that you enjoy?

There's a number of things that appeal. Without talking specifically about what it is I want to do, I think that the appeal of life sims is kind of manifold, but I think that, one, it's just life in miniature, right? From model train sets to doll houses to army men, there's something about life in miniature that I think is just naturally appealing. And I think the power of having the life that you want? You think like, 'Oh my gosh, simulating life, like, I already have a life and that feels like enough work!' But being able to have a different life and a life you want, I think it's really, really appealing.

Is it those stories that emerge from within the simulation that get you fired up?

Yeah, I think that everything feels original, there's a lot of procedural-ness to it, right? And then everything feels original to you because it's procedural. And when it feels original, it feels authentic. And it feels shareable. Even if it's just turning to your partner and saying, 'You're never going to believe what just happened!' Whether it's Dwarf Fortress, or whether it's The Sims or whatever it is, simulation can create some really fun experiences.

Now that you're looking more towards the live sim genre, has there been a lot of iteration in it in from your point of view, or is there still room to do something new?

Well, Paradox and Ron Humble just did a really neat . I mean, I thought that that take on that straight up life sim was unique. It's interesting to look at. There's a lot of village simulations, right? So I don't know if it's pejorative yet but cosy games, right? There's a sim-ish nature to that even down to Stardew and things like that. And then to see something like Dwarf Fortress go from ASCII to actual graphics and then seeing how popular that is, I think that there's been iteration. But definitely to me, I see an opportunity. As a designer, I see a lot of ways that I'd love to jump in and have my own take on this.



SimmerErin recently published a video on the news:



What do you think? Have you played any of his games? Personally, I find his background intriguing. I like that he stated that he's been focused on systems-building; this can lend itself to the life simulation genre. In the Sims series, I've always enjoyed in-depth gameplay systems.

[UPDATE]
Grant Rodiek (formerly SimGuruGrant is joining game)
The Sims-like boom is real, and even an ex-XCOM dev is going all in


Details about funding and how it will be different from The Sims as well as use of AI agents for NPCs
'Civilization,' 'XCOM' and 'The Sims' Vets Launch Game Developer Midsummer Studios With Funding From Trevor Noah's Day Zero Productions

project rene
  • OldeSimsFan's avatar
    OldeSimsFan
    New Traveler
    10 months ago
    An interesting possibility but this is so preliminary that it could be several years before anything appears. There is not even a small studio let alone any work being done. Never played any of his games so for me this is a blank slate.
  • logionX's avatar
    logionX
    Seasoned Vanguard
    10 months ago
    I have played Firaxis recent XCOM games and also Marvel's Midnight Suns and I was pretty disappointed to hear that he left the company because Jake was kinda iconic to the XCOM franchise, many people associated him with it and with him gone the chance of ever seeing XCOM 3 looks a bit slim.

    Anyway, for the games that he was involved in I did notice how there were some sims influences. You could design and customize your soldiers in those games. In XCOM: Enemy Unknown you could customize your soldiers, give them names and change their faces etc. In XCOM 2 and XCOM 2: War of the Chosen we could customize our soldiers even more, we could give them backgrounds and with mod support we could give the soldiers a lot of different looks, you often ended up giving your soldiers different personalities as well based on their voices. Soldiers could also form bonds with each other and after a finished mission you could take photos where your soldiers could do different poses, so the soldiers felt a bit like sims in a way.

    In Marvel's Midnight Suns, which was the last game Jake worked on you did not have soldiers really since you were playing as super heroes, but you could form relationships with them and hang out with them.

    Hearing that Jake wants to make a life-simulation game is both surprising and not so surprising. Surprising because I think a lot of people associate with him making turn-based combat games but not surprising because the games he have been involved in had sims-like influences so that might explain why he would like to make a life-simulation game.
  • ChampandGirlie's avatar
    ChampandGirlie
    New Spectator
    10 months ago
    I don't know him but Firaxis makes one of my other favorite games, Civilization. That's a fantastic and entirely different strategy game. The quality is likely to be high but as noted above, this is entirely speculative. I've got no clue what I'll want to do years from now.

    The bottomline is that there's a gaming audience. The proportion of the population that plays computer games only increases rather than decreases. This is probably a growing space and there's probably a lot of demand for quality games that are put out there. Games are probably more popular than movies at this point.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 months ago
    "logion;c-18342657" wrote:

    Helpful context. Thanks for sharing!
  • RoaringHeights's avatar
    RoaringHeights
    Seasoned Newcomer
    3 months ago

    Bumping this thread because I think it's an interesting one. The fact that SimGuruGrant left Maxis and immediately joined a competitors' studio after working on the next sims game for close to 5 years is intriguing.

    Side note: I really don't get why we had to move to a new forum, the old one had much better formatting and over a decades worth of threads that were pretty crucial for players.

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