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Former XCOM and The Sims developers establish Midsummer Studios to develop “next-gen” life simulation game

Draugoth

Gold Member
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A team of veteran developers behind games such as Sid Meier’s Civilization, XCOM, and The Sims have announced the establishment of Midsummer Studios, as well as teased its in-development “next-generation entry” to the life simulation genre.
Midsummer Studios was founded in Hunt Valley, Maryland by creative director Jake Solomon and game director Will Miller, both formerly of Firaxis, and chief operating officer / chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, who has 25 years of financial and operations management experience.

The studio launched with $6 million raised from major investors. Transcend Fund led the round, and is joined by Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, KRAFTON, and Day Zero Productions.

via Gematsu
 
Certainly a style of game that can use some new eyes. The Sims has become a boring home furnishing simulator because the player has too much control.

A game like this with a more RPG like stats system running behind the scenes (not user controlled) would be a lot more interesting. Where every action has both a positive and negative association depending on how balanced you are with your choices and so on. Maybe studying 100% of the time in the school years gets the skill points high but comes at the expense of the hidden statistics controlling how the character socializes and things like that. Would make the game a lot more challenging and more immersive as different characters would have different paths available to them.
 
Gonna be crowded by the time they get done with it. The Sims 3, 4 and 5, Life by You, Vivaland, and Paralives will all be out.
 
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Shut0wen

Banned
Happy for jake, he did say a year ago he had a good idea of his next game and hinted at the sims being an inspiration, though in this day n age the game will probably fail for being to complex
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Did he state that somewhere because you say it's pretty obvious?
He made XCOM 2. Then he made a totally different game (one which he stated was the game he wanted to make). Then he founded a company and is now working on another totally different game. It's been 8 years since XCOM 2. Are people just unable to read between the lines or something?
 

amigastar

Member
He made XCOM 2. Then he made a totally different game (one which he stated was the game he wanted to make). Then he founded a company and is now working on another totally different game. It's been 8 years since XCOM 2. Are people just unable to read between the lines or something?
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I wouldn't say that Marvel Midnight Suns was a completely different game, it was a turn based tactical game.
 
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